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JUDAICA
ENCYCLOPAEDIA
JUDAICA
S E C O N D
E D I T I O N
VOLUME 17
RaSam
F red Skolnik, Editor in Chief
M ichael Berenbaum, Executive Editor
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
KETER PUBLISHING HOUSE LtD., JERUSALEM
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Entries RaSam
5
Abbreviations
General Abbreviations
783
Abbreviations used in Rabbinical Literature
784
Bibliographical Abbreviations
790
Transliteration Rules
803
Glossary
806
Ra-Rz
and re-appreciation of Esther Raab and her poetry. In addition to the English collection Thistles, to which the translator
Harold Schimmel added an Introduction, single poems and
stories appeared in foreign anthologies. For translations see
the ITHL website at www.ithl.org.il.
Bibliography: E. Sharoni, Edenic Energy: E. Raabs Unmediated Vision of Nature, in: Modern Hebrew Literature 8:34 (1983),
6269; D. Melamed, Requiem for a Landscape, in: Modern Hebrew
Literature, 9:34 (1984), 6972; A. Lerner, A Womans Song: The Poetry of E. Raab, in: Gender and Text in Modern Hebrew and Yiddish
Literature (1992), 1738; idem, The Naked Land: Nature in the Poetry
of E. Raab, in: Women of the Word (1994), 23657; B. Mann, Framing the Native: E. Raabs Visual Poetics, in: Israel Studies, 4:1 (1999),
23457; H. Zamir, Ahavat Moledet ve-Siah H ershim, in: Theory and
Criticism, 7 (1995), 12545; E. Ben Ezer, E. Raab ve-ha-Aravim, in:
Nativ, 9:5 (1996), 7278; Z. Luz, E. Raab, Monografiyyah (1997); E.
Ben Ezer, Or H adash al E. Raab ve-Y. Luidor, in: Iton 77, 255 (2001),
1720; Sh. Zayit, Ani Amarti et Kol ha-Emet, Ani Nishbaat: HaModel ha-Biografi shel E. Raab, in: Masad, 2 (2004), 2129.
[Anat Feinberg (2nd ed.)]
raanannah
tor for new settlers in Rishon le-Zion and the Bilu settlers.
In 1883, when Petah Tikvah was resettled, he returned and
instructed new immigrants (the Byalistokites) in agricultural techniques. Raab was appointed a foreman by Baron
de *Rothschilds officials and struggled to maintain the agricultural character of Petah Tikvah. His memoirs, Ha-Telem
ha-Rishon (1956) recorded by his son, B. Ben-Ezer, constitute
valuable material on the early history of Jewish settlement in
Erez Israel. His daughter Esther *Raab (18941981) was born
in Petah Tikvah and joined kibbutz Deganyah in her youth.
After her marriage she lived in Egypt for five years and then
in Tel Aviv, returning afterward to Petah Tikvah. Her early
lyric poetry, characterized by its descriptions of the landscape
of Erez Israel, is collected in Kimshonim (1930). Her collected
poems were published in Kol ha-Shirim (1988).
Bibliography: Y. Yaari and M. H arizman, Sefer ha-Yovel shel
Petah Tikvah (1929), 1269, 18792; Tidhar, 1 (1947), 11921.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
RAANANNAH (Heb. ) , urban community with municipal council status in central Israel, N.E. of Herzliyyah.
Raanannah was established in 1922 as a village (moshavah) by
a group of American Jews who founded Ah uzzat New York A
Inc. (1912). The land was bought through the Palestine Land
Development Company. Initially there were many economic
difficulties. An attempt was made to raise cattle as the mainstay of the economy. Raanannah progressed in the later 1920s
and in the 1930s when a rich groundwater table was tapped,
the citrus branch introduced, and middle-class immigrants of
the Fourth Aliyah and later newcomers were absorbed. With
the crisis in the citrus branch during World War II, the settlers changed over to mixed farming and made beginnings in
industry. In the 1940s, two housing quarters for Yemenite and
other immigrants were built with contributions from Zionists
in the United States and South Africa. In 1947, Raanannah had
3,800 inhabitants and grew quickly after the War of Independence (1948) when mabarot (immigrant transit camp) inhabitants were given permanent housing (1953 9,000 inhabitants; 1968 11,900). Raanannah belonged to the outer ring
of the Tel Aviv conurbation and developed various industries
as well as agriculture. Over the years, most of Raanannahs
farmland became built-up areas. In 1981 Raanannah received
city status, with an area of about 6 sq. mi. (15 sq. km.). In the
mid-1990s the population was approximately 56,900, rising
to 68,900 in 2002. The city had a large community of immigrants from English-speaking countries. Its expansion reached
the outskirts of *Herzliyyah in the south. In 1996 a high-tech
industrial area was established, housing such big companies
as Amdocs. Raanannah was one of the few Israeli cities to receive ISO 9002 certification for the quality of its public services. Income among residents was much higher than the
national average.
Website: www.raanana.muni.il.
[Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
RABAN, AVNER (19372004), Israeli underwater archaeologist. Born in kibbutz Ramat David in the Jezreel Valley, Rabans
interest in underwater activities began after completing his
military service while fishing with nets along the coast of Israel
and accidentally discovering archaeological artifacts. Raban
studied fine arts at the Oranim Teachers College from 1958 to
1960. In 1961 he became one of the founders of the Underwater
Exploration Society of Israel, together with Dr. Elisha Linder.
The society eventually joined the International Confederation
of Underwater Activity (CMAS), headed by Jacques Cousteau,
and Raban in time took part in a number of underwater expeditions working in the Mediterranean area, notably on the
excavation of the Yassi Ada shipwreck off the coast of Turkey.
Raban was co-director and staff member of various underwater expeditions in Israel: Akhziv (1961); surveys along the
northern coast of Israel (1964); Acre (1965); and Athlit (1966).
In 1966 Raban began his academic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying archaeology and geography. To
qualify for his B.A. Raban participated in a number of excavations on land, at Megiddo and Hazor. During the Six-Day
War (1967), he discovered several shipwrecks in the Red Sea
while combing the Straits of Tiran and Snapir for mines. In
1968 he directed his first underwater excavation at Sharm elSheikh, which led to an interdisciplinary survey of the Gulf
of Eilat and a survey of the east coast of Sinai in 196970, the
excavation of the Mercury Wreck in the Red Sea in 1972,
and the excavation of a wreck in the Naama Gulf of the Red
Sea in 1973. In 1981 Raban received his Ph.D. degree from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, subsequently teaching in the
Department of Maritime Civilizations and the Center of Maritime Studies at Haifa University, where eventually he became a
full professor. From the mid-1970s Raban concentrated on the
archaeological study of the harbors along the coast at Israel,
namely at Acre, Dor, Athlit, and Caesarea, as well as further
afield in Crete and Sicily. Between 1972 and 1992 Raban also
conducted work on land, with a survey of the Jezreel Valley,
and digging at Tell Abu-Hawam. From the 1980s on Raban
dedicated many years to the study of Caesarea Maritima, but,
unfortunately, was unable to complete the two-volume report
The Harbors of Caesarea, when he unexpectedly died while
visiting London during a sabbatical at Oxford.
Bibliography: R. Gertwagen, Obituary: Avner Raban
(19372004), in: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society,
22 (2004), 7982.
[Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)]
rabbah
and was secretary to Eisenhowers cabinet from 1954 to 1958.
Rabb was sent as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the tenth
session of UNESCO in Paris in 1958, later serving on the executive committee of the United States Committee for UNESCO
(195960). President Johnson appointed Rabb to the Commission on Income Maintenance Programs (the Heineman Commission on welfare and related programs, 196870). He was
a trustee of the American Health Foundation (196974) and
served on the Council of Foreign Relations (1978). Between
1981 and 1989 he was American ambassador to Italy.
Among other posts, Rabb was a director of several corporations and a member of the board of directors of the NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He also served as president of the United States Committee for Refugees, a private
group organized in 1958 that dealt with refugee resettlement
and immigration. Active in Jewish community affairs, Rabb
was chairman of the government division of the UJA (195357),
a member of the board of governors of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and vice chairman of the New
York executive committee of the Anti-Defamation League,
among many other posts. Rabb was a member of the New York
law firm of Stroock, Stroock and Lavan from 1958.
John Cabot University established the Maxwell Rabb
Scholarship in honor of Rabb, who was the longest-serving
American ambassador to Italy. The partial-tuition scholarship is granted to a degree-seeking student from the U.S. or
Italy who demonstrates a commitment to community service
and/or civic involvement.
[Rohan Saxena and Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
RABBAH (Mar-Rava), gaon of Pumbedita from 651, contemporary of *Huna, gaon of Sura. Rabbah and Huna were
jointly responsible for one of the earliest and most important
of post-talmudic takkanot, the takkanah of the Moredet (the
obstreperous wife). According to the Talmud, a Jewish wife
RABBAH BAR BAR H ANA (second half of the third century), amora. As his fathers name was also Rabbah, it is
thought his patronymic referred to his grandfather (see *Rabbah bar H ana). Born in Babylonia, he went to Erez Israel to
study in the academy of R. Johanan, and many years after returned to his native land, where he disseminated the teachings
of Johanan, transmitting in his name close to 200 halakhot in
all spheres. The heads of the Babylonian academies, such as
R. Judah of Pumbedita and his distinguished disciples, Rabbah, and R. Joseph, transmitted in his name halakhot they had
learned from him. He suffered from the persecutions of the
Sassanids who even broke into his house, and he complained:
Merciful One! Either in Thy shadow or in the shadow of Esau
[= Rome] (Git. 17a). It is possible that in consequence of these
sufferings he decided to return to Erez Israel (Pes. 51a), but
there is no evidence that he did so.
Rabbah achieved great renown for his remarkable legends (known as the aggadot of Rabbah bar Bar H ana and
chiefly found in the tractate Bava Batra (73a74a). These tales
purport to relate what he saw and heard during his many
journeys by sea and land. They are marked by hyperbole, and
excited the wonder of contemporary scholars. Some of them
spoke out sharply against him: Every Abba is an ass and every bar Bar H ana is a fool (BB 74a). Rabbah ascribes some of
his stories to sailors and Arabs, but begins most of them with
the words, I myself saw. The following is a typical one: We
were once traveling in a desert and an Arab joined us. He
said to me: Come and I will show you where the men of Korah were swallowed up (cf. Num. 16:23ff). I saw two cracks
that emitted smoke. I took a piece of clipped wool, dipped it in
water, attached it to the point of a spear, and inserted it there,
and when I took it out it was singed. He said to me: Listen
carefully! What do you hear? I heard them crying out: Moses
and his Torah are true and we are liars! The Arab said to me
Every 30 days Gehenna returns them here as meat turns on
a spit, and they cry out: Moses and his Torah are true and we
are liars (BB 74a).
The expositors of the Talmud, aware of the strangeness
of these stories, sought to rationalize them. Yom Tov b. Abraham *Ishbili stated: The stories in this chapter deal with subjects that are strange to people because they are unfamiliar
with them, but they are very plausible to those with a knowledge of nature, such as the size of sea monsters and the size of
waves in a storm. They also contain allusions to matters which
were not seen with the eye but in a vision. For when the sages
went on ocean voyages they saw there Gods wonders and
during their sleep they experienced remarkable visions in the
context of their meditations. The geonim wrote that wherever the words I myself saw occur, it was in a dream while
on a voyage. Some regard these tales and aggadot as ethical
and national allegories, while others see them as intimations
and cryptic sayings (see Maharsha (Samuel Eliezer b. Judah
*Edels), ad loc.).
Bibliography: Hyman, Toledot, 107678; Bacher, Bab
Amor, 8793; idem, Ergaenzungen und Berichtigungen (1913), 10;
Bacher, Trad, 699, S.V.
[Abraham Arzi]
RABBAH BAR HUNA (in TJ, Abba bar Huna or Bar bar
Huna; d. 322 C.E.), Babylonian amora. Rabba was a disciple
of both Samuel (Er. 49a), and Rav (BB 136b), in whose names
he transmitted sayings and decisions (Ber. 25a; Shab. 97a). His
main teacher, however, was his father, Huna (Meil. 15b), the
head of the academy at Sura (cf. Git. 35a). His father urged
him to attend H isdas lectures diligently. Initially, however,
Rabbah found some of the matters discussed (such as personal hygiene) alien to his earnest nature (Shab. 82a). Only
in later life did he develop a close association with H isda, and
served with him as a judge (Shab. 10a). Indeed, his eventual
respect for H isda was such that he accepted his advice not to
introduce the Decalogue in the statutory daily prayers (Ber.
12a; see Dik. Sof. thereto). He publicly acknowledged H isdas
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
RABBAH BAR NAH AMANI (c. 270330; d. 321/22 according to Iggeret R. Sherira Gaon, ed. by B.M. Lewin (1921), 87;
according to Hyman c. 260340), Babylonian amora. Rabbah
was the scion of a priestly family, which traced its lineage to
the high priest Eli (RH 18a). He studied under *Huna at Sura,
and under *Judah b. Ezekiel at Pumbedita (Er. 17a). To such an
extent did Huna respect him that he seldom decided a question of importance without consulting him (Git. 27a; BM 18b;
BB 172b, et al.). On one occasion his contemporaries in Erez
Israel suggested that he join them and study under *Johanan,
maintaining that he would learn more with a guide than by
studying by himself (Ket. 111a). From Nedarim 59a, it would
appear that he took their advice, although Bacher maintains
that he never left Babylonia. He certainly spent most of his life
in Babylonia, where his most constant colleague was Joseph
(BB 114a). Rabbahs main interest was in the halakhah, and he
was renowned for his interpretation of the Mishnah and for
his elucidation and clarification of the apparent contradictions contained in various texts. He was particularly versed
in the regulations concerning ritual purity, in which he was
regarded as an authority (BM 86a). Whereas Josephs encyclopedic knowledge of traditions earned him the title Sinai,
Rabbah was known as oker harim (uprooter of mountains),
for his exceptionally skillful dialectic ability (Ber. 64a.). Only
ten aggadic sayings are quoted in his name (e.g., Shab. 64a;
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
Pes. 68b; Meg. 15b; et al.), and there is no foundation for the
statement of Abraham ibn Daud in the Sefer ha-Kabbalah
that he was the author of such aggadic compilations as Genesis Rabbah.
Judahs death left the post of the head of the academy
of Pumbedita vacant. Joseph declined the office, whereupon
Rabbah was elected. He held the post for 22 years, until his
death (Ber. 64a; Iggeret R. Sherira Gaon, 8586), and under
his leadership the academy achieved its greatest renown. The
number of regular students rose to 400 (Ket. 106a), and during
the *kallah months of Adar and Elul, the audiences numbered
12,000 (BM 86a). Rabbahs own contribution as a teacher was
significant. He used to put his audience in a receptive mood
by beginning his lectures with witty aphorisms and interesting anecdotes (Shab. 30b), and he would frequently invite
comment on paradoxical halakhot and deliberately captious
decisions (Ber. 33b). However, although highly esteemed by
scholars, he was intensely disliked by the members of the
Pumbedita community, whose behavior he frequently and
severely denounced (Shab. 153a and Rashi ibid.).
Little is known of his private life other than that he was
poor. The Talmud explicitly contrasts his poverty with H isdas
comfortable economic position (MK 28a). Rabbah died in
tragic circumstances. Charged with aiding his large audiences to avoid paying poll tax during the kallah months, Rabbah was forced to flee the bailiffs who had been sent to seize
him. He wandered about in the vicinity of Pumbedita, and
it was there, in a thicket, that his body was ultimately found
(BM 86a; Iggeret R. Sherira Gaon 7887). According to the
aggadah, it was on that day that the Heavenly Academy was
debating whether, if the bright spot appeared after the white
hair (cf. Lev. 13:13), the leper was clean or unclean. The Almighty maintained that he was clean, the Heavenly Academy
that he was unclean. Rabbah was asked for his opinion, and,
as he called out Clean, clean, he expired. At that moment, a
heavenly voice was heard to declare, Happy art thou, O Rabbah b. Nah amani, whose body is pure, and whose soul has
departed in purity (BM 86a). According to Rosh Ha-Shanah
18a (MK 28a) he was only 40 years old at his death. However,
this figure is unacceptable on chronological grounds and has
generally been emended to 60. He was survived by a son also
called Rabbah (Shab. 123a). *Abbaye, who grew up in his house
(Ber. 48a), was his nephew and pupil.
Bibliography: Halevy, Dorot, 2 (1923), 43540; Hyman,
Toledot.
RABBANITES, name and definition current from approximately the tenth century applied to Jews accepting the Oral
Law (Torah she-be-al peh) as binding and normative in the
same degree as Scripture (Torah she-bi-khetav). As with many
party definitions the term is used with pride by the Rabbanites themselves and with derision and contempt by their opponents the *Karaites.
RABBAH TOSFAAH (middle of the fifth century), Babylonian amora. He was a pupil of *Ravina (I) (Suk. 32a; BK 119a),
and a colleague of the latters nephew, *Ravina (II) (Yev. 75b;
MK 4a). He succeeded Mar Bar Rav Ashi as head of the Sura
Academy, a position he held for six years until his death in
474 (Ibn Daud, Book of Tradition, 36). Although among the
last of the amoraim, he still gave original rulings. He declared
a child legitimate although born to a woman whose husband
had gone overseas 12 months before the birth, assuming that
a pregnancy may extend as long as that period (Yev. 80b; for
another example see Ber. 50a). Some claim that his name,
Tosfaah (the amplifier), reflects the activity of making additions of brief, explanatory remarks, through which he clarified
talmudic themes and decided between the conflicting opin-
10
rabbi, rabbinate
of Transjordan and later of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Its population, greatly increased by Palestinian refugees,
numbered approximately 200,000 in 1970. By 2006 its population was over 1.7 million.
The site was surveyed and photographed by a British
team led by C. Warren in 1867 for the Palestine Exploration
Fund. Since then Amman was frequently visited by scholars
and explorers, notably by H.C. Butler in 1921. In 1927 an Italian
expedition directed by G. Guidi worked at the site; the excavations continued in 192933 under the direction of R. Bartoccini. From 1945 G.L. Harding investigated Amman on behalf
of the Department of Antiquities, and in 1966 J.B. Hennessy
excavated the Late Bronze Age temple on behalf of the British
School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Numerous excavations
have taken place in recent years in Amman, particularly in
the area of the acropolis/citadel (Jebel Qala).
Middle Ages
In medieval times, the title ha-rav denoted great scholarly
standing and social reputation unconnected with the hierarchical structure of the yeshivot and geonim. In this sense it appears, for example, in various letters of the 10t12t centuries,
and in the Chronicle of Ahimaaz is used to describe the mysterious Aaron, while the chronicler Abraham ibn Daud employs
these terms and their derivatives to define the generations of
scholars rabbanim after the death of Hai Gaon. Relatively
early in these centuries, the term rabbanim (now translated
into English as Rabbanites) came to designate the mainstream
of Orthodoxy in Judaism, which based itself on the authority of the Talmud and the geonim, as against the minority of
the Karaites. Centralistic tendencies in the leadership of the
gaonate and exilarchs are revealed in the tendency for one of
these institutions to appoint from above the scholar who led
the local community and in the main carried out the functions of judge (dayyan), bringing with him as his letter of appointment a writ of judgeship (pitka de-dayyanuta). What is
known of their actual functioning, however, shows both that
such appointees were in reality much more than judges only
and that in fact local opinion had a say in their appointment.
By the end of the 10t and beginning of the 11t century there
were more and more cases of open local election by the community of a spiritual and moral leader.
Through their social functions rabbi and rabbinate carried over into the Middle Ages a medley of concepts and attitudes, the active elements being scholarship, judgeship, social-spiritual leadership, and example. A certain measure of
religious authority attached to the concept of rabbi and to
his person, deriving from the authority invested in the geonic academies and the outlook of their scholars, and also
from the distant memories of the supreme authority of the
mishnaic rabbi ordained by semikhah the ordination of ancient times. These titles and designations never carried with
them priestly or semi-priestly authority or functions. Prayer
and leading in prayer, blessing of the people, and officiating
in marriage and burial ceremonies never became an integral
part of the conception of rabbinical office until the beginning
of the 19t century, with the Reform movement. Some rabbis
led in prayer and blessed the people, but until modern times
11
Bibliography: H.C. Butler, Architecture (1909), 34ff.; AviYonah, Geog, index; L. Harding, in: QDAP, 11 (1945), 67ff.; 14 (1950),
44ff.; idem, in: ADAJ, 3 (1956), 80; Maayah, ibid., 45 (1960), 1145;
Ward, ibid., 89 (1964), 47ff. Add. Bibliography: G.M. Landes,
The Material Civilization of the Ammonites, in: Biblical Archaeologist, 24 (1961), 6586; A. Almagro and E. Olavarri, A New Umayyad
Palace at the Citadel of Amman, in: A. Hadidi (ed.), Studies in the
History and Archaeology of Jordan I (1982), 30521; L.G. Herr, The Amman Airport Excavations, 1976. ASOR Annual 48 (1983); A. Northedge,
Studies on Roman and Islamic Amman (1992); J.B. Humbert and F.
Zayadine, Trois campagnes de fouilles Ammn (19881991), in:
Revue Biblique, 99 (1992), 21460; G.S.P. Grenville, R.L. Chapman
and J.E. Taylor, Palestine in the Fourth Century. The Onomasticon by
Eusebius of Caesarea (2003), 81.
[Michael Avi-Yonah / Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)]
rabbi, rabbinate
this was no more than a matter of personal inclination. The
supervision of marriage, and even more so of divorce proceedings, became an integral part of the rabbinic office, both
because the payment for performing such functions became
part of the stipend of the local rabbi, and because legal acumen was required, especially in the case of divorce. It would
seem that from its earliest days preaching to the people was
an integral part of the rabbinic function, the rabbi being both
the authoritative scholarly expositor of law and morals, and
the moral and spiritual leader of the people. At certain times
and in certain regions scholarly exposition was regarded as the
main part of preaching, while in others moral exhortation was
seen as its main burden; both elements were always present in
rabbinical preaching, though in varying proportions.
The weakening of centralistic institutions, as well as the
continuing growth of Jewish communities in countries which
had never known such leadership, increasingly augmented the
importance of the local rabbi. Although the activities of many
rabbis are known, in most cases neither income nor status
are clearly apparent. Over the years the ideal has developed
of the scholarly charisma of the rabbi asserting itself without
recourse to official definitions. Ideally all rabbis are equal as
officeholders; the only hierarchy ideally obtaining between
them is that of personal intellectual and moral preeminence.
The office of rabbi was originally an honorary one on the
principle that the Torah had to be taught free of charge. It was
not until the 14t century that there is the first clear evidence
of a rabbi receiving emoluments. When Simeon b. Zemah
Duran fled from the anti-Jewish riots in Spain in 1391 and arrived in Algiers the local community wished to appoint him
as rabbi. He pleaded inability to accept as he was penniless
and had to earn a livelihood. In order to enable him to accept
the position, a formula was worked out whereby instead of a
salary for his services he was to receive sekhar battalah, i.e.,
compensation for loss of time due to his preoccupation with
his rabbinic office. This remained the legal basis in Jewish law
for a rabbi receiving a salary, even though in the modern period the rabbis salary is generally regarded as in the category
of a professional wage with contracts written between rabbis
and their congregations.
In outward recognition of such preeminence, the various communities applied to a particular local rabbi for his
personal responsa on different legal and theoretical matters.
He would thus be given, de facto and personally, the authority vested in the geonim ex officio.
In both Ashkenazi and Sephardi centers rulers became
aware relatively early of this new development in Jewish society. In the story of the Four Captives, Abraham ibn Daud
describes the satisfaction of a local ruler in late tenth-century
Muslim Spain, at having a scholarly Jewish authority in his
country, independent of the geonim in Baghdad. The office
of the rab de la corte in Castille and Arraby moor in Portugal, as well as appointments known from the 13t century of a
Jewish Hochmeister for some regions of the German Empire
(see, e.g., Meir Baruch of Rothenburg), and also similar ap-
12
rabbi, rabbinate
British office of chief rabbi for the U.K. and the dominions
and the Chief Rabbinate in Erez Israel. On the other hand,
in the huge concentrations of Jewish population in modern
cities, in the U.S. in particular, the concept of the mara deatra is on the point of vanishing and the rabbi there is mainly
the rabbi of a synagogue congregation. In regions and communities where H asidism prevails, the status and function of
the rabbi as such have in many ways become subordinate to
those of the z addik.
The Reform movement, with its progressive rejection of
traditionally received halakhah, has changed the very concept
of rabbi. The Reform rabbi is judge no longer: he has become
to a large degree, for the first time in the history of the rabbinate, a priest ordering the prayer service and leading it. In
the U.S. in particular he is also becoming the social and even
the socialite director of his synagogue congregation. The Conservative wing of Judaism, in particular in the U.S., is trying
to combine both concepts of the rabbinate.
The Jewish Religious Leadership in the Muslim East
There is a scarcity of information concerning the religious
leadership of the early Middle Ages in eastern lands. Extant
fragments of records pertaining to such leadership date back
only to the 12t century. Sources become more extensive beginning in the 16t century, after the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain, and are found in the responsa of the eastern lands,
especially from the Ottoman Empire. In this section the religious leadership will be discussed starting with the geonic
era, although the title of rabbi, in its usual sense of a scholar
appointed over a community to decide and teach its religious
regulations, was not used until the 12t century.
The geonim served as spiritual heads of the Babylonian or
Palestinian communities, and in Babylonia they ruled alongside the exilarchs, who served as secular heads. The authority
of the geonim extended over the borders of the Arabian caliphate due to their religious authority. Previously the exilarch had
reserved the right to appoint judges, either alone or in consultation with the gaon. But during the decline of the exilarchate,
the geonim appointed judges for most of Babylonia, granting
them a certificate of justiceship (pitka de-dayyanuta).
In Erez Israel the religious head of a community was
known as a h aver (associated member of the Academy) and
was ordained in the Palestinian academy. The h aver served
as head of the communitys rabbinical court once he had
been empowered by the head of the academy. The Palestinian academies granted to ordained scholars the title of h aver
be-Sanhedrin ha-Gedolah (member of the Great Sanhedrin);
in Babylonia it was customary to call similar appointees alluf. At the same time the title of rav (rabbi) was common in
Egypt, North Africa, and Spain.
The decline of the gaonate and the Palestinian Academy
in the 11t century created some confusion regarding the rabbinate as a communal institution. There was no sufficient religious authority capable of continuing the traditional ordination (semikhah) or appointment of judges. Consequently,
ordination was discontinued. In Spain, however, some religious heads of communities would grant their students a
writ of ordination (ketav masmikh). Judah ben Barzillai alBargeloni declared in his Sefer ha-Shetarot that this writ was
only reminiscent of the ancient ordination and that no actual
semikhah could be given outside Erez Israel. This type of document, he maintained, was awarded only for the purpose of
encouraging students.
In the 1130s R. Joseph ibn Migash ordained Joseph ben
Mamal by means of a ketav minnui (writ of appointment).
Maimonides opposed the institution of the professional rabbi
in the sense of a paid official; he preferred the ideal of the
scholar who earns his living independently but serves as a
communal teacher. Even in the geonic period in North Africa, there were scholars who received appointments to the
rabbinate. R. Hushiel b. Elhanan of Kairouan ordained his son
Hananel and Nissim b. Jacob b. Nissim (Ibn Shahin). Abraham ibn Daud mentioned in his Sefer ha-Kabbalah that after
the deaths of Hananel and Nissim b. Jacob the tradition was
discontinued, although judges officiated in Mahdia and Qalat
Hammad without ordination. In the geonic period the title of
ha-rav ha-rosh (chief rabbi) was widespread in North Africa.
It was awarded by the academy in Pumbedita to designate the
head of a famous rabbinical court.
In Spain the rank of dayyan (judge) was higher than that
of rabbi. Certain individuals were empowered to punish offenders and bore the right to judge alone. Important authorities, such as Maimonides and his father Maimon, were called
dayyan. The position of dayyan was more highly regarded in
Spain than in the eastern lands after the expulsion. In those
countries the hakham (scholar) gained prominence, although the dayyan reserved the right to appoint a hakham or
to empower even ordinary individuals with the right to judge.
Two examples are known of appointment of rabbis by the government in the 14t and 15t centuries: Joseph Sasportas who
was invested with judicial powers in the kingdom of Tlemcen
and Isaac b. Sheshet Perfet, who was appointed by the government of Algiers. Isaac b. Sheshet Perfet (second half of the 14t
century) wrote that in Germany, as well, it was customary to
award a writ of ordination, although in Spain it was considered sufficient if a teacher gave permission to his student to
act as congregational religious leader.
The arrival of Spanish and Portuguese refugees in eastern lands aroused a serious conflict concerning ordination
as practiced by the native Ashkenazim and Romaniots. An
example of this was the controversy about Messer David ben
Judah Leon, an ordained scholar and leader in Jewish education in Avilona (Valona), Albania, in the early 16t century.
Rabbi David Cohen of Corfu supported Leon and stated that
the method of ordination in use at least served to deter those
not fit to decide the halakhah. David Cohen himself had received ordination. Elijah Mizrah i opposed the Sephardi refugees who claimed that no one could ordain once the Sanhedrin
no longer existed. Nonetheless, the Ashkenazim did influence
some Eastern Sephardi communities to practice ordination.
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rabbi, rabbinate
However the significance of the ordination was completely different from the Ashkenazi ordination. The responsa cite several examples of writs of appointment containing the phrase
yoreh, yoreh, yadin, yadin (he will teach, he will judge),
sometimes adding yattir, yattir (he will permit); this was
the text of ordination customary in the talmudic period. One
factor which soothed the conflict was the publics reluctance
to accept Ashkenazi ordination as an automatic qualification
for communal leadership. The idea of reinstituting the traditional ordination as known in ancient times continued to excite scholars until the 16t century, when Jacob Berab relied
on the words of Maimonides in his attempt to ordain certain
scholars. This act aroused negative reactions and a fresh conflict continued for two generations.
When the Spanish and Portuguese refugees reached the
Ottoman Empire, they organized communities according to
their origins, each preserving its own traditions. Due to the
absence of ordination, the spiritual leader in these communities was mainly called h akham or marbiz Torah (teacher
of the Torah). Other titles in use were dayyan, h aver beit hadin, kah in ve-rosh, moreh z edek, and moreh horaah; these titles
were not limited to congregational leaders in the strict sense.
In Erez Israel, Egypt, and Syria, however, the title marbiz Torah
was replaced by h akham and in North Africa by moreh z edek.
A rabbi in charge of all or most congregations in a city was
called ha-rav ha-kolel (the supreme rabbi).
The marbiz Torah or h akham was the highest religious
authority in his district. To qualify for his office he had to be
expert in all fields of halakhah. He preached publicly on Sabbaths and holidays. Frequently he acted as chief controller
over foundations and bequests and organized the redemption
of hostages. In small communities he often served as a scribe
or notary. The marbiz Torah judged in matters of marriage,
divorce, h aliz ah, and monetary disputes generally alone but
sometimes joined by two laymen to strengthen the verdict as
having been passed in a court of three. Claims between people
of different communities were judged by the marbiz Torah of
the defendants community. He was also responsible for judging in matters of ritual fitness and maintaining standards of
morality in the city. Generally, his office was not inherited.
The marbiz Torah was usually treated with respect and
admiration. He was paid an ample wage and honored with set
marks of etiquette; the congregation stood when he entered
and allowed him to pass first through the synagogue or street.
He occupied a fixed seat in the synagogue and when he died
he was buried with special marks of honor. Certain congregations purposely left the late leaders office vacant for a considerable period to show deference to their loss.
On the other hand there is record of conflicts between
the marbiz Torah and members of his congregation. Sometimes his knowledge of halakhah was questioned or sometimes
competition between two scholars for the same office would
cause conflicts or a split in the community; many marbiz ei
Torah are known to have been dismissed from their positions. An h akham who was disregarded or dishonored could
14
rabbi, rabbinate
thority over all other rabbis in the empire (including the rishon
le-Zion in Erez Israel). In Egypt the h akham bashi was the only
authority to decide ritual matters and was accompanied by a
judge who had the right to sit alone. The Jewish community
in Erez Israel appointed a chief rabbi known as the rishon leZion (first of Zion). Although this title existed from the 17t
century, it was not officially recognized until 1842, when the
incumbent rishon le-Zion was named h akham bashi of Erez
Israel. In 1874 a h akham bashi was appointed in Tripoli (North
Africa) and soon the title became so popular that almost every
North African community had its h akham bashi.
There were also chief rabbis who were heads of rabbinical
courts in Tunis, Djerba, in Algeria and Morocco.
In smaller cities in Morocco, which did not possess rabbinical courts, a rabbin dlgu was appointed who acted as
a one-man court and a community representative before the
government. In Morocco there were some families who reserved the dynastic right (serarah) to serve as rabbis and
judges. No parallel custom is found in any other land. Soleiman Kareh was appointed in 1872 h akham bashi of Yemen by
the Turkish regime. In that country the h akham bashi was the
highest legal and religious authority. After Kareh the position
of h akham bashi was held intermittently and for short durations. In each village and town in Yemen, the mori served as
rabbi, judge, and teacher. The Yemenite rabbis earned their
livings mainly as slaughterers, goldsmiths, and teachers.
Modern Period
Since the emancipation era, the functions of the rabbi, particularly in Western countries, have undergone a radical change
to which various factors contributed. In the first place, the
governments of the various countries abolished the right of
jurisdiction previously granted to the Jews in civil law, in consequence of which the function of the rabbi as judge in civil
litigation and the need to study H oshen Mishpat (the Jewish
civil code) for practical purposes no longer existed. Moreover,
even matters of ritual and matrimonial law which remained
within the sphere of Jewish jurisdiction were dealt with, in
these countries, not by the individual rabbi, but by a central
bet din, these functions being fulfilled by the dayyan. In the
second place, with the entry of the Jews into general life the
need became increasingly felt for the rabbis to be equipped
with a wider knowledge than was regarded as necessary for
the medieval rabbi in the Jewish community, in both Jewish
spheres Jewish history, literature, homiletics, and Juedische
Wissenschaft generally and in purely secular branches. This
need, felt internally, was powerfully reinforced when the governments of various countries, commencing with Emperor
Franz Joseph in Austria in 1848 and extending to other countries, demanded a certain standard of general education as a
condition of recognizing rabbis. When the existing yeshivot
refused to countenance any change in their traditional syllabus, which was almost wholly confined to Talmud and the
codes, the need was met by the establishment of rabbinical
15
[Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky]
rabbi, rabbinate
Germany
Some special features characterized the German rabbinate until the Holocaust. In the debates on emancipation the question
of the training and functions of the rabbis played an important
part. In Prussia, which had the largest number of Jews, successive legislation beginning with the Religionsedikt of 1788 to
the community law of 1847, had more or less ignored the position of the rabbi, leaving it to the communities whether to
appoint rabbis at all, and if they did, they were shorn of their
traditional authority, becoming mere functionaries, whose
opinion in religious matters could be ignored by the lay leaders. Opinions given by prominent Jews such as Gumpert,
Muhr, Rubo, and even Zunz had declared the rabbinical office to be altogether dispensable; rabbis were considered mere
Kauscherwaechters (Kashrut Supervisors) and protests to
the contrary remained ineffective. Their rabbinical jurisdiction
had been abolished in 1811 (in Altona-Schleswig-Holstein as
late as 1863) and when the last chief rabbi of Berlin, Hirschel
Lewin, appointed under the General Juden Reglement of
1750, died in 1800, his position was not filled again. Yet rabbis of the old school were in positions of religious authority
to the middle of the century, such as Akiva Eger (d. 1837) and
his son Solomon (d. 1852) in Posen. The Law of 1847 required
government confirmation of rabbinical appointments, though
they were not considered public functionaries. The constitution of the Bismarckian Reich gave rabbis equal status with
Christian clergy in some respects. States like Hanover, Electoral Hesse, and Schleswig-Holstein, which were later incorporated in Prussia, retained their previously adopted Jewish
community organization in which rabbis had the official status
of Landrabbiner, Provinzialrabbiner, etc. Even where rabbis
16
rabbi, rabbinate
vate contract; his salary was usually adequate for maintaining
a middle-class standard of living, incidental fees being paid
into the communitys funds.
In the larger communities with several synagogues a division developed between the community rabbi and the synagogue rabbi. In many parts of Germany, where rural, rabbi-less
communities survived in great number, district rabbis, with
their seat in state or provincial capitals, were in charge of their
religious needs. Even after 1918, when the separation of church
and state had led to the abolition of the 19t-century laws, the
titles of Oberrabiner, Landesrabbiner, or Provinzialrabbiner
survived as a historical relic, without much significance, unless
it meant the care of rural communities. There was at no time
a German chief rabbi. When, under the Nazis, Leo Baeck became president of the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden,
his being a (liberal) rabbi was incidental.
Regina *Jonas, the first woman to receive rabbinic ordination, was a 1930 graduate of the Hochschule fuer die Wisenschaft des Judentums (College of Jewish Studies) in Berlin. She
received private ordination in 1935 from Max Dienemann, one
of the rabbinic leaders of German Liberal Judaism.
From the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 until World War I,
many German rabbis served as army chaplains. The needs of
German Jewry under the Nazi regime produced the office of
Youth Rabbi; the social and educational responsibilities of
the rabbi in this tragic period increased manifold.
In 1884 German rabbis united in the Verband der Rabbiner Deutschlands, which in 1896 became the Allgemeiner Rabbinerverband in Deutschland, though some Orthodox rabbis refused to join. The Orthodox, on their side,
established in 1897 their own Vereinigung traditionell-gesetzestreuer Rabbiner while an Orthodoxer Rabbinerverband excluded those rabbis who served in mixed ReformOrthodox communities. Another source of controversy was
emerging Zionism; the great majority of German Jews were
anti-Zionist and their assimilated leaders even more so; a great
number of rabbis had signed the famous protest against the
holding of the First Zionist Congress (see Protestrabbiner).
This led to a head-on conflict with some of the younger rabbis
who had embraced Zionism, as in the case of Emil Bernard
Cohn, who was dismissed from his post by the Berlin Jewish
community board for propagating Zionism.
In the U.S.
The status and role of the contemporary rabbi in North America exhibit some unique features which can best be understood
in the light of the historical development of the synagogue as
the central institution in the Jewish community.
The North American cultural and social development
accepted the concept of differences based on faith, but has resisted differences based on other criteria. A full treatment of
this sociological phenomenon can be found in W. Herbergs
Protestant-Catholic-Jew (1955). The Eastern European community, from which most North American Jews and their
17
[Alexander Carlebach]
rabbi, rabbinate
In Israel
The rabbinate and the functions of the rabbi in modern Israel
differ fundamentally from their counterparts in any other part
of the Jewish world, whether ancient or modern. A number of
factors have contributed toward this unique state of affairs. In
the first place there is the law of the State of Israel which establishes the halakhah as state law in all matters affecting personal status, which includes marriage, divorce, legitimacy, and
conversion and affords the rabbinical courts the status of civil
courts of law within that wide sphere. This, coupled with the
fact that the Ministry of Religious Affairs was, apart from one
brief interregnum, the prerogative of the (Orthodox) National
Religious Party, has had the effect of making Orthodox Judaism
to all intents and purposes the established church of the state,
to the virtual exclusion of other religious trends in Judaism,
Conservative and Reform, which have only a handful of congregations, mostly composed of recently arrived immigrants
belonging to those trends in the countries of their origin.
A second factor determining the complexion and the
functions of the rabbinate is the establishment of the twin Orthodox chief rabbinate (Ashkenazi and Sephardi) which are
state appointments, and similar twin chief rabbinates in the
18
RABBI BINYAMIN (pseudonym of Yehoshua Radler-Feldmann; 18801957), Hebrew journalist. Born in Zborov, Galicia, Rabbi Binyamin published his first essay in 1903, and in
1906 moved to London, where he joined J.H . *Brenner in the
publication of Ha-Meorer. Arriving in Palestine in 1907, he
first worked as a laborer in Petah Tikvah, then as secretary
of Herzlia, the first Hebrew high school in Tel Aviv. He left
19
20
RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY (RA), the international association of Conservative rabbis. The Rabbinical Assembly was
founded in Philadelphia in June 1901, as the Alumni Association of the Jewish Theological Seminary, with Rabbi Henry M.
Speaker as its first president. The name was changed to the
Rabbinical Assembly in 1918, when graduates of other institutions were admitted as members. The RA, as it is known, functions on two levels as a professional organization serving the
needs of its members, and as an organization which seeks to
promote the observance of Conservative Judaism, working
closely with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and other arms
of the Conservative Movement.
In 2005, the organization had 1,564 members, 1,290 of
them serving in the United States. Members served in 25
countries, with 151 in Israel, and 52 in Latin America. First
admitting female rabbis in 1985, the group had 204 women
members in 2005.
As a professional organization, the RA has always sought
to improve the status of the Conservative rabbi; and its achievements have benefited the rabbis of other movements as well.
Thanks to the efforts of its long-time executive director, Rabbi
Wolfe Kelman, who served from 1951 to 1989, and his successor, Rabbi Joel Meyers, many rabbis now receive benefits
such as pensions, medical insurance, and convention allowances. Working with other arms of the movement on the Joint
Placement Commission, the RA has sought to create fair and
standardized procedures for rabbinic placement. RA members
serve not only as pulpit rabbis, but also as educators, academics, Hillel directors, and chaplains, and hold other positions
in the Jewish community.
In seeking to promote the practice of Conservative Judaism and the study of the Torah, the RA has had an active
publications program, headed from 1961 to 1994 by Rabbi
Jules Harlow. It has published weekday, Sabbath, and holiday prayerbooks, a Passover haggadah, a commentary on
the Torah, a Holocaust Megillah, rabbis manuals, and other
learned works that reflect the Conservative ideology. Through
its Law Committee, the RA has sought to grapple with halakhic
issues such as the plight of the *agunah (deserted wife), the
observance of the Sabbath and the dietary laws under modern conditions, and the role of women in the synagogue. At
the start of the 21st century, the RA was also dealing with the
issues of outreach to intermarried families and the role of homosexuals in Jewish life.
Bibliography: R.E. Fierstein (ed.), A Century of Commitment: One Hundred Years of the Rabbinical Assembly (2000); P.S.
Nadell, Conservative Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary
and Sourcebook (1988); Rabbinical Assembly, Proceedings (1927 ).
[Robert E. Fierstien (2nd ed.)]
21
rabbinical literature
RABBINICAL LITERATURE, a modern scientific term
used to describe the literature of halakhah which is based upon
the Oral Law, its traditions and methodology in its different
periods, its changing languages, and its varied forms. This
definition excludes from its purview such sacred literature
as liturgy, piyyutim, and other liturgical compositions, pure
Kabbalah works, philosophical bible exegesis, theology, and
grammar. On the other hand it frequently includes what appear at first sight to be purely secular topics, such as the works
on astronomy inasmuch as their aim is to clarify topics connected with the calendar, such as laws of the determination
of the New Moon and its intercalation; chronologies of the
tannaim and amoraim, which are strictly chronographies,
but whose main purpose is to determine according to which
authority the halakhah is to be established; homiletic ethical
and aggadic works, which aim at giving the practical halakhah
and guidance for everyday living, and other similar works. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, the term also includes
books on the laws of the Temple and its appurtenances, the
laws of ritual cleanness and uncleanness, which will be actual only in the messianic future, since their purpose was regarded as practical in view of the ever-present faith in the
imminent redemption. Combined with this was the concept
of interpret and receive reward, i.e., the study of Torah for
its own sake without regard to its application to practical life,
as an independent discipline which was part of the concept
of talmud torah, and therefore this literature too is included
in the term rabbinical literature. It must be clearly emphasized that, despite the formal name, the term does not indicate
books written by rabbis but works whose subject matter and
aim belong to the sphere that concerns rabbis in their function as teachers of Judaism. Works on grammar may have an
important halakhic bearing, for instance in connection with
the laws of reading the Torah, but in most cases such was not
the intention of their authors, whose purpose was primarily to
teach grammar for its own sake or as an aid to biblical exegesis. These books are therefore not included in the term rabbinical literature. The name rabbinical literature is also used
in an entirely different sense since it also describes literature
written by Rabbanites against the *Karaites in all eras even
if it deals with theology or other non-halakhic topics.
Rabbinical literature can be divided, according to its
contents, into several basic categories: exposition of the *Talmud; *responsa; codes and their commentaries; *minhagim;
halakhic monographs; rules of conduct and ethical wills, and
the like. This formal division, however, was adopted in practice long after the inception of this literature. The term is
commonly accepted to indicate every category of this literature as defined above, from Saadiah *Gaon, who was the first
rabbinical scholar to write books in the present sense of the
word. According to this usage rabbinical literature constitutes
a stage following the period of talmudic and midrashic literature, which, as is usually accepted, came to a close at the end of
the geonic period. No books in the present sense of the word
were written, however, from the close of this period until Saa-
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24
25
Reform Institutions
HEBREW UNION COLLEGE-JEWISH INSTITUTE OF RELIGION.
The oldest rabbinical college in North America, the Reform
seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
(HUC-JIR) was formed from a merger of Hebrew Union College (1875) in Cincinnati with the Jewish Institute of Religion
(1922) in New York in 1950; it has been informed by the same
contemporary cultural-religious forces and sentiments that
have influenced the parameters of the JTS and UJ curricula
described above. The College-Institute has engaged in a Core
Curriculum Project that has caused the curriculum to focus
on three key areas academic, professional, and spiritual in
the education of a new generation of Reform rabbis. While this
curriculum has been designed to foster greater appreciation
of practical skills, every effort has been made to strengthen
the academic integrity of the course of study. For the first
time in the history of HUC-JIR, students cannot be admitted
unless they have completed at least two years of college-level
Hebrew. It is hoped that this minimal level of Hebrew competency for entering students will allow them to advance to
a scholarly mastery of sources.
The HUC-JIR course of study for the rabbinate is five
years, and the first-year student is required to study at the HUC
campus in Jerusalem. The College-Institute is absolutely committed on an ideological level to the notion of Jewish peoplehood, the first year program in Israel is designed to instill in
addition to Hebrew and textual skills a sense of solidarity
with the Jewish people and the reborn Jewish state. Commitment to *kelal Yisrael (the Jewish community as a whole) is
viewed as a prerequisite for the rabbinic office. While students
with little Judaica background are often accepted, HUC-JIR
is in the process of raising its requirements in this area (beyond the Hebrew requirement mentioned above) and the establishment of a mekhinah year was being contemplated. All
students who will be ordained must possess suitable qualities
of character, leadership, personality, and academic capacity to serve in the rabbinical office, though unlike JTS and in
keeping with the non-halakhic character of the Reform Movement, there are no minimal requirements for observance that
are demanded.
26
modern, and contemporary eras of Jewish civilization in succession. By studying the texts, history, thought, and culture
of the Jewish heritage in this way, the student gains an appreciation of the constantly evolving nature of Jewish belief
and practice. There is also a practical rabbinics program with
three main components course work, fieldwork, and group
supervision. The RRC offers five programs of study in this program, and encourages the student to specialize in one congregational life; campus and Hillel; chaplaincy in hospital,
hospice, and geriatric centers; community organization; and
education. For people who specialize in education, there is a
joint masters degree in education from *Gratz College. The
curriculum is designed to have the students appreciate and
understand the nature of a rapidly changing world. The RRC
is a self-described warm, caring community, and its rabbis
are educated for the entire Jewish community in both the
synagogue and beyond. In its early years, the RRC insisted
that its students pursue a Ph.D. at either Temple University
or the University of Pennsylvania alongside their course of
study for ordination. However, the demands this imposed on
the students were soon seen as too strenuous and such academic training and aspirations were seen as unnecessary for
the rabbinic careers they were choosing. The notion of the
scholar-rabbi that the American rabbinical seminary had inherited from their German seminary models was no longer
culturally compelling.
Transdenominationalism and Spirituality
The dual themes of transdenominationalism and spirituality find strong expression in both the Rabbinical School at
Hebrew College in Greater Boston (Newton Centre) (BHC)
and the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR) in California and
New York.
RABBINICAL SCHOOL AT HEBREW COLLEGE IN GREATER
BOSTON. Led by Rabbi Arthur *Green, a scholar of H asidism,
the founder of Havurat Shalom in 1968 during the era of Jewish renewal, and the former dean and president pf the RRC,
the Boston Hebrew College Rabbinical School has built upon
the Hebrew Colleges 84-year legacy of transdenominational
Jewish studies. Boston Hebrew sees itself as devoted to kelal
Yisrael and notions of inclusion and spirituality. Indeed, BHC
emphasizes that it accepts men and women, gays and heterosexuals, and it requires that candidates display a love of Jews
as well as Judaism. Applicants must have a B.A. and three
years of college Hebrew to qualify for admission. The standard
program is five years, though BHC specifies that there is a possible mekhinah year for students who are in need of remedial
work in Judaica and texts. All students are required to study
for at least one semester and one summer in Israel.
The emphasis at BHC is upon the study of primary texts.
However, these texts focus upon themes of Jewish living
and daily rabbinic practice, and the curriculum is structured
around cycles of Torah study and Jewish religious life. The
school states that it is a blend of academy and *yeshivah
27
28
seeks to promote an inclusive modern Orthodoxy that requires respectful interaction with all Jewish movements and
that expands the role of women in religious life and leadership. YCT has a four-year program, and intensive study of
Talmud and halakhah form the focus of the curriculum, as is
the case at both HTC and RIETS. However, Tanakh (Bible) is
a separate discipline as is Jewish Thought (labeled Mah shevet
Yisrael). There is an attempt to nurture students both intellectually and spiritually, and to encounter the texts as an act
of avodat Hashem service to God. Here YCT adopts the
language of religious personalism and spirituality that is the
hallmark of all the more liberal non-Orthodox programs.
YCT is distinct among Orthodox yeshivot in other ways
as well. In studying Talmud, the curriculum is designed to
address historical and source critical concerns. In Tanakh,
academic issues of authorship are addressed, while the literary-theological message, as well as classical commentaries, are
consulted and considered. This openness to integrating critical, scientific approaches with traditional ones in the study of
Jewish texts makes YCT unique in the Orthodox world.
YCT is also a yeshivah that emphasizes the value and religious significance of the State of Israel, and requires a year of
study there prior to ordination. In Jewish Thought, h asidic and
kabbalistic literatures are studied, and two required courses
are The Rise and Development of Jewish Denominations
and The Challenges of Modern Orthodoxy, which addresses
issues of faith and doubt, dogma, authority of the modern
rabbi, and gender issues. As its literature proclaims, YCT is a
yeshiva not afraid of ideas, and promotes academic excellence, ahavat HaTorah (love of Torah), and ahavat Yisrael (love
of the Jewish people) in its graduates who go out to serve in
a wide variety of Orthodox synagogues and communal and
educational settings.
OHR TORAH STONE (JOSEPH STRAUSS RABBINICAL SEMINARY). In completing this review of institutions and programs that produce Orthodox rabbis to serve the North American Jewish community, it is important to take note of Ohr
Torah Stone (Joseph Strauss Rabbinical Seminary) in Efrat,
Israel. Headed by Rabbi Shlomo *Riskin and Rabbi Chaim
Brovender, this Israeli-based Orthodox rabbinical program
aims at training a new generation of rabbinic leaders who
combine their halakhic knowledge with an understanding of
the particular needs of contemporary Jewish life. After completing a four-year course of study, students are expected to
return to the Diaspora. Ohr Torah Stone views Torah as a
unifying force rather than a divider, and is attentive to the
importance of tolerance and openness, without compromising religious commitment. There is sensitivity towards the
situation of Jews in the Diaspora. Thus, when laws of conversion, for example, are taught, considerable attention is paid
to issues of assimilation and intermarriage in the Diaspora.
Similarly, in studying laws relating to Sabbath observance, the
focus is placed upon how a community of Sabbath-observant
Jews might be established.
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rabin, oscar
RABI, ISIDOR ISAAC (18981988), U.S. physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Rabi was born at Rymanow, Austro-Hungary, and taken to the United States when he was a year old.
He became a tutor in physics at City College, New York, and
won fellowships to various European universities. In 1937 he
returned to lecture at Columbia, where he was appointed a
full professor in 1950. Meanwhile, he continued his own researches in nuclear physics, quantum mechanics and magnetism. He realized that the essential step was to determine the
nature of the force that holds together the protons within the
nucleus of the atom, overcoming the mutual repulsion that
must exist between them, as all are positively charged. When
Otto *Stern discovered how to measure this force by means of
a molecular beam, Rabi followed up the discovery, which he
found more effective than fission for elucidating the structure
of the atom. His most distinguished work was the development of a method of receiving and interpreting such beams,
and it was this that won him the Nobel Prize for physics in
1944, four years after he had become associate director of the
radiation laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During the remainder of World War II Rabi served
as a civilian investigator for the Office of Scientific Research
and Development. From 1953 he was chairman of the general
advisory committee of the Atomic Energy Commission, but
he was active among those opposing the strict military control of atomic energy proposed by Congress, and he deplored
what he saw as a tendency for pure science to be subordinated
to industrial needs. He was involved with building the cyclotron as well as with other work at the Brookhaven National
Laboratory for Atomic Research. Rabi was a member of the
UN Science Committee and on the Atomic Energy agency,
among other international agencies. He was a member of the
board of governors of the Weizmann Institute in Israel. Two
autobiographical lectures, published under the title My Life
and Times as a Physicist, appeared in 1960.
Bibliography: T. Levitan, Laureates, Jewish Winners of the
Nobel Prize (1960), 8992; Current Biography Yearbook 1948 (1949),
50910.
[J. Edwin Holmstrom]
RAB IBN ABI ALH UQAYQ (end of the 6t century). Jewish poet from the Jewish tribe of Ban *Nad r in Yathrib, Arabia. A short poem of his is included in the anthology of Arabic
poetry by al-Jumah , in the chapter on the Jews of *Medina
(pp. 7074). Except for al-*Samawal ibn diyah, he is the only
poet in pre-Islamic Arabia mentioned by Moses Ibn Ezra in
his book on Hebrew medieval poetry, probably based on Arab
sources. Ibn Ezra raises the possibility that both Samawal and
Rab were Arabs converted to Judaism. Rab took part in intertribal wars and in poetic contests with other famous Arab
poets, such as al-Nbighah.
Bibliography: Al-Jumah , T abaqt al-Shuar, ed. J. Hell
(1913), 71; Moses Ibn Ezra, Kitb al-Muh d rah, wa-al-Mudhkarah
ed. A.Sh. Halkin (1975), 31; H.Z. Hirschberg, Israel ba-Arav (1946),
129, 172, 250251.
[Yosef Tobi (2nd ed.)]
33
rabin, sam
artist refused recognition in the Soviet Union, who nevertheless became known as an outstanding painter outside his native country. Since he was not a member of the Artists Union
he was not officially recognized as an artist or allowed to exhibit and had to work as an exhibition designer from his home
in a suburb of Moscow. He first gained a reputation outside the
U.S.S.R. when his work was seen in London at the Grosvenor
Gallery in 1964 in a mixed show of Soviet painters, and later
the same gallery mounted his first ever one-man exhibition.
Rabins work was Expressionistic in character, having much in
common with Soutine and Rouault, using dark somber colors
and heavy outlines almost in the manner of stained glass. He
painted his native Moscow in street scenes and often depicted
Western cities he has never visited. On the day of President
Kennedys assassination, Nov. 22, 1963, he painted a canvas to
commemorate the event. Rabin was a prolific painter and despite official lack of recognition his work was popular both in
the Soviet Union and among foreign visitors.
Both Rabins status as a leader of young, dissident Soviet
painters and his connections with foreign journalists and diplomats came to the fore in the remarkable effort to hold a free
exhibition in September 1974. The exhibition was organized by
Rabin and his son, together with a group of unorthodox artists. Their first effort was literally destroyed by the police, but
as a result of international publicity the authorities relented
and allowed some 60 painters to exhibit their work in an informal display at Moscows Izmailovo Park.
In July 1978 the Soviet authorities canceled his Soviet citizenship in view of his systematic activity incompatible with
the status of Soviet citizen. He continued to work in Paris
34
rabin, yiTZHak
main reason for his victory. Rabin formed a new government
in June 1974. Even though his first premiership was generally
viewed as mediocre, during his term as prime minister, with
U.S. assistance, the IDF was rehabilitated, and the economy
picked up, even though the rate of inflation rose. After disengagement agreements were signed with Egypt and Syria in January and May 1974 with the help of the shuttle diplomacy of
Secretary of State Henry *Kissinger, an interim agreement was
signed with Egypt in September 1975, together with a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. The Entebbe operation also took place in the course of his premiership. Towards
the end of 1976 Rabin fired the ministers from the *National
Religious Party, after they had abstained in a vote on a motion
of no-confidence in the government, over the arrival of F-15
planes from the U.S. to Israel on a Friday afternoon, and the
holding of a ceremony that allegedly resulted in the desecration of the Sabbath by those who participated in it. However,
the historic coalition with the NRP was in trouble even before
this event, due to a shift to the right by the young guard in the
national religious camp. As a result of pressure by Attorney
General Aharon *Barak, Rabin was forced to resign from the
premiership in March 1977, following the revelation by journalist Dan *Margalit that his wife, Leah, continued to hold a
bank account in Washington, D.C. from the time of his service
as ambassador, contrary to the Israeli foreign exchange regulations. In the elections for the Ninth Knesset held in May 1977,
Shimon *Peres led the Alignment and suffered a bitter defeat,
in what came to be known as the political upheaval. In 1979
Rabin published his memoirs, in which his bitterness against
Peres emerged. Following the death of Yigal *Allon, Rabin decided to contend again for the leadership of the Labor Party
against Peres, but at the Party Conference held in December
1980 he gained only 29 of the votes. In the National Unity
Government that was in office from 1984 to 1990 Rabin served
as minister of defense. In this capacity he got the IDF out of
Lebanon, canceled the Lavi fighter project, and led Israels
fight against the first Intifada. Even though his policy in the
territories was viewed as a hard fist policy, he realized soon
after the outbreak of the Intifada that there could be no military solution to the conflict with the Palestinians. Prior to the
elections to the Twelfth Knesset in 1988, he formulated a plan
for holding elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This
plan was adopted by the National Unity Government in May
1989 as part of the Shamir-Rabin peace initiative. Even though
he favored the continued existence of the government led by
Yitzhak *Shamir, he supported Peres initiative to bring down
the government in March 1990, following problems within the
Likud in advancing the peace initiative. However, after Peres
failed to form an alternative government, he called the ploy
the stinking ploy. In February 1992 he contested the leadership of the Labor Party with Peres for the third time, gaining
over 40 percent of the votes to Peres 34 percent (there were
two additional contestants). In the Knesset he supported the
adoption of the law for the direct election of the prime minister, but he won the elections to the Thirteenth Knesset under
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
35
rabinoff, george W.
Yitzhak Rabin (1996); A. Kapelyuk, Rabin: Rez ah Politi be-Ezrat
ha-Shem (1996); M. Naor, Yiz h ak Rabin: Ha-Ish, ha-Mefaked, haMedinai, ha-Maz bi, ha-Shalom (1996); R. Slater, Rabin of Israel:
Warrior for Peace (1996); L. Rabin, Our Life, His Legacy (1997); M.
Karpin, Murder in the Name of God: The Plot to Kill Yitzhak Rabin
(1998); D. Kurzman, Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin (1998);
Y. Pery (ed.), The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (2000); E. Inbar,
Rabin and Israels National Security (2001); A. Dalal, Maarekhet haEmunot shel Yiz h ak Rabin Kelappei ha-Aravim ve-ha-Sikhsukh haYisraeli (2003).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]
RABINOFF, GEORGE W. (18931970), pioneer of U.S. professional Jewish communal service. Rabinoff, born in New
York City, graduated from the New York School of Social
Work (1914), one of the first trained Jewish social workers.
After serving various Jewish communities and the Jewish
Welfare Board, he became associate executive director of the
Bureau of Jewish Social Research (192832), where he was
instrumental in founding the Council of Jewish Federations
and Welfare Funds, serving as its first executive (193235) and,
after the merger of the Council and the Bureau, as its associate director. He was associate director of Chicagos Jewish
Charities and Jewish Welfare Fund during World War II and
served UNRRA as deputy director of the Division of Welfare
and Displaced Persons in Europe. From 1947 to 1951 he directed the training bureau for Jewish Communal Service, reflecting his concern for Jewish communal professionalism. He
then became associate director of the National Social Welfare
Assembly (195161), afterward spending a year aiding the development of social work in Australia. Throughout his career
Rabinoff was a leader of the National Conference on Jewish
Communal Service, serving as secretary (192933) and president (1949). His influence on Jewish communal service and
its professional practitioners was extensive.
Bibliography: Bernstein, in: Journal of Jewish Communal
Service, 46 (1970), 3513.
[Robert S. Goldman]
36
he established in 1911 the *Kolel Kibbutz le-Mez uyyanei haYeshivot, which was financed by Miriam Gavronsky, daughter
of the tea magnate and philantropist Kalonymus *Wissotzky.
The venture was an outstanding success and made Panevezys
a major center of Talmud study in Lithuania. Forced to leave
Panevezys during World War I Rabinovich moved the Kolel
first to Luzin in the Vitebsk district and then to Mariopol.
After the Bolshevik Revolution he returned to Panavezys,
where he died.
Rabinovich was one of the few rabbis of his time who
knew Russian and modern Hebrew literature, which he mastered during an illness. Originally a supporter of the *H ibbat
Z ion movement, he later became one of the founders of the
*Agudat Israel. He was almost unique among contemporary
rabbis in his support of the workers and socialist movements;
in 1917 he made a passionate but unavailing appeal at a meeting of the Orthodox association Masoret ve-H erut, to persuade
its member to come out in support of expropriation of the
lands of the nobility and their redistribution to the peasants.
As a result he was popular among the *Bundists, and even
among the *Yevsektsiya, who did not attack him as they had
other rabbis. Despite this they refused to allow him to reopen
his yeshivah, and he died brokenhearted.
Famed as an outstanding posek, especially after the death
of R. Isaac Elh anan *Spektor, and in his decisions tending to
leniency, he committed little to writing and what there was,
was lost in World War I. In 1948, however, a small collection
of his commentaries and responsa was published under the
title Zekher Yitzhak. About the same time a former student, D.
Zachs, published a volume consisting of notes he had taken of
his masters lectures on tractates Kiddushin and Baba Mez ia.
Bibliography: Rivkind, in: Lite (1951), 57783; M.S. Shapiro, in: Lite (1951), 64553; J. Marck, Bi-Meh iz atan shel Gedolei ha-Dor
(1958), 11519; Yahadut Lita (1960), 39498.
[Shaul Stampfer]
RABINOVICH, ISAAK MOSEYEVICH (18861977), Russian construction engineer. Rabinovich, who attained the rank
of major-general in the Red Army, taught at several Soviet
institutes of higher education. He was appointed professor at
the Military Engineering Academy in 1932 and at the Moscow
Construction Engineers Institute in 1933. From 1946 he was a
corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences. He wrote
several books on construction mechanics.
RABINOVICH, ITAMAR (1942 ), president of Tel Aviv
University. Born in Jerusalem, Rabinovich received his B.A.
degree from the Hebrew University in 1960; in 1966 he completed his M.A. degree at Tel Aviv University; and in 1971 he
received his Ph.D. from the University of California. In 1971
he joined Tel Aviv University. He was the director of the Shiloh Center, dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and rector of
the university. He also served as senior research fellow at the
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies
and as incumbent of the Yona and Dina Ettinger Chair in ConENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
RABINOVICH, JOS (19031978), Yiddish and Spanish author, playwright, and poet. Born in Bialystok, in 1924 Rabinovich arrived in Argentina, where he made his living in
the printing business. Before his emigration he had written
a number of texts in Yiddish and continued to do so in Argentina; part of these works were translated into Spanish, the
language he adopted at a later stage. Influenced by the hardships of his life in Russia, by the difficulties faced by Jewish
immigrants in Argentina and, later, by the Holocaust, all his
writing is haunted by an atmosphere of hostility, material
and moral misery, poverty, and fear. His Jewish characters
often face the religious aporia of Gods indifference and injustice. Many of his themes deal with proletarian issues and
come under the rubric of leftist social-realist literature. His
works include the following: novels and short stories: Cabizbajos (Lowered Heads, 1943); Tercera clase (Third Class,
1944); Pan duro (Hard Bread, 1953); El perro de Maidanek
(The Dog of Majdanek, 1968); Cuentos de pico y pala (Stories of Pick and Shovel, 1971); and the autobiographical Sobras de una juventud (Youth Leftovers, 1977); dramas: Con
pecado concebida (Conceived in Sin, 1975); El gran castigo
(The Great Punishment, 1976); poetry: Hombre escatimado
(Skimped-on Man, 1969); Rapsodia juda (Jewish Rhapsody, 1969); El violinista bajo el tejado (The Fiddler under
the Roof, 1970); Rapsodia rusa (Russian Rhapsody, 1971);
Misa de un play boy (A Playboy Mass, 1972); Dios mediante
(With Gods Help, 1976).
RABINOVICH, JOSEPH (18371899), missionary in *Kishinev, Bessarabia, and founder of a Jewish-Christian sect. Born
into a h asidic family, Rabinovich was attracted by the *Haska-
37
Bibliography: R.A. Arrieta, Historia de la literatura argentina, vol. 4 (1959); D.W. Foster, Cultural Diversity in Latin American
Literature (1994); N. Lindstrom, Jewish Issues in Argentine Literature:
From Gerchunoff to Szichman (1989); D.B. Lockhart, Jewish Writers of
Latin America. A Dictionary (1997); L. Senkman, La identidad juda
en la literatura argentina (1983); A. Weinstein and M. Nasatsky, Escritores judeo-argentinos: bibliografa 19001987 (1994).
[Florinda F. Goldberg (2nd ed.)]
RABINOVITZ, ALEXANDER SISKIND (known by acronym Azar; 18541945), Hebrew author. Born in Lyady, Belorussia, Rabinovitz became affiliated with the *H ibbat Zion movement during a stay in Moscow. In 1888 he became a teacher in
Poltava, where his pupils included D.B. *Borochov and Izhak
*Ben-Zvi. It was in Poltava that he was elected a delegate to the
First Zionist Congress (1897). Settling in Erez Israel in 1906,
he alternately taught and worked as a librarian.
From 1888 the Hebrew language was his medium of expression, although he also wrote occasionally in Yiddish. He
contributed articles to Ha-Meliz (1899) and to Sefer ha-Sharon
(1891), a childrens book. From that time on, he concentrated
on storywriting, and was among the first to write stories of
social content in Hebrew. These were published successively
in the books Be-Z el ha-Kesef (1894), H attat ha-Z ibbur (1896),
Bat he-Ashir (1898), and in various Hebrew literary journals,
such as Ha-Shiloah and Luah Ah iasaf. His writings were a synthesis of his affinity with the common people, his interest in
socialism and Russian literature, and of his strong attachment
to the Jewish tradition and its cultural values an attachment
which, upon his arrival in Erez Israel, expressed itself both in
his personal ties with Rabbi A.I. *Kook and in his own inclination to religious observance.
In its entirety, Rabinovitzs prolific and varied output
numbers over 100 books and pamphlets, including original
works, translations, and adaptations. He popularized scientific
subjects in Hebrew, and for many years also wrote Hirhurim,
a regular column in Kunteres and Davar, which dealt with matters of concern to the labor movement. The first collection of
his stories and articles was published in 1904; the second and
38
[Mark Perlman]
RABINOVICH, YEHUDAH LEIB (Leon; 18621937), Hebrew writer, editor, and physicist; known by his pen name, Ish
Yehudi. Born in Brestovitz, Russia, Rabinovich studied medicine and physics. In 1887 he began to write popular articles on
science etc. in *Ha-Meliz and Keneset Yisrael. In 1890 he won
a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition for his inventions.
A collection of his articles appeared in Ha-Yerushah veha-H innukh (1903), and Yesod Leshon ha-Mikra (1939). In 1903
he published a Yiddish newspaper Bleter fun a Togbukh. Later
he served as editor of Ha-Meliz but was unable to adapt it to
the spirit of the times, and had to discontinue it in 1904. In his
later years he lived in poverty in Leningrad and contributed
articles to the Jewish press in the United States. His memoirs
appeared in Hadoar, 3 (1924), no. 1, pp. 78; no. 3, pp. 56).
Bibliography: Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 8167; R. Malachi, in: Hadoar, 17 (1938), 1823.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
[Akiva Zimmerman]
rabinowich, sarah
third volumes were published, in Erez Israel, in 191422. Some
of his stories were also published separately at various times.
Among his monographs are Jean Jacques Rousseau (1899);
Keter Torah (1911), on Rabbi Kook; Yosef H ayyim Brenner
(1922); and H ayyei L.N. Tolstoi (1924). He also wrote Toledot
ha-Sifrut ha-Ivrit li-Venei ha-Neurim (190610), a literary
history for youth; Toledot ha-Pedagogikah (1913) a history of
pedagogy from early times to the present; textbooks for Jewish
history; original and translated books for children and youth;
and Ha-Islam (1927) and Ha-Inkviziz yah (1930), popular histories. Encouraged by Bialik, he worked for many years on the
translation of the works of W. Bacher, among them Aggadot
ha-Tannaim (3 vols., 192023) and Aggadot Amoraei Erez Yisrael (191617, 2 pts.; 1925302, 5 vols.). In addition he edited
several literary collections, notably Yizkor (1912), commemorating Jewish laborers who fell in the course of their work
in Erez Israel. On his 80t birthday his collected works were
published in five volumes (193436).
Bibliography: Z. Fishman, in: Sefer Zikkaron le-Yovel haShivim shel A.S. Rabinovitz (1924), 323 (incl. bibl.). Add. Bibliography: D. Hoshen, Maaseh Tefillat ha-Em: Keriah Mashvah bein
Tefillat ha-Em shel Azar le-Maaseh shel Agnon, in: Mabua 35 (2001),
6575; 36 (2001), 6985.
[Getzel Kressel]
RABINOWICH, SARAH (Sonia; married name Margolin; 18801918), publicist, daughter of S.P. *Rabbinowitz. Born
in Berezin, province of Minsk, Sarah graduated in Germany in
1902 as a doctor of social sciences, her thesis dealing with the
organization of the Jewish working class in Russia. In 1903 she
was sent to Galicia on behalf of womens organizations against
white slavery, and together with Bertha *Pappenheim she
wrote a study on the situation of Galician Jewry and possible
steps towards an improvement of its social conditions. During 190405 she organized illegal political activities by workers against the military in Odessa and was arrested. Released
after a short time, she left for Germany where she continued
her political and publicistic work, writing in Russian, German,
and Yiddish. In her writings Rabinowich showed a special interest in the Jewish working class in Russia, the womens question within Jewry, Jewish education, and statistics. Her published works include Zur Lage des juedischen Proletariats in
Mohilew am Dnjepr, in: Die Welt (15.8.1902), no. 33:67 (Aug.
22,1902), no. 34, 46 (an extract of her Ph.D. thesis); The Life
of the Trade and Handcraft Classes in the Representation of
Peretz, in: Yevreyski Mir (1909, 6979); On the Jewish Question within Jewry, in: Yevreyski Mir (1909); On the Question
of the Training of Jewish Female Teachers, in: Vestnik obshchestva rasprostraneniya prosveshcheniya mezhdu evreyami
v Rossii (1911), no. 5, 2846); Die Heiraten von Juden im Europaeischen Russland vom Jahre 1867 bis 1902, in: Zeitschrift
fuer Demographie und Statistik der Juden (5 (1909), nos. 10,
11, 12); Die Heiraten von Juden in Russisch-Polen, ibid. (6
(1910), no. 4, 6164); Zur Statistik der juedischen Schulen in
Russland, ibid. (7 (1911), nos. 9, 12130); Zur Bildungsstatistik der juedischen Arbeiter in Ruland, ibid. (9 (1913), no. 11,
15360). During World War I Sarah was active in the German
Independent Labor Party and was again arrested. In a seizure
of depression she committed suicide in prison.
Bibliography: Rabbinowitz, in: Yidishe Shriftn, 3 (1939),
3456.
39
rabinowicz, oskar K.
RABINOWICZ (Kwasnik), OSKAR K. (19021969), financier, author, and Zionist. Born in Aspern, Austria, Rabinowicz
studied at Brno, Prague, and Berlin, later engaging in the gold
business. He was active in the Zionist Revisionist movement
and after 1933 became chairman of the Czechoslovak committee to boycott Nazi Germany. When the Germans occupied Prague in 1939, he barely managed to escape, though he
had helped 3,000 Jews leave Czechoslovakia for Palestine. He
went to England, living mainly in London, and became active
in communal life, being on the councils of Jews College and
the Jewish Historical Society. He was director of the AngloFederal Banking Corporation from 1946 to 1956. In 1956 he
settled in the U.S., where he was active in communal affairs,
particularly in the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Jewish Publication Society of America.
In his Prague period Rabinowicz wrote, among other
works, Einleitung in die Probleme des rituellen Schlachtens
(1937), in defense of sheh itah and edited his fathers Makor
Niftah (1938), a lexicographical Bible index. In England he
wrote Vladimir Jabotinskys Conception of a Nation (1946), submitted Chaim *Weizmanns autobiography Trial and Error to a
searching factual criticism in his Fifty Years of Zionism (1950),
and championed Herzl as the great figure in Zionism in his
Herzl, Architect of the Balfour Declaration (1958). Among his
other works is Winston Churchill on Jewish Problems (1956,
19602) and the posthumously published Arnold Toynbee on
Judaism and Zionism: A Critique (1974). He was one of the
initiators of the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews
and co-editor of The Jews of Czechoslovakia (vol. 1, 1968). His
literary work was based on his extensive library, which was
particularly rich in periodicals and works on Zionist and contemporary history. This was bequeathed to the National and
University Library, Jerusalem. Rabinowicz was a departmental
editor of the Encyclopaedia Judaica for Czech Jewish history.
His son, THEODORE K. RABB (1937 ), was a professor
of history at Princeton, specializing in 16t- and 17t-century
European history. His works include Enterprise and Empire
(1967), a study of merchant and gentry investment in early
English maritime ventures; The Struggle for Stability in Early
Modern Europe (1975); Industrialization and Urbanization
(1981); Renaissance Lives (1993); Origins of the Modern West
(1993); and the audiobook What If? (with J. Ober, 2001). He coedited Action and Conviction in Early Modern Europe (1969);
The New History, the 1980s and Beyond (1982); and The Making and Unmaking of Democracy (2002).
40
rabinowitz, stanley
to devote himself to communal affairs. Rabinowitz wrote a series of articles about the early Jewish settlers in South Africa
for the London Jewish Chronicle (1895).
Bibliography: L. Herrman, History of the Jews in South
Africa (1935), index; G. Saron and L. Hotz, The Jews in South Africa
(1955), index; I. Abrahams, The Birth of a Community (1955), index.
Add. Bibliography: J. Simon, The Reverend Joel Rabinowitz, and
Other Adventures of a Library Chairman (1996).
[Lewis Sowden]
RABINOWITZ, LOUIS MAYER (18871957), U.S. manufacturer and philanthropist. Rabinowitz, who was born in
Rosanne, Lithuania, immigrated to the U.S. in 1901. In 1916 he
established a corset manufacture company in New York. Rabinowitz subsequently became chairman of the corset industry
(1934) and director of the Business Mens Council (1935).
Active in Jewish community affairs, he was vice president
of the Hebrew National Orphan Home (1921), the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn, the American Jewish Historical Society, the
New York chapter of the America-Israel Society, and director
of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City (1935). A collector of books, manuscripts, and paintings, he gave much of his collection to the
New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Jewish Theological Seminary, and Yale University. Donating the Rabinowitz Fund for Judaica Research at Yale, he established a chair
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
RABINOWITZ, STANLEY (1917 ), U.S. rabbi and president of the Rabbinical Assembly. Born in Duluth, Ia., Rabinowitz received his B.A. from the State University of Iowa in
1939 and was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary
41
rabinowitz, yaakov
(1943). He began his career as an itinerant rabbi of congregations whose rabbis were away serving in the Armed Forces;
as director of the Midwest office of the Jewish Theological
Seminary; and then as director of field services for the United
Synagogue of America. For a time, he served as acting director of the United Synagogue.
In 1947 Rabinowitz assumed the pulpit of Bnai Jacob
Congregation in New Haven, Connecticut, where he served
for five years, and then moved to Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Minneapolis (195360) before coming to Adas Israel
Congregation in Washington, D.C., where he served for 26
years. As the rabbi of the largest Conservative congregation
in Washington, Rabinowitz often had Israeli ambassadors and
prominent national leaders in the pews. A champion of womens rights in Conservative Judaism, he initiated the bat mitzvah ceremony at his three congregations and counted women
in the minyan at Adas Israel well before it was sanctioned by
the Rabbinical Assembly.
He was instrumental in pushing for the desegregation of
Washington, D.C., encouraging building owners in his congregation to desegregate their facilities. He allowed and encouraged Adas Israel to hold multiple services on Shabbat
morning including a Havurah service and an Orthodox minyan. Adas Israel also did not follow the lead of many other
inner city synagogues that moved to the suburbs following
the 1968 riots.
Rabinowitz was also a national leader. Handsome and
charismatic, he was a well-respected orator; he chaired the
Committee on Synagogue Standards for the Rabbinical Assembly; and was later vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly in 197476 and then president in 197678. He represented
the Conservative movement in its confrontations with Prime
Minister Menah em Begin over an amendment to the *Law of
Return regarding non-Orthodox conversions. He also traveled to Egypt soon after Anwar Sadats path-breaking trip to
Jerusalem.
His national career was thwarted by a technicality of the
Rabbinical Assembly bylaws that limited the presidency to
two one-year terms. A leading candidate to be chairman of
the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization and thus the major spokesman of American Jews, his
nomination hinged on his remaining a third year as president
of the RA, at least until he secured the chairmanship of the
Conference. The timing was not propitious and Rabinowitz
became ineligible to serve as chairman since he was no longer president of a major American Jewish organization. Rabbi
Alexander *Schindler had used the bully pulpit of the chair to
advance his movements prominence. Since then no Conservative movement figure has had comparable influence.
Rabinowitz experience with the Israeli prime minister
convinced him that Conservative Judaism needed a strong
presence in Israel. He thus became founding president of the
Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement (MERCAZ) (19771985) and chaired the Rabbinic Cabinet of United
42
RABINOWITZ, YAAKOV (18751948), Hebrew journalist and author. Born in Volkovysk, Poland, Rabinowitz, after
teaching for several years in Vitebsk, left in 1900 for Switzerland, where he started to write. Upon his return to Russia
in 1904, he became active in Zionist affairs and began his
long career as journalist and author. From 1907 until his departure for Erez Israel in 1910, he was active in the *Odessa
Committee, becoming M.M. *Ussishkins principal aide. In
Erez Israel he first settled in Petah Tikvah, but moved to Tel
Aviv in 1923.
Rabinowitz became a regular contributor to Ha-Poel haZ air. Together with A. *Barash he founded the literary journal Hedim (1922), which became a forum for both the old and
young generations of writers and an outstanding expression
of the literary milieu in Erez Israel from the time of the Third
Aliyah. His own contributions consisted of monographs on
various authors. In addition, he wrote a regular column for
Davar, contributed to many literary periodicals, and published
translations. Among Rabinowitz books are Be-Ein Shoresh
(1914), a historical novel; Or va-Ed (1922), stories; Setav (1926),
poems; Nedudei Amasai ha-Shomer (2 vols., 1929), a story of
the Second Aliyah period; Neveh Kayiz (1934), a novel; and
Hassagot (1935), articles and essays. Y. Har-Even edited Rabinowitzs essays and published them with a biographical essay
under the title Maslulei Sifrut (1971).
Bibliography: Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 38. Add. Bibliography: Y. Keshet, Y. Rabinowitz, Mesapper shel Dor Maavar,
in: Moznayim, 32 (1971), 4551; Y. Hanani, Iyyun ba-Nose ha-Erez Yisraeli be-Sippurei Y. Rabinowitz, in: Katif, 8 (1971), 137152; G. Shaked,
Ha-Sipporet ha-Ivrit, 1 (1977), 46777; N. Govrin, Aggadah u-Mez iut
be-Nedudei Amasai ha-Shome, in: Bikkoret u-Farshanut, 910 (1977),
4791; N. Tamir-Smilanski, Tekhanim ve-Iz z uvim be-Sippurei Yaakov
Rabinowitz (1991).
[Getzel Kressel]
43
rabon, israel
extraordinary humility and modesty of its author, and 20 of
his letters.
Bibliography: A.I. Kook, Eder ha-Yakar (1906, 19672); J.
Gelis, Mi-Gedolei Yerushalayim (1967), 11635.
[Itzhak Alfassi]
44
race, theory of
tine in 1934, and on settling in Jerusalem in 1939 headed the
department of theoretical physics of the Hebrew University.
Here, Racah began his studies of atomic spectroscopy which
gained the department an international reputation. During the
Israel War of Independence he served as deputy commander
of the Haganah on Mount Scopus and led research on munitions that could be produced from the raw materials available in the besieged city. The Racah method of spectroscopy
has been recognized as one of the most effective methods
of studying all types of nuclear structure. His Racah coefficient W has wide application in research on nuclear radiations, and it is the basis of books of tables published by many
of the worlds leading scientific institutions. In 1958 Racah
was awarded the Israel Prize for natural sciences. His reputation attracted notable scientists to Israel, and the department
of nuclear physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science was
built up mainly by graduates trained by Racah. In 1961 Racah
was elected rector of the Hebrew University. He died while
visiting Florence.
Bibliography: PIASH, section of sciences, no. 2 (1966); I.
Talmi, in: Nuclear Physics, 83 (1966), 18, incl. bibl.; Journal of the Optical Society of America, 56 (Feb. 1966), 268.
RACE, THEORY OF. In the 18t century the founding fathers of anthropology almost all believed that the human
races differed in innate intelligence, or even in virtue. Obviously the idea of such racial differences is far older than the
first attempts at their scientific classification.
Early Beliefs
Primitive tribes who laid claim to particular genealogies, going back to legendary ancestors, developed these ideas in
their own way. In classical Greece, philosophers like Plato
and Aristotle were racists in the modern sense of the word:
according to Aristotle, the Greeks were born to be free while
the barbarians were slaves by nature. However, in the melting pot of Alexanders empire and later in the Roman empire,
belief in ethnocentrism faded; this was especially true of Stoic
philosophy. The Jewish tradition, with its majestic story of
Adam which furnished all men with a common ancestor, can
be considered the first historical example of a fundamentally
antiracist conception. On this subject the Talmud states: for
the sake of peace among creatures, the descent of all men is
traced back to one individual, so that one may not say to his
neighbor, my father is greater than yours (Sanh. 4:5). Belief
in a common descent from Adam was taken over by Christianity and became one of the fundamentals of the Christian
principle of the equality of all men before God. However, at
the same time, medieval society was divided into three estates commoners, clergy, and nobility superiority being
ascribed to the blue blood of the latter. As most of Europes
reigning monarchs were of Germanic origin, there was a tendency apparent from the earliest days to accord a measure of
preeminence to Germanic blood. Conflicts between such
conceptions of degree and the Christian universalist principle were particularly acute in the 16t-century Spanish empire. It was only after lengthy struggles and theological discussions that the Spaniards recognized the native races they
found in America as men endowed with souls. At the same
time, through statutes dealing with racial purity (limpieza de
sangre), a system of racial discrimination was instituted in
Spain, applying to the descendants of Jews and Moors who
had been converted to Christianity. In spite of their baptism,
the blood of these new Christians was considered impure
and their race inferior.
Eighteenth-Century Anthropological Theories
So, during the whole of European history, it is possible to
speak of latent, or even open, racial prejudice. The establishment of the anthropological sciences in the 18t century enabled these prejudices to be expressed systematically, and the
systems of classification worked out by the scientists Buffon
45
race, theory of
and Linnaeus were typical in this respect. Both men coupled
features (color of skin, type of hair, etc.) with mental and
moral characteristics, which were interpreted in favor of the
white man of Europe. Buffon, whose system was more overtly
racial than Linnaeus, even considered the white man as the
norm, the king of the creation, and colored men as members of degenerate races. The tendency to regard the white
race as superior characterized the majority of anthropological systems elaborated during the 18t and 19t centuries. The
rejection of biblical anthropology favored this trend, because
then it became possible to attribute different origins to different races. Thus, according to *Goethe, Adam was the ancestor
of the Jews only, while *Voltaire believed that black men were
an intermediate species between white men and apes. In the
18t century the major systems of classification (of which the
best known and least marred by racial value judgments was
that of Blumenbach) distinguished between only four or five
principal races. The Jews were usually included in the white
race, in whose midst they were supposed to form a nation sui
generis. But at the beginning of the 19t century, with the emergence of nationalist struggles, writers began to multiply the
number of races, to distinguish between different European
races and even to set one against the other. There was continuous interaction in this field between the mental climate of
the time, itself closely related to political upheavals, and the
current intellectual theories.
Nineteenth-Century Nationalism
From then on racist or quasiracist notions took root, especially
in Germany where nationalist agitators like E.M. Arndt and
F.L. Jahn extolled the merits and qualities of the Teutonic race.
The philosopher *Fichte elaborated a patriotic theory postulating that German was the original language (Ursprache) of
Europe and the Germans its original people (Urvolk). After
1815, many German students and academics propounded these
opinions as part of the Pan-Germanic movement. Ideas of the
same type also spread in other countries. After the restoration
of the monarchy in France some bourgeois intellectuals, reacting against the pretensions of the Frankish nobility, claimed
to belong to the native Gallic race. In Britain Germanism
or Teutonism found influential supporters in Carlyle and
Thomas Arnold. In more enlightened English circles the Hebrew race, which had given the West its spiritual values, was
championed by Benjamin *Disraeli: All is race, there is no
other truth was his maxim. In that age the concept of race
was espoused by numerous authors as a substitute for divine
providence as the determining factor in history. Germany continued to be the principal nursery of race theories reinforced
by scientific pretensions, partly because its political divisions
before 1871 stimulated nationalist fervor, and partly because
according to the most prevalent notions the Germans were
the only European nation which could claim to be a wholly
pure race, that is, purely Teutonic. Heinrich *Heine commented ironically: We Germans are the strongest and wisest
race; descendants of our princely house sit on all European
46
rachel
ously supported such theories, announced in 1871 that it was
absurd to speak of an Aryan race or of a grammar based on
the size of the head. However, the Aryan theory continued
to gain adherents among the general public. It was propagated
in every country in school textbooks, which usually summarily repeated ancient opinions and classified Europeans as Aryans, all except the Semitic Jews. The anti-Jewish campaigns,
from then on styled antisemitic, made their contribution to
the spread of the theory. As a result of all this, by 1900 the existence of an Aryan race was firmly established in the public
mind as a scientific truth. Usually, this only implied a vague
belief in the intellectual or moral superiority of the Aryans
over the Semites, and a more marked superiority of the
whites over the yellows and especially the blacks. But
in the arena of the violent antisemitic campaigns of the time,
some fanatics worked out elaborate eschatological systems in
which the struggle between the Aryan and Semitic races was
the counterpart of the final struggle between Good and Evil.
The most influential of these writers was the Anglo-German
Houston Stewart *Chamberlain, who stated that the original
sin of the Jews was that from ancient times they had been a
mixed race opposed to Aryan purity. Ingenuously, in the time
of King Cyrus, the Aryans had committed the fatal blunder
of protecting the Jews: under the protection of Aryan tolerance was planted the seed from which Semitic intolerance
spread its poison over the earth for thousands of years, a curse
on all that was noble and a shame to Christianity.
From the second quarter of the 20t century scientific
anthropology rid itself almost entirely of the dangerous error
of dividing the human races into superior and inferior, or
even good and bad. At that same time, however, in a defeated and disoriented Germany, gripped by unemployment,
this same error helped to weld a political party and then grew
into a state dogma. Thus, from 1933 the theory of race was
nothing but a kind of totemistic mythology, serving to justify
an imperialistic and murderous expansionism.
In the later part of the 20t century, all such theories of
race, whether applied to Jews or other groups, had been largely
dicredited by the scientific community.
47
Bibliography: M.F. Ashley Montagu, Mans Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (1942); H. Kohn, Idea of Nationalism
(1944); G.W. Allport, Nature of Prejudice (1954); UNESCO, Race Question in Modern Science (1957); L.L. Snyder, Idea of Racialism (1962);
L. Poliakov, Histoire de lAntismitisme de Voltaire Wagner (1968);
S. Conn and E.E. Hunt, Living Race of Man (1965); idem, The Origin
of Races (1962); idem, The Races of Europe (1939); idem, The Story of
Man (19622); A.R. Jensen, in: Harvard Educational Review, 39, no. 1
(Winter 1969), 1123; 39, no. 2 (Spring 1969), 273356; L. Edson, in:
The New York Times Magazine (August 31, 1969), 1011; M. Deutsch,
in: Harvard Educational Review, 39, no. 3 (Summer 1969), 52357.
[Lon Poliakov]
rachel
there is no unanimity as to the period involved. It is assumed
that at some stage in the development of the 12-tribe league,
the tribes associated with Rachel (Benjamin, Ephraim, and
Manasseh) and Bilhah (Dan and Naphtali) constituted a distinct confederation. The territory of Benjamin is, as a matter
of fact, contiguous with that of Ephraim. The attribution of
two tribes to the concubine Bilhah probably reflects their inferior status within the smaller confederation, while the birth
of Benjamin in Canaan would imply a late association of that
tribe with the others in the group. The very name can be interpreted as son of the south, which correctly describes the
location of Benjamins territory in Israel in relation to that of
the other members of the groups.
[Nahum M. Sarna]
In the Aggadah
Rachel warned Jacob that her cunning father would try dishonestly to wed her elder sister, Leah, to him. Jacob and Rachel therefore agreed upon a sign by which he would recognize her on the nuptial night. Nevertheless, when Laban
actually sent Leah into the bridal chamber, Rachel revealed
the sign to her sister lest she be put to shame. As a reward for
this act, Rachel was vouchsafed to be the ancestress of King
*Saul (Meg. 13b).
Rachel began to envy her sister after Leah had borne
Jacob four sons because she attributed this good fortune to her
sisters piety (Gen. R. 71:6). After she implored Jacob to pray
for the termination of her barrenness, he hinted that Sarah
was only blessed with Isaac because she brought her rival
[Hagar] into her home. Rachel thereupon gave her maidservant, Bilhah, to Jacob (Gen. R. 71:7). When she finally bore
a son, she was doubly thankful because she had feared that
Laban would permit only Leah to accompany Jacob to Erez
Israel, and would detain the childless wife (Gen. R. 73:3). She
was a prophetess and thus knew that Jacob was destined to
have only 12 sons. Since Joseph was the 11t, she prayed for only
one more son (Tanh . Va-Yez e, 20). One opinion is that she
stole her fathers teraphim in order to conceal the knowledge
of Jacobs flight (Pd RE 36); another is that the purpose was to
turn her father away from idolatry (Gen. R. 74:5). Jacobs unintentional curse against her on that occasion caused Rachels
premature death. The curse would have taken effect at once
were it not that she was destined to bear Jacob his youngest
son (Gen. R. 74:9; Pd RE 36).
She was not vouchsafed burial next to her husband in the
cave of Machpelah because of her indelicate request to Leah in
the mandrake incident (Gen. R. 72:3). Jacob buried her at Ephrath because he foresaw that the exiles would pass this place
when they were exiled to Babylon. As they passed, Rachel
would entreat Gods mercy for them (Gen. R. 82:10). Indeed,
it was only Rachel who was able to obtain Gods promise that
Israel would ultimately be restored after she pleaded with Him
to recall her kindness to Leah on the night that should have
been her own nuptial celebration (Lam. R., Proem 24).
[Aaron Rothkoff]
48
Tomb of Rachel
According to Genesis (35:1920), Rachel was buried on the
road to Ephrath, which is Beth-Lehem; according to I Samuel (10:2) the tomb of Rachel was situated within the border
of Benjamin, in Zelzah. The words of the prophet Jeremiah
(31:15) allude to the tomb of Rachel as being in the portion of
Benjamin. The rabbis who sought to correct this contradiction
saw an error in the order of the words in the construction of
the verse in the Book of Samuel. Among others, they suggested
the following correction: When thou goest from me today to
the border of Benjamin, to Zelzah, thou shalt find two men by
the tomb of Rachel (Gen. R. 82:10; Tosef., Sot. 11:11; Sif. Deut.
352). Some modern scholars read: When thou goest from me
today, thou shalt find two men within the border of Benjamin,
in Zelzah, and they shall say to thee: the she-asses which thou
went to seek by the tomb of Rachel have been found.
The tombstone near Beth-Lehem is mentioned by the
first Christians, e.g., Eusebius; the most ancient Jewish source
on the tomb of Rachel is the Guide to Jerusalem of the tenth
century, which was found in the Cairo *Genizah. According
to the descriptions of Jewish travelers, from R. Benjamin of
Tudela (c. 1170) until the 18t century, the tombstone consisted of 11 stones which were laid by the 11 sons of Jacob on
the grave; a large stone was placed over them, that of Jacob.
The tomb was roofed over with a dome which was supported
by four pillars. At the end of the 18t century the tomb was
surrounded by a closed structure. In 1841 this structure was
renovated with funds which were supplied by Sir Moses Montefiore. This is attested by an inscription engraved on a marble
tablet inside the structure.
The tomb is especially visited on the new moons, during
the whole of the month of Elul, and on the 14t of Marheshvan, the traditional anniversary of the death of Our Mother
Rachel. Jews donated oil, sacred curtains, and charity for the
tomb structure. They were also accustomed to inscribing their
names on the tombstone and measuring it with red woolen
threads, which were tied onto children and the sick as a remedy for good health and healing. During the Jordanian occupation, the area around the tomb was converted into a Muslim
cemetery. After the Six-Day War, the structure was renovated
by the Israel Ministry of Religions and adapted to mass pilgrimage. A picture of the Tomb of Rachel was commonly used
as a decoration in Jewish homes throughout the world.
[Joseph Braslavi (Braslavski)]
In the Arts
Of the four matriarchs Rachel has inspired the most original work in literature and art. In many instances she figures
largely as the wife of Jacob, but in others she appears as the
central character, often in connection with the theme of Jeremiah 31:15 A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamentation, and
bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; She refuseth
to be comforted for her children, Because they are not. The
account of Rachels marriage to Jacob forms the basis of three
early literary works, the German dramatist Christian Weises
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
rachel
Jacobs doppelte Heyrath (1683), the Swiss German Johann
Jacob Bodmers epic Jacob und Rachel (1752), and an anonymous Spanish allegorical play, La mas hermosa Rachel pastora
de las almas (c. 1780). Probably the outstanding 19t-century
treatment of the subordinate theme was Rachel (Rachels Lament, 1851), a verse allegory of the fate of his homeland by the
Hungarian nationalist poet Jnos Arany. Among works on the
subject written in the 20t century are Plach Rakhili (Rachels
Lament, c. 1923), by the Russian writer Nikolai Alexandrovich
Krasheninnikov; Rahel, a lyrical ballad by the German poet
Max Barthel, who later became sympathetic to the Nazis; and
Jacobs Ladder, one of Laurence Housmans Old Testament Plays
(1950), in which Rachel and Leah unendearingly squabble over
their claims to Jacobs affection. A Jewish treatment was that
by the Hebrew poet *Rah el, whose Shirat Rah el (Song of Rachel, 1935) includes the phrase Her voice sings in mine In
medieval Christian iconography, the two wives of Jacob, Leah
and Rachel, were associated with the New Testament figures
of Martha and Mary (representing the active and the contemplative life), since Rachel was preferred by Jacob as Mary
was preferred by Jesus. However, Rachel was not a popular
subject among artists of the Middle Ages. Interest revived in
the 15t century, when the meeting of Jacob and Rachel (Gen.
29:10ff.) was the subject of a pen-and-wash drawing by the
Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes (Christ Church, Oxford).
During the Renaissance, Palma Vecchio painted Jacob kissing
Rachel (Gen. 29:11), and there is a study of Jacob and Rachel
by Raphael in the Loggia of the Vatican. A painting by Hendrik Terbrugghen (National Gallery, London) shows Jacob
asking Laban for Rachels hand (Gen. 29:18). Claude Lorrain
painted an idyllic landscape with Jacob and Rachel (Hermitage, Leningrad). The robust nude by *Rembrandt, known as
Dana (Hermitage, Leningrad), may have been intended to
represent Jacobs unintended marriage to Rachels sister, Leah.
Jacobs appropriation of Labans household idols, which were
taken and hidden by Rachel (Gen. 31:3035), is depicted in
the seventh-century Ashburnham Pentateuch (Bibliothque
Nationale, Paris). This subject later appeared in the Vatican
Loggia frescoes by Raphael and in a tapestry by Barend van
Orley, one of a series recounting the story of Jacob. It was also
a popular subject in the 17t century. There are examples by the
French painter Sbastien Bourdon (Louvre), by the Spanish
master Murillo (Duke of Westminster Collection, London),
by the Dutch genre painter Jan Steen, and by Rembrandts
teacher Pieter Lastman. Among works of the 18t century is
a painting by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in the Louvre; and the
subject was included by Tiepolo in his wall paintings for the
archbishops palace at Udine, Italy.
In Music
Rachel has attracted rather less attention in music, although
she and Jacob have together inspired some compositions, notably a 16t-century motet by Joachim Burck (1599), some
17t-century Spanish songs, and a comic opera by Johann
Philipp Krieger (16491725). The oratorio Rachel was com-
49
rachel
his gift to his wife as a compensation for her suffering during
his absence (ARN1 6, 29).
Bibliography: L. Finkelstein, Akiba; Scholar, Saint, and
Martyr (1936), 22ff., 79ff.
ants were protected by rent control, but the owner of a property was free to raise rents to their market level once the previous occupant had vacated a building. Rachman hired thugs,
mainly recent West Indian migrants, to intimidate tenants, often elderly, into leaving, using threats and other unacceptable
tactics. It is believed that Rachman was one of the main progenitors of the race riots in Notting Hill and elsewhere in west
London in the late 1950s. Rachman dealt almost exclusively
in cash, operating from no fixed premises, which made him
immune from prosecution. He also became notorious for his
lifestyle of ostentatious luxury, philandering, and gambling. In
1960 he was denied British citizenship on police advice, which
resulted in his moving into more upmarket property pursuits
just before his death of a heart attack at the age of about 42.
After his death, when his methods became public knowledge,
Harold Wilson coined the term Rachmanism to describe his
racketeering, a term which has passed into common British
usage. Rachman was among the most notorious businessmen
in modern British history.
Bibliography: ODNB online.
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
RACHMILEWITZ, MOSHE (18991985), Israeli hematologist. Born in Mstislavl (Russia) and educated in Berlin, he
reached Palestine in 1926. He joined the Hadassah Department
of Internal Medicine in Jerusalem in 1931 and became its head
in 1939. One of the architects of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, he became professor in 1950 and served
as dean from 1957 to 1961. From 1960 he headed the Israel
Association for Hematology and Blood Transfusions and in
1964 was president of the first Congress of the Asian and Pacific Society of Hematology to be held in Israel. His research
work has centered on the metabolism of vitamin B-12 and folic acid, Mediterranean fever, liver diseases, the mechanisms
regulating blood creation, and nutritional anemia. He made
a significant contribution to the formulation of Israels health
policies as vice chairman of the National Health Council, and
internationally as a member of the World Health Organizations Expert Committee on Nutritional Anemia. In 1964, he
was awarded the Israel Prize in Medicine.
[Lucien Harris]
RACINE, JEAN (16391699), French tragic dramatist. Racines reputation rests on nine tragedies in Alexandrine verse
written between 1667 and 1691. There is no record of his having any personal knowledge of Jews, but the heroines speech
in Esther (1689) makes his sympathy for them clear enough.
A reference in the preface to Esther to the modern celebration
of Purim also shows an awareness of Jewish customs. Racines
profound knowledge of the Scriptures and its application to
his work can be traced to his Jansenist education at Port-Royal
(165558), where he first met Blaise *Pascal and enjoyed semiprivate tutoring by such scholars as Louis-Isaac Le Matre de
Saci (161584), the translator and Bible commentator, and Jean
50
rackman, emanuel
Hamon (161887), author of a four-volume commentary on
the Song of Songs (1708). Racine obtained the most thorough
grounding in the Scriptures then available in France, but did
not learn Hebrew. His knowledge of Midrash and Targum and
Jewish traditions were derived from the works of the contemporary Christian Hebraists Matthew Poole, John *Lightfoot,
and Richard *Simon. Racines Phdre (1677), though based
on classical myth, involves Judeo-Greek syncretism. Phaedras pangs of conscience can only be understood within the
framework of biblical law and a biblical conception of mans
relationship to the Deity. The biblical tragedies (Esther, 1689;
Athalie, 1691) are less religious in implication than Phdre,
and partake of the rationalist spirit that pervaded French intellectual society at the end of the 17t century. Like most of
Racines plays, Esther depicts only the last part of the story,
stressing midrashic, apocryphal, and original elements Ahasuerus dream, Esthers prayer, and an intimate conversation
between Haman and his wife. Hamans pathetic supplication
to the queen, Esthers refusal of pardon, and her silence when
the king falsely accuses Haman of attempting to rape her are
given far more emphasis in Racines play than in the biblical narrative. David *Franco-Mendes, who pointed out that
Racines last great tragedy supports Queen Athaliah in her
struggle against God, intended his Hebrew melodrama Gemul
Atalyah (Amsterdam, 1770) as a reply to the French author.
Racine makes the high priest Joad (the biblical Jehoiadah) a
prophet of heroic faith, who foresees on stage the criminal
career of his Davidic protg, yet unflinchingly sacrifices his
own son to his messianic hopes.
A Hebrew verse translation of Esther by Solomon Judah
*Rapoport, entitled Sheerit Yehudah, was published in Vienna
in 1827 in Bikkurei ha-Ittim, 7, 171254. Athalie was twice translated into Hebrew, first by Meir ha-Levi *Letteris (1835), and a
century later by Elijah Meitus (1950). A two-volume English
translation by Samuel Solomon of Racines complete plays appeared in New York in 1968.
RACKMAN, EMANUEL (1910 ), U.S. Orthodox rabbi, educator, and author. Rackman was born in Albany, New York.
His father, Rabbi David Rackman, was an early rosh yeshivah
at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS).
Rackman studied at Columbia University where he received
his B.A. Phi Beta Kappa, his law degree, and a Ph.D. in political
science, and at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
(see *Yeshiva University) where he was ordained in 1934. He
served congregations in Glen Cove (193036) and Lynbrook
(193643), New York, and was a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force
(194346), later attaining the rank of colonel in the reserves.
He was in Europe at the time of the liberation of the concentration camps, an experience that shaped his desire to make
use of his rabbinical ordination to rebuild the Jewish people.
In 1946 he became the rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Tefila
of Far Rockaway, New York, and in 1967 succeeded to the
rabbinate of Manhattans Fifth Avenue Synagogue, replacing
Rabbi Immanuel Jacobwitz, who had been named chief rabbi
of the United Kingdom. Rackman was prominently identified
with the modern Orthodox group within American Orthodoxy, and was particularly concerned with understanding the
meaning of the halakhah in order to find contemporary applications. He took issue with those who he claimed have frozen
Jewish law and refused to solve current problems within its
framework. Rackman also held that Orthodox rabbis and institutions should cooperate with the non-Orthodox and could
participate in organizations which contained all the divisions
of American Jewry. Rackman was also a leading figure in the
Far Rockaway Jewish community and was instrumental in
making it an important center for Orthodoxy. He also taught
political science and served as assistant to the president of
Yeshiva University (196270), a professor of political science
and jurisprudence, and later a University Professor at Yeshiva
where he served as provost, and professor of Jewish studies
at the City University of New York (197177). Rackman was
president of the New York Board of Rabbis (195557) and the
Rabbinical Council of America (195860), and a member of
the executive of the Jewish Agency. In 1977 Rackman was appointed president of Bar-Ilan University and became chancel-
51
52
rademacher, franz
been used). After Radauti became an independent community it established its own institutions. The Jewish population
numbered 3,452 in 1880 (30.9 of the population), and 6,000
in 1914. In 1888 there were in Radauti eight prayer-houses
(shtiblekh) in addition to the central synagogue. In that year
523 heads of families were registered in the community.
H asidism had a strong influence on Jewish life in Radauti,
especially the *Vizhnitz, *Bojan, and *Sadagora dynasties.
The H asidim held services in their own kloyzen and were
frequently the cause of local disputes in their opposition to
Zionism. There had been adherents of Zionism in Radauti
from the beginning of the *Bilu movement, and in 1892 a local group Ahavat Zion was founded. The movement gained
headway in the early 20t century. When the city was incorporated in Romania (1918) the Zionist parties began to exert an active influence on municipal and communal affairs.
Members of the *Bund were also active on the municipal and
community councils. A Hebrew school, which maintained a
kindergarten and adult courses, was supported by the community. From 1919 to 1926 a private Jewish high school also functioned in Radauti. In 1930 the community numbered 5,647
(about 31 of the total population). Among rabbis of Radauti
were Eliezer Lipmann Kunstadt (officiated 18941907); Jacob
Hoffmann (191223); and the Hebrew author and scholar Jacob
Nacht (192528).
Holocaust and Contemporary Periods
Romanian antisemites increased their agitation in 1939, and
in October 1941 the Jews of Radauti, numbering 4,763 (32 of
the total population), were deported to death camps. In 1942
there were only 42 Jews remaining in the city.
Some survivors made their way back in 1944, and by
1947 there were as many as 6,000 Jews living in the city. The
Zionist movement regained strength after World War II (until the government decided to dissolve it in 1949). New communal and welfare institutions were established with the aid
of overseas organizations, such as *OSE, the American Jewish
Joint Distribution *Committee, and the World Jewish *Congress, but their activities gradually decreased. From 1948 the
community dwindled through emigration to Israel and other
countries. In 1971 only 700 Jews remained in the city (3.5 of
the total population). Some communal activity continued,
however, including the holding of Sabbath and holiday services in the central synagogue.
Bibliography: H. Gold (ed.), Geschichte der Juden in der
Bukowina, 2 vols. (195862), index.
[Yehouda Marton]
lution broke out in February 1917, Radek was one of those who
accompanied Lenin on his famous journey from Switzerland
through Germany to Sweden in a sealed railroad car. He remained in Sweden as a representative of the Bolshevik Party,
but after the October Revolution he returned to Russia and
became head of the Central European section of the Foreign
Affairs Commissariat. In 1918, when revolution broke out in
Germany, Radek entered the country secretly and helped to
organize the first congress of the German Communist Party.
In 1920 he proposed and supported the idea of a united front
of the German Communists and Social Democrats. He was
arrested in February 1919 but was released at the end of the
year. He was one of the leaders of the group which opposed
the Brest-Litovsk agreement with Germany. He returned to
the U.S.S.R. and in 1922 became a leading official of the Communist International. In this capacity he maintained contact
with communist-oriented Zionists of the left *Poalei Zion
faction who applied for admission into and recognition by
the Communist International. In 1924, however, he joined the
Trotskyite opposition and in 1927 was expelled from the party
and banished to the Ural mountains. He was readmitted in
1930 on renouncing his adherence to the Trotskyists. Just before his banishment he had served for a year as rector of the
Sun Yat-Sen University for Chinese students in Moscow.
In the 1930s Radek was an influential writer and speaker
on international affairs and was a regular contributor to Pravda
and Izvestia. He was the coauthor of the draft of the so-called
Stalin constitution of the U.S.S.R. (1936). Radeks writings include In den Reihen der deutschen Revolution 19091919 (1921)
and many articles on literature and the theater. In 1937 Radek
was arrested and charged with complicity in plots against the
Soviet government. At a show trial which received worldwide
publicity, with the prisoners compelled to make dramatic and
abject confessions, he was convicted of being an enemy of the
people and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. On
May 19, 1939, he was killed by criminal prisoners in the prison,
probably by the order of the leadership. In 1988 he was rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. A selection of
his works, Portraits and Pamphlets, appeared in 1935.
Bibliography: L. Schapiro, The Communist Party of the
Soviet Union (1960), index; E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution
19171923, 3 (1966), index; idem, Socialism in One Country, 3, Pt. 2
(1964), index; D. Collard, Soviet Justice and the Trial of Radek and
Others (1937); R. Conquest, Great Terror (1968), index.
RADEK (Sobelsohn), KARL (18851939?), Russian revolutionary and publicist. Born in Lemberg, Radek was a member of the Polish Social Democratic Party, for which he wrote
many articles. Before World War I he was also active as a publicist for the left wing of the German Social Democratic Party.
During the war he played a prominent part in the Zimmerwald and Kintal pacifist conferences. After the Russian Revo-
53
State Laws for California 194148. Upon his death his library
went to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Radins work as
a scholar and teacher ranged through law, philosophy, history,
linguistics, anthropology, and literature. He was known as one
of the chief proponents of legal realism.
The principal works in which he propagated his views are
The Law and You (1947); Stability in Law (1944); Law as Logic
and Experience (1940); and The Law and Mr. Smith (1938). His
first interest was in the relationship of morals and ethics to
commercial occupations. One of his first publications was The
Legislation of the Greeks and Romans on Corporations (1909).
Related works are Lawful Pursuit of Gain (1931) and Manners
and Morals of Business (1939). Radin was deeply concerned
with the political events of his time. In The Day of Reckoning
(1943), he expounded his thoughts on the war crimes trials,
then in the planning stage, and he also wrote on the treatment
of the Nisei (American-born citizens of Japanese descent)
of California during World War II. His pervasive interest in
legal history found expression in his Handbook of AngloAmerican Legal History (1936) and Handbook of Roman Law
(1927), and numerous works on Jewish law and history, including: The Life of the People in Biblical Times (1929), The
Trial of Jesus of Nazareth (1931), and his unpublished Bibliography of Jewish Law.
Bibliography: American Historical Review, 56 (1950), 58.
[Albert A. Ehrenzweig]
RADIN, MAX (18801950), U.S. jurist, teacher, and legal historian. Son of Adolph *Radin, he was born in Kempen, Russian Poland. He taught in public schools and then at Columbia
University (191819). He was professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley from 1919 to 1948. Among his
many offices and positions, he was Commissioner on Uniform
54
radnti, miklos
in such works as The Method and the Theory of Ethnology
(1933, 19662).
Radins life style was that of a liberated cosmopolitan
intellectual, and evinced humanistic skepticism toward our
culture-bound arrogance vis--vis the primitives. His Enlightenment perspective stimulated his immersion in the intellectual world of the primitive and his defense of the primitive mentality as against denigration of it by *Levy-Bruhl as
prelogical. While admitting, in Primitive Man as Philosopher
(1927), that primitive mentality differs in degree, he noted that
its reaction patterns evince regularity, uniqueness, individuality, and depth, and betray neither linguistic nor conceptual
inadequacy. He devoted much study to the phenomena of
religion, especially the God concept among primitives, as in
Primitive Religion (1937) and The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology (1956).
His synthesis of the objective and subjective worlds of
the primitive culminated in an apologia for pristine civilizations, and he stressed the virtues found therein viz., their
respect and concern for the individual and their impressive
social and political organization.
His deeply felt insight that the universal human drama is
enacted in primitive societies was set forth in The Road of Life
and Death: A Ritual Drama of the American Indians (1945) and
in his other studies of the Winnebago Indians.
Bibliography: S. Diamond (ed.), Culture in History, Essays
in Honor of Paul Radin (1960).
[Ephraim Fischoff]
RADISH, a vegetable, the Raphanus raphanistrum; not mentioned in the Bible, despite the fact that it is one of the ancient
plants of the Mediterranean region. Herodotus reports that
the large sum spent on radishes for the pyramid workers was
inscribed on the pyramid of Cheops. In Israel it is found as
a weed. In the Mishnah it is called z enon and in the Gemara
it is called pugla (Akk., puglu). The radish tuber was regarded
as a healthy vegetable but its leaves as harmful (Er. 56a). It is
a winter plant difficult to grow in Israel in the summer, and it
is therefore related of the emperor Antoninus and Judah
ha-Nasi that radish was not absent from their tables even
in summer (Ber. 57b). From the radish seeds an oil was extracted which the Mishnah (Shab. 2:2) declares invalid as
fuel for the Sabbath lamp. In the Tosefta (ibid.) however, a
tanna contends against those forbidding its use: What shall
the people of Alexandria do who possess only radish oil?
The radish is very like the rape, called nafos or nafoz in the
Mishnah. According to the Jerusalem Talmud (Kil. 1:5, 27a)
they are regarded as belonging to different species in spite of
their similarity.
RADNTI, MIKLOS (19091944), Hungarian poet. Radnti, born in Budapest and an orphan from childhood, was
converted to Christianity. He trained to become a teacher, but
because of his Jewish origin was prevented from taking up a
post. He spent his last years in Hungarian army labor camps.
Radntis writings are overshadowed by World War II and the
social crises of the Horthy regime. His early poetry is filled
with surrealistic influences, but over the years, as the atrocities of the Holocaust increased, it became pure enough to be
defined as neoclassicist.
His verse collections include Pogny ksznt (Pagan
Salute, 1930), jhold (New Moon, 1935), Meredek t (Steep
Way, 1938), and the autobiographical Ikrek hava (Under the
Sign of Gemini, 1940). Two verse collections that appeared
after World War II were Radnti. Mikls versei (The Poems
of Mikls Radnti, 1948), and Radnti, Mikls sszes versei
s mfordtsai (Translations and Poems of Mikls Radnti, 1963).
55
rad, antal
His last book, Tajtkos g (Stormy Skies), published in
1946, contains poems found in his pocket as he lay in a mass
grave at Abda. They accurately prophesy the circumstances
of his death. Radnti, who has come to be considered one of
the most important Hungarian lyric poets, was also a skilled
translator.
Bibliography: Magyar Irodalmi Lexikon, 2 (1965), 5439; L.
Madcsi, Radnti Mikls (Hung., 1954).
[Itamar Yaos-Kest]
His Collected Papers (Psychoanalysis of Behavior) appeared in 1956 and 1962 and Adaptational Psychodynamics:
Motivation and Control in 1969. Rado also co-edited Changing Concepts of Psychoanalytic Medicine (1956).
Bibliography: F. Alexander, in: F. Alexander et al. (eds.),
Psychoanalytic Pioneers (1966), 2408 (incl. bibl.); New Perspectives in
Psychoanalysis: Sandor Rado Lectures 19571963 (1965), viviii. Add.
Bibliography: P. Roazen and B. Swerdloff, Heresy: Sandor Rado
and the Psychoanalytic Movement (1995).
[Louis Miller / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
RAD, ANTAL (18621944), Hungarian journalist and translator. Born in Mr, Rad wrote for newspapers during his student days and in 1885 became a parliamentary stenographer.
He eventually became director of the stenographic bureau.
Known mainly as a translator of classics of Western literature, he wrote many books: A magyar mfordits trtnete,
17721831 (History of Hungarian Literary Translation, 1883),
Az olasz irodalom trtnte (History of Italian Literature,
1896), and a biography of Dante (1907). When Germany occupied Hungary, Rad committed suicide.
RADO, SANDOR (18901972), psychoanalyst. Born in Hungary, Rado became secretary of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic
Society in 1913 during the presidency of Sandor *Ferenczi. In
1922 he was analyzed by Karl *Abraham in Berlin and from
1926 to 1930 was secretary of the German Psychoanalytic Society, playing an active part in organizing the training curriculum there. Sigmund *Freud appointed him managing
editor of the Internationale Zeitschrift fuer Psychoanalyse in
1924 and three years later managing editor of Imago. In 1931,
at the invitation of A.A. *Brill, Rado moved to the U.S., where
he organized the New York Psychoanalytical Institute on the
Berlin model. In 1944 Rado was appointed professor of psychiatry and head of Columbia Universitys pioneering psychoanalytic institute. He was subsequently professor of psychiatry at New York State University (195658) and from 1958 he
organized a progressive teaching program in the New York
School of Psychiatry.
Rados contributions to psychiatry were threefold: in
the sphere of classical psychodynamics; the quest for a basic
conceptual system of mind; and the development of adaptational psychodynamics. In his early writings, which included
two works on the problem of melancholia, Rado revealed his
search for psychological realities rather than abstractions. His
research into drug addiction developed the concept of alimentary orgasm (later, narcotic elation) replacing genital
satisfaction. During the years 193345, in his search for generally valid conceptual schemata, Rado wrote papers on the fear
of castration in women (Die Kastrationsangst des Weibes, 1934)
and the concept of bisexuality. His work culminated in his
writings on adaptational psychodynamics. Rado questioned
the therapists exclusive preoccupation with the patients past.
He felt that the exploration of the past should be the beginning of an emotional reeducation of the patient in relation
to his past and his adaptation to present reality.
56
Holocaust Period
In 1939 over 30,000 Jews, comprising 30 of the total population, lived in Radom. During the German occupation it was
the capital of the Radom District in the General Government.
The German army entered the city on Sept. 8, 1939, and immediately subjected the Jewish population to persecution. During the first months of German occupation, about 2,000 Jews
from the Poznan and Lodz provinces were expelled to Radom.
In turn, 1,840 Jews from Radom were expelled to the smaller
towns in the Kielce Province (December 1939). In August
about 2,000 young men and women were deported to slave
labor camps, where almost all of them perished. In March
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
radomsko
1941 a decree for the establishment of the ghetto was issued
and by April 7, 1941, the entire Jewish population was concentrated in two separate ghettos. At the beginning of 1942 the
Nazis conducted a number of terror actions within the ghettos, among them an action of February 19 (bloody Thursday)
when 40 men were shot, and on April 28, when 70 men were
killed and hundreds deported to the concentration camp in
*Auschwitz. On Aug. 5, 1942, the smaller ghetto was liquidated
and its inhabitants (almost 10,000 people) were deported to
*Treblinka death camp. On Aug. 617, 1942, the larger ghetto
was liquidated and its 20,000 Jews dispatched for extermination. Within the part of the ghetto that was transformed into
a slave labor camp (the small ghetto), only about 4,000 Jews
remained. On Dec. 4, 1942, about 800 inmates of this camp
were deported to Szydlowiec and afterward exterminated. On
Jan. 13, 1943, another 1,500 prisoners were deported to Treblinka. On Nov. 8, 1943, the prisoners of the small ghetto
were transferred to the newly established forced labor camp
in the town. On July 26, 1944, all but 300 prisoners were deported to Auschwitz, where only a handful survived. The last
300 prisoners were liberated on Jan. 16, 1945.
At the time of the mass deportations in August 1942,
hundreds of Jews fled to the forests to organize guerrilla units.
Such units were composed mostly of persons who escaped
from Radom. All the partisans fell in battles with the Germans. Many who escaped from Radom reached Warsaw and
took part in the Polish Warsaw uprising (August 1944). In the
whole Radom District 380,000 Jews lost their lives during the
German occupation, according to figures of the Radom Regional Commission to investigate Nazi Crimes. A few hundred
Jews settled in Radom for a short time after World War II, but
soon left due to the hostility of the Polish population. Organizations of former Radom residents exist in Israel, the United
States, Canada, France, and Australia. There were seven Jews
living in Radom in 1965.
Holocaust Period
Under the German occupation, Radomsko was incorporated
into the *Radom district of the General Government. When
the German army entered the city on Sept. 3, 1939, they immediately began a campaign of terror against the Jewish population. On Dec. 20, 1939, a decree was issued establishing a
closed ghetto in Radomsko into which all the Jews from the
surrounding districts were also concentrated. In consequence,
the Jewish population of the Radomsko ghetto increased despite the high mortality due to starvation and epidemics. Two
especially severe epidemics of typhus broke out during the
early winter of 1940 and in January 1941. In June 1941 the authorities reduced the area of the ghetto, thus aggravating the
living conditions there. On Oct. 9, 1942, an Aktion was carried out, and in the course of the following three days almost
the entire Jewish population was deported to *Treblinka death
camp where they perished. About 500 Jews and seven houses
remained in the Radomsko ghetto (including some 200 Jews
living there illegally). During the deportations hundreds of
Jews from Radomsko and thousands from the surrounding
districts escaped to the forests, many joining Jewish guerrilla
groups which rapidly organized. They encountered severe ob-
57
[Stefan Krakowski]
Bibliography: Halpern, Pinkas, index; A. Rutkowksi, in:
BIH, 1516 (1955), 75182; 1718 (1956), 1068; Sefer Milh amot haGettaot (19542), index; Sefer Radom (1961), a memorial book published in Heb. and Yid.
58
who was killed at the same time, were collected in the book
Shivh ei Kohen (1953).
Bibliography: I.M. Rabinowitz, Ohel Shelomo (1924); idem,
Ateret Sholomo (1926); A. Marcus (Verus), Der Chassidismus (1901),
3635; Sefer Yizkor le-Kehillat Radomsk ve-ha-Sevivah (1967), 2226,
75106, 1104.
[Zvi Meir Rabinowitz]
radymno
Tales of the Hasidim, 2 (1966), 2005; R. Mahler, Ha-H asidut ve-haHaskalah (1961), 3035,30711.
[Esther (Zweig) Liebes]
RADOSHKOVICHI (Pol. Radoszkowice), town in Molodechno district, Belarus; within Poland until the partitions
and between the two world wars. The Jewish community was
established in the 16t century. The Jews numbered 455 in
1765; 1,701 in 1847; 1,519 (58.9 percent of the total population)
in 1897; and 1,215 (49.4 percent) in 1925. The Jews earned their
livelihood from trading at the annual fair, dealing in wood and
cereals (exported to Germany and even Hungary), local retail
trade, and crafts. In the town there was also a brewery, a brick
factory, flour mills, and small tanneries. Many families earned
their living from cultivating orchards on behalf of non-Jewish farmers and landowners. In the 1920s and 1930s the Jewish
economy suffered and there was considerable poverty as a result of the poor returns, the heavy taxes, and the competition
of non-Jews who were supported by the Polish government.
The local Jewish peoples bank made considerable efforts to assist the community in its economic struggle. The members of
the community were largely *Mitnaggedim, but local H asidim
had two prayer rooms. Pioneers from Radoshkovichi were
among the first members of the Third *Aliyah. After World
War I, Zionist youth movements were very active and a *HeH alutz training farm was established. In 192122 Radoshkovichi (then on the Polish-Russian border) was a transit station
for the Jewish refugees returning from Soviet Russia to their
homes in Poland. Communal institutions included a *Tarbut
school, and a Hebrew library named after the poet Mordecai
Z evi *Manne, a native of Radoshkovichi. Among the communitys rabbis were Abraham b. Judah Leib *Maskileison, Meir
b. Joshua Z evi Rabinsohn, who settled in Palestine in his old
age, and his son, Joseph Zundel, the last rabbi of Radoshkovichi. Notable natives of the town included Israel Rivkai-Rubin,
educator and author; Mordecai Rabinsohn, Hebrew critic; and
Naphtali Maskileison, poet and Talmud scholar.
[Dov Rabin]
Holocaust Period
At the outbreak of World War II there were about 1,200 Jews
in Radoshkovichi. On Sept. 18, 1939, the Red Army entered the
town and a Soviet administration was established there. The
Germans occupied the town on June 25, 1941. A Judenrat was
appointed and the Jews were compelled to pay heavy contributions. An Aktion took place on March 11, 1942, when 800
Jews were killed, 200 escaped, and 50 were shot while trying to
flee; 110 were left as skilled artisans. After this Aktion, a ghetto
was established for the remaining Jews. The Jewish community
was liquidated on March 7, 1943, when the remaining 260 Jews
were burned alive in a barn. During the liquidation, about 50
Jews succeeded in escaping to the nearby forests, where they
joined the Revenge partisan unit. After the war the Jewish
community of Radoshkovichi was not reconstituted.
Bibliography: I. Rubin and M. Rabinsohn (eds.), Radoshkovich, Sefer Zikkaron (1965); Unzer Hilf (1932). Add. Bibliog-
RADUN (Pol. Radu; Yid. Radin), a town in Grodno district, Belarus. Originally a Polish royal estate, Radun became
important in the 16t century because it was situated on the
main road between Cracow and Vilna. Jews were still forbidden to live there in 1538 and Jewish farmers who cultivated
lands in the vicinity exerted their influence to have Radun
granted municipal status so that they would not be expelled.
In 1623 the Council of the Province of Lithuania (see Councils of the *Lands) made the Radun community subordinate
to that of Grodno. In 1765 there were 581 poll tax-paying Jews
in Radun and district; in the town itself there were 283 Jews
in 1847; 896 (53.3 percent of the total population) in 1897; and
671 (53.5 percent) in 1925. The center of Radun spiritual life
was the yeshivah founded in 1869 by *Israel Meir ha-Kohen
(the H afez H ayyim). Its fame was widespread and the 300 students came from far and near. In 1940 most of the yeshivah
students were transferred to United States via Japan. The Jews
of Radun earned their livelihood from commerce, crafts, and
agriculture; in the 1920s, 12 percent of the 200 members of the
Jewish cooperative bank were farmers. In 1922 the *Yekopo
relief society in Vilna gave loans to 19 farms, covering an area
of 420 dessiatines (1,134 acres).
[Dov Rabin]
Holocaust Period
Before the outbreak of World War II, there were about 800
Jews in Radun. In September 1939 the Red Army entered the
town and a Soviet administration was established there until
the outbreak of the German-Soviet war. The Germans occupied the town on June, 30, 1941. In October a ghetto was established containing 1,700 persons, from neighboring towns:
Dowgielishki, Zablocie, Zirmun and Nacha. A large-scale Aktion took place on May 10, 1942, when 1,000 Jews were killed,
300 escaped to the forests, some joining partisan units; the
remaining skilled artisans were sent to Szczuczyn and from
there, after a while, to their deaths in an unknown place. After the war the Jewish community of Radun was not reconstituted.
Bibliography: S. Dubnow (ed.), Pinkas ha-Medinah (1925),
1718; A. Rivkes, in: Life, 1 (1951), 653; Unzer Hilf, 13 (192123); Yahadut Lita, 3 (1967), 5758.
[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
59
RADZINOWICZ, SIR LEON (19061999), British criminologist. Born in Poland to affluent parents, Radzinowicz
lectured at the University of Geneva from 1928 to 1931. In
1932 he began teaching at the Free University of Warsaw and
in 1936 was appointed an assistant professor. Two years later
he made a study of the English penal system on behalf of the
Polish Ministry of Justice. He and his wife remained in England at the outbreak of World War II, living in Cambridge. In
1946 he was named assistant director of research at the University of Cambridge and in 1949 director of the department
of criminal science, a post he held for ten years. From 1959 to
1973, he was Wolfson professor of criminology at Cambridge,
and from 1960 was director of the Institute of Criminology
which he had founded.
Radzinowicz held many important offices in the field
of law and criminology, among them, head of the Social Defense Section of the United Nations and a member of the
Royal Commission on Capital Punishment in the Advisory
Council on the Penal System of the Home Office and president of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences (196061).
He served on many British inquiries and committees into
crime and prison policy and was knighted in 1970. Radzinowicz made a major contribution by his research in the trends
of legal thought which led to modern concepts in the administration of justice which were adopted in many of the democratic countries. Among his most significant works are History
of English Criminal Law (4 vols. 194868), In Search of Criminology (1961), The Need for Criminology (1965), and Ideology
and Crime (1966). From 1940 he was the editor of 33 volumes
of English Studies in Criminal Science, called later Cambridge
Studies in Criminology. Radzinowicz converted to Christianity prior to World War II. He was generally regarded as the
most influential British academic criminologist and historian
of crime of his time. Radzinowicz wrote an autobiography,
Adventures in Criminology (1999).
Add. Bibliography: ODNB online.
60
Holocaust Period
In 1939 the Jewish population numbered more than 3,000.
As a result of the Soviet-German partition of Poland, the Red
Army entered the city on Sept. 19, 1939. The Soviet authorities
conducted a survey to determine how many of the refugees
wished to return to the German-occupied zone. All those who
declared that they wished to do so were deported in the summer of 1940 to the Soviet interior. After June 22, 1941, when
war broke out between Germany and the U.S.S.R., groups of
Jews retreated with the Red Army, but were turned back by
the Soviet border patrol at the old Soviet-Polish border. Most
of these Jews returned to Radziwillow.
On June 27, 1941, the city was captured by the Germans. In
the first few weeks the Jewish population suffered damage to life
and property at the hands of the Ukrainian police and population. On July 15, 1941, 28 Jews were killed for being dangerous
Communists. The following day the Germans set the synagogue aflame and burned the Torah scrolls. On April 9, 1942,
a ghetto was established for 2,600 Jews, and divided into two
categories: fit and unfit for labor. Only about 400 persons
were found to be fit. On May 29, 1942, an Aktion took place
and some 1,500 persons were killed near the city. After this Aktion the youth attempted to organize; at the head of one of these
underground organizations was Asher Czerkaski. A second Aktion took place on Oct. 5, 1942, and hundreds of persons were
killed in Suchodoly. Under the assumption that this was a final
Aktion mass suicides were committed and some 500 Jews broke
out of the ghetto and succeeded in reaching the forests, but only
50 of them survived; some reached Brody, where a ghetto still
existed, but later they also perished.
[Aharon Weiss]
Bibliography: B. Wasiutaski, Ludno ydowska w Polsce
w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 85; I. Schiper, Dzieje handlu ydowskiego
na ziemiach polskich (1937), index; Radzivilov; Sefer Zikkaron (Heb.
and Yid., 1966).
radzynski, jan
RADZYMIN (Rus. Radimin), town in Warszawa province, E.
central Poland. Founded during the middle of the 17t century
as a private town by a privilege granted by King Ladislaus IV
of Poland, it grew rapidly during the 19t century as a result of
Jewish enterprise. The synagogue was erected in 1840. There
were 432 Jews (about 33 of the total population) in Radzymin
in 1827, 1,278 (c. 70) in 1856, 2,133 (c. 53) in 1897, 2,209 (55
of the population) in 1921, and 3,559 (52.6) in 1931. Radzymin
was a center of H asidism, and during the 19t century it was
the home of Jacob Aryeh Guterman, founder of the *Radzymin dynasty of z addikim. A yeshivah which gained renown
was also established by the dynasty in Radzymin. Zionists
played an important role in the public life of the town and
in the municipal elections of 1927 they won seven of the ten
seats reserved for Jews. The community council, elected in
1931, included six Zionists and two members of Agudat Israel.
Among religious, educational, and charitable institutions in
Radzymin was the Linat ha-Z edek (Hospice for the Poor)
established in 1910.
[Shimshon Leib Kirshenboim]
Holocaust Period
Before the outbreak of World War II there were 3,900 Jews living in Radzymin. The Jewish community was liquidated on
Oct. 3, 1942, when all the Jews were deported to *Treblinka
death camp. After the war the Jewish community was not reconstituted.
RADZYMIN, dynasty of h asidic z addikim in central Poland.
The founder of the dynasty, JACOB ARYEH BEN SOLOMON
GUTERMAN OF RADZYMIN (17921874), was a pupil of the
z addikim *Simh ah Bunem of Przysucha and Isaac Kalish of
Worky (see *Warka). Jacob Aryeh was rabbi in Rychwal and
Radzymin. He became famous as a miracle worker and attracted a large h asidic followership. His teachings were published in Divrei Aviv (1924) and Bikkurei Aviv (1936). Jacob
Aryehs son, SOLOMON (d. 1903), followed his father in the
rabbinate of Radzymin and in the h asidic leadership. The
third z addik of the Radzymin dynasty was AARON MENAHEM
MENDEL (d. 1934). During World War I he moved to Warsaw,
where he also remained after the war. He was active in Jewish
communal affairs in Poland. He visited Erez Israel in 1929 and
on his initiative a separate section for women was established
at the Western Wall. This served as a pretext for the Arabs in
the bloody anti-Jewish riots which occurred in 1929. Aaron
Menahem Mendel was the author of H innukh ha-Banim (1913)
and Alim li-Terufah (1936).
Holocaust Period
On Sept. 9, 1939, the Jewish quarter of Radzyn was heavily
bombarded by the German air force. At the end of the month,
just before the German army entered the town, several hundred Jews, mostly young men and women, left for Soviet-occupied territory. In December 1939 the Germans sent most
of the Jews to Sawatycze and Miedzyrzec, but after a few
months most returned to Radzyn. In the summer of 1940 an
open ghetto was established in Radzyn. Considerable underground activities were conducted, mainly by *Ha-Shomer haZ air, which organized several smaller partisan groups. On
Aug. 20, 1942, the first deportation of Jews to the *Treblinka
death camp took place, and on Dec. 20, 1942, the second, when
the Jewish community was liquidated.
[Stefan Krakowski]
Bibliography: Sefer Radzyn (Heb. and Yid., 1957).
RADZYN (Pol. Radzy-Podlaski; Rus. Radin), district capital in the province of Lublin, E. Poland. Founded in 1468,
the town was first named Koirynek. Although no reliable
evidence is available, it has been assumed that Jews lived in
Radzyn from its foundation. In 1765 there were 537 Jews living
there. The town developed during the 19t century. There were
1,301 Jews (about 53 of the total population) by 1856 and 2,853
61
[Avraham Rubinstein]
rafa
tuoso writing offers technical challenges to the performing
musicians and is often witty and full of verve. By embedding
East European-Jewish (cantorial) and Middle-Eastern (heterophonic) musical elements in compositions committed to the
past masters, Radzynski aims at a musical language timeless
and contemporary alike, culturally unique and universal.
His works have been performed by such orchestras as
the Cleveland, Columbus, New Haven Symphony, the Mexico National, the West German and the Saarlndische Radio
Symphony Orchestras, the Cracow Philharmonic, the Russian Federal, the Moscow Bolshoi Theater Chamber Orchestra; the Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem and Haifa Symphony
and Israel Chamber Orchestras and Israel Sinfonietta. He was
composition professor at Yale between 1981 and 1994 and was
professor at the Ohio State University in Columbus.
Radzynskis list of compositions include String Quartet
(1977); Kaddish for the Victims of the Holocaust for four amplified flutes, six percussion players, piano and strings (1979);
Homage to Itzik Manger for mixed ensemble of nine players
(1979); Canto for piano (1981); Psalms for viola and eight celli
(1983); Take Five, brass quintet (1984); Hebrew Melodies, piano quintet; Violin/Viola Sonata (1985); David Symphony
in One Movement (1987); Encounters for chamber ensemble
(1988); Viola Concerto (1990); Times Other Beat for symphony
orchestra (1990); Cello Concerto (199092); Serenade, Wind
Quintet; String Trio (1995); Fanfare; Shirat Maayan for mezzosoprano, tenor and orchestra (1997); Summer Charms Rag for
violin and piano (1998); Personal Verses for violin and piano
(1999); Serenade for Strings (2000); Concert Duos for clarinet
and cello (2004).
Among the many awards Radzynski received are the
ASCAP Standard Awards (1989 and 1997), the Mellon Fellowship (1985), the Research and Creative Work Grant of the
Rothschild Foundation (1995), and the Distinguished Scholar
Award given by the Ohio State University (1996). In 1983 he
was in residence at the Foundation Artists House in Boswil,
Switzerland.
[Yuval Shaked (2nd ed.)]
RAFA (Ar. Rafah; Heb. Rafiah ), town, near the Mediterranean coast, 22 mi. (35 km.) S. of Gaza. Rafa is first mentioned
in an inscription of the pharaoh Seti I (c. 1300 B.C.E.) as Rph;
it also appears in other Egyptian sources, in Papyrus Anastasi I
and in the inscription of Shishak. As a border town on the way
to Egypt and a point of sharp transition from desert to cultivated land, it is frequently referred to as the site of conflicts
between the armies of Egypt and its neighbors. In 721 B.C.E.
Sargon of Assyria defeated at Rapihu (Rafa) Sibe of Egypt and
Hanno of Gaza; the Assyrians burned the city and deported
9,033 inhabitants. Rafa does not appear in the Bible; the Targums (on Deut. 2:23) identify it with Hazerim. It was the center of important operations in the Hellenistic period during
the wars of the Diadochi. Antigonus attacked it in 306 B.C.E.
and in 217 B.C.E. Antiochus III of Syria was defeated there by
the army of Ptolemy V of Egypt (Polybius 5:8286). The town
62
was conquered by Alexander Yannai and held by the Hasmoneans until it was rebuilt in the time of Pompey and Gabinius;
the latter seems to have done the actual work of restoration
for the era of the town dates from 57 B.C.E. Rafa is mentioned
in Strabo (16:2, 31), the Itinerarium Antonini, and is depicted
on the Madaba Map. It was the seat of worship of Dionysius
and Isis (Papyrus Oxyrrhynchus, 1380). It was the seat of an
Episcopal see in the fifth-sixth centuries. A Jewish community
settled there in the geonic period; it flourished in the ninth to
tenth centuries and again in the 12t, although in the 11t century it suffered a decline and in 1080 the Jews of Rafa had to
flee to Ashkelon. A Samaritan community also lived there at
this period. Like most cities of southern Erez Israel, ancient
Rafa had a landing place on the coast (now Tell Rafh ), while
the main city was inland.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
Modern Period
Between 1905 and 1913 Erez Israel Jews and Zionist groups in
Central and Eastern Europe made repeated but futile attempts
to buy land and establish settlements in the area. The town
was reestablished in the 1920s under the British Mandate, and
built for the most part on the Palestinian side but also on the
Egyptian side of the border. Rafas population grew around the
time of World War II, when the British army established large
military camps there, providing the Arab inhabitants with employment. In the late 1940s, before the *War of Independence,
members and leaders of Jewish settlements, *Haganah, *Irgun
Z evai Leummi, and the yishuv were detained in British detention camps at Rafa. After the battles of 1948 Arab refugees
settled in the former British camps at Rafa, which was under
Egyptian administration in the *Gaza Strip. Taken by Israel
forces in the Sinai Campaign (1956), Rafa was evacuated by
them in March 1957. During the *Six-Day War, on June 5, 1967,
Israel again took the town. In 1931 the town had 1,400 inhabitants, in 1945 2,500, and according to the Israel census of the
fall of 1967, 49,812, almost all Muslim Arabs, 39,000 of whom
lived in refugee camps. In 1971 many inhabitants worked as
farm laborers and in small trades, but the percentage of those
subsisting on relief was particularly high. After the signing of
the Declaration of Principles in 1993, the town was handed
over to the Palestinian Authority.
[Efraim Orni]
Bibliography: J. Mann, The Jews in Egypt, 2 (1922), 7172;
S. Klein (ed.), Sefer ha-Yishuv (1939), S.V.; Abel, in: RB, 49 (1940),
73ff. Add. Bibliography: Y. Tsafrir, L. Di Segni, and J. Green,
Tabula Imperii Romani. Iudaea Palaestina. Maps and Gazetteer.
(1994), 212, S.V. Raphia.
63
raffalovich, isaiah
having attacked Bolshevism, Raffalovich became the object of
relentless charges by LHumanit, the Communist daily, which
published his confidential reports to St. Petersburg after their
release by the Soviet government. Most of these publications,
however, did not prove conclusively the bribery charge.
[Joachim O. Ronall]
RAGEN, NAOMI (1949 ), author. Born in New York, Ragen earned a bachelors degree in English from Brooklyn College and a masters in English from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. In January 1971 she moved with her husband to
Israel. The translation of her books into Hebrew made her
one of Israels best-loved writers. Blending history, Jewish religious themes and their relation to the modern-day world,
she had six international bestsellers: Jephtes Daughter (1989);
Sotah (1992), her first book translated into Hebrew; The Sacrifice of Tamar (1995); Chains Around the Grass (2001); The
Ghost of Hannah Mendes (2002); and The Covenant. (2004)
Her play, Womens Minyan, commissioned by Israels National
Theater, Habimah, premiered in Israel in 2000 and became
one of Habimahs longest-running hits. Its American premiere
in English took place in 2005 at Duke Universitys Reynolds
Theatre. She is an outspoken advocate of gender equality and
human rights. One of the most influential and widely read
columnists on the Internet, with thousands of subscribers,
Ragen served as Israels delegate to the Council of Europes
International Conference on Womens Rights in September
2000. Caught along with her family in the Netanyah Pass-
64
dent of IBA in Paris, and upon his return from Paris (1966)
was appointed secretary general of the Broadcasting Authority. In 1969 he was chief editor of the Ha-Yom national daily
newspaper. From 1971 to 1976 he was consul in London and
New York and in 198083 was president of the worldwide
State of Israel Bonds agency. In 1976 he settled in Beersheba,
and in 1983 was appointed chairman of the Eilat Development
Company. After building the first shopping mall in Beersheba
(198489), he was elected mayor of Beersheba. Rager is remembered for numerous achievements during his lifetime.
As an IDF officer (colonel, reserve), during the Six-Day War
he commanded the battalion that liberated *Gush Etzyon and
was the first to enter the city of Bethlehem. As a counselor in
London and consul in New York he was an active leader for
the freedom of Soviet Jews and participated in the creation
of the 35s Womens Campaign for Soviet Jewry. During his
time as mayor of Beersheba, the citys population grew by 50
percent; he attracted industrial investments and revolutionized the educational system. Rager died of cancer in 1997 during his second term as mayor.
[Bracha Rager (2nd ed.)]
65
rahab
out his life to have any dealings with mystic exercises, despite
the many appeals for prayers, amulets, etc. made to him by
scholars and the common people. In his youth he spent some
months with *Isaac of Volozhiner for the purpose of learning
Kabbalah from him in accordance with the traditions which
Isaac had received from *Elijah of Vilna. When, however, he
lost hope of this he returned home. At that time, his father and
father-in-law failed in business and Elijah was compelled to
accept a rabbinical post. He first served as rabbi of the small
town of Schatt near Keidany. From 1821 to 1824 he was rabbi
of Ragola (Eiragola) where he gained his main reputation and
from which he derived his name. From 1824 to 1840 he was
rabbi of Slobodka and from 1840 until his death rabbi of Kalisz in Poland.
In addition to his great reputation as a posek and scholar
in halakhah and Kabbalah, Elijah was distinguished for his diligence and application, and for his shrewdness and sincerity.
During his last years he suffered from ill health as well as from
the opposition of a group of members of the Kalisz community
to whom the Lithuanian ways of their rabbi were strange. Despite this he did not hesitate to take a decisive attitude in his
leadership of the community, and sided with Akiva *Lehren
of Amsterdam in his violent opposition to the Reform conference of Brunswick (1844), organized by A. *Geiger. Ragolers
letter to Lehren differs from the many other letters of contemporary Orthodox rabbis in its exceptionally moderate tone. In
contrast to them, Elijah held that the weapon of excommunication, prohibition of marriage, etc., should not be followed
because of the grave danger it held for the whole of the Jewish
community. In his view a sharp and unequivocal dissociation
from the path of reform, and a warning to the public against
it were necessary, but not a war of destruction.
Ragoler left many manuscripts in all spheres of Torah
study. According to the members of his family their number
exceeded 35. Of these only one has been published: Yad Eliyyahu (1900), pt. I, 120 responsa and a methodology of the Talmud in alphabetical order, pt. II, talmudic novellae. Among his
pupils were many great Lithuanian talmudists, including Mordecai Eliasberg and Joshua Heshel *Lewin. Many of his novellae are to be found in the works of other scholars, particularly
in those of his pupils, including the Ilana de-H ayyei (186065)
of Gershon Tanh um. The Keneset ha-Gedolah, pt. 4 (1892), of
Isaak *Suwalski cites many of his sayings on prayer.
Ragolers brother, SAMUEL KELMER, was also a renowned
scholar who went to Erez Israel in the closing years of his life.
Samuel was the father of Aryeh Leib *Frumkin.
Bibliography: A.L. Frumkin, Toledot Eliyyahu (1900); Urbach (ed.), in: Kovez al Yad, 6 (16) pt. 2 (1966), 53553.
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]
the king of Jericho learned about the two spies, he sent word
to Rahab ordering her to surrender them (2:3). However, she
hid them on the roof under stalks of flax, and declared that
they had already left (2:46). In return for the kindness that
she had shown them and her promise to keep the entire affair
confidential, the spies took an oath that she and her family
would be spared when Joshua conquered the land (2:1214).
They further stipulated that when the conquest began, she was
to gather her entire family into her home and bind a cord of
crimson thread in the window, which would serve to identify her house (2:1721). This cord of crimson thread was the
same one which had been used to let the spies down through
the window when they left Rahabs house (2:18). Rahab did
as she was bidden, and so when Joshua did conquer the land,
she and her entire family were saved (6:2223, 25). After the
total destruction of Jericho, it is stated that Rahab and her
family elected to reside with the Israelites, who accepted her
into their camp (6:25).
There are two somewhat conflicting Jewish traditions
concerning Rahabs profession and later life among the Israelites. The first (e.g., Meg. 14b; Ginzberg, Legends, 4 (1954),
58) maintains that she married Joshua after becoming a proselyte, and became the ancestress of eight prophets and priests
among whom were the prophet Jeremiah and the prophetess
Huldah. According to this tradition, the fact that a proselyte
and former prostitute could achieve such a name for herself
in the annals of Jewish history proved that repentance can
work salvation for anyone no matter how great his past sins.
The second tradition contends that Rahab was not a prostitute at all but an innkeeper. This tradition (e.g., Rashi on Josh.
2:1) is based on the Targums rendering of zonah as pundekita
(pundeqita), the assumption being that this word means, like
pundakit (pundaqit) in Hebrew, hostess, innkeeper, and the
derivation of the word zonah (normally prostitute) from the
same stem as mazon ( , food). If Rahab had been merely
an innkeeper, then the shame of considering a former prostitute to be the ancestress of some of Israels most important
figures would cease to be a problem. However, as first noted
by Kimh i (on Josh. 2:1), the adherents of this theory simply
misunderstood the Targum, for the Targum to the Prophets
in various passages also renders zonah by pundeqt, plural
pundeqyn or pundeqn (e.g., I Kings 3:16; Ezek. 23:44), in
which it cannot possibly have been understood to mean anything but prostitute. Therefore, the Targums rendering of
Hebrew prostitute with Aramaic innkeeper is to be understood either as a euphemism or as an intended double entendre, implying that there is a connection between bars or
inns and prostitutes.
[Chayim Cohen]
In the Aggadah
Rahab was one of the four most beautiful women in history.
The mere mention of her name sufficed to excite desire (Meg.
15a). At the age of ten Rahab became a prostitute. There was
not a prince or ruler who did not have relations with her.
Because of this, she was well informed about events outside
66
raH bah, alof Jericho (Zeb. 116b). Rahab became a righteous proselyte
and married Joshua. She was the ancestress of eight prophets, among them Jeremiah, who were also priests, and of the
prophetess Huldah (Meg. 14b). Her conversion is regarded
as more complete than that of Jethro and Naaman for, unlike
them, she acknowledged that the God of Israel is the only God
both in heaven and on earth (Deut. R. 2:2627).
Bibliography: Y. Kaufmann, Sefer Yehoshua (1959). IN THE
AGGADAH: Ginzberg, Legends, index.
RAHABI, EZEKIEL (16941771), merchant and community leader in Cochin (*Kochi), India. In 1726, after the death
of his father, Rahabi was appointed by the Dutch East India
Company as chief merchant and agent, and invested with a
monopoly of the trade in pepper and other commodities in
Malabar. He rose to a position of remarkable influence and
prestige; for almost 50 years he was connected with all the
companys major financial transactions in Malabar, and undertook for it diplomatic assignments to the king of Travancore (173442), to the zamorin of Calicut (1751), and to other
native rulers.
Rahabi was also an outstanding leader of the Jewish community. He purchased land for the Black Jews near Cranganore
and in 1756 built a synagogue there for ten Jewish families,
supporting it until it was closed in 1761; improved and embellished the Parathesi synagogue of the White Jews in Cochin; and imported Hebrew books from Holland. Through
his efforts to decipher the ancient copperplate inscriptions in
Cochin, Ezekiel Rahabi also became the historian of his community. His letter of 1768 to the Dutch banker Tobias Boas
remains a major source of information about Cochin Jewry.
Rahabis tombstone is preserved in the courtyard of the Parathesi synagogue. The changed economic and political conditions in Malabar after the English occupation of Cochin (1795)
caused the decline of the Rahabi family.
Bibliography: S.S. Koder, in: Journal of the Rama Varma
Archaeological Society, 15 (1949), 16; W.J. Fischel, Ha-Yehudim beHodu (1960), 97111; idem, in: PAAJR, 30 (1962), 3759; A. Das Gupta,
Malabar in Asian Trade (1967), index. Add. Bibliography: J.B.
Segal, A History of the Jews of Cochin (1993).
[Walter Joseph Fischel]
RAH BAH, AL, town situated on the W. bank of the Euphrates, S. of Kirkisiya. Founded in the first third of the ninth century by Mlik ibn T auq, al-Rah bah was named Rah bat Mlik
ibn T auq to differentiate it from other towns bearing the name
Al-Rah bah. Onkelos, and after him R. *Saadiah Gaon, identify
the town with the biblical Rehoboth by the River (Gen. 36:37),
while the Arab geographer Yqt reports an ancient tradition, according to which Al-Rah bah was founded by Namrd
(Nimrod) b. Ksh. It was, at any rate, one of the large cities
on the Euphrates as confirmed by another Arab geographer,
al-Mukaddas, writing at the end of the tenth century and
it had a large Jewish community. Obadiah the proselyte was
67
rahbar, samuel
in this town at the beginning of the 12t century. *Benjamin
of Tudela, the 12t-century traveler, found a Jewish community of 2,000 there. In a letter (iggeret) written by R. *Samuel
b. Ali, head of the *Baghdad academy, in 1191, Al-Rah bah
heads the list of the communities of northern *Babylonia
and *Syria. There were also *Karaites living in the town, as is
known from a list appearing at the end of a manuscript of Japheth b. Alis commentary on Numbers, dedicated by Moses
b. Japheth al-Rah b to the Karaite community in *Jerusalem.
By the 14t century the ancient town had been destroyed and
its site had been moved further to the west. At the time that
the town was included within the *Mamluk kingdom, Jews
still lived there, as may be inferred from an inscription found
in the synagogue of Tadef (a village near *Aleppo), dating apparently from about 1400, which mentions the name Obadiah b. Moses b. Abraham al-Rah b. During Ottoman rule
Jews from al-Rah bah moved to *India, and some of them (e.g.,
a prominent family that lived in Cochin in the 18t century),
bore the name of their ancient home.
Bibliography: Yqt, Mujam al-Buldn S.V.; J. Obermeyer,
Die Landschaft Babylonien (1929), 36f; Mann, Texts, 2 (1935), 28f; Ashtor, Toledot, 1 (1944), 278; 2 (1951), 120; S.D. Goitein, in: JJS, 4 (1953),
83; A. Ben-Jacob, Yehudei Bavel (1965), 56.
[Eliyahu Ashtor]
RAHBAR, SAMUEL (1929 ), Iranian immunologist. Rahbar was born in Hamadan, Iran, and studied medicine at the
University of Teheran, obtaining his doctorate in 1953. After
doing hemoglobin research at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, New York, he was appointed professor of immunology at the University of Teheran. In 1963, he established
the universitys Abnormal Hemoglobin Research Laboratory
of which he became the director; a number of new abnormal
hemoglobins were discovered there. In addition to numerous
contributions on the subject in international scientific journals, Rahbar published Principles of Molecular Biology (Persian, 1972). His most important achievement is the discovery
of HbA1c in diabetic patients, which was published in 1968.
HbA1c became one of the most important biochemical values
to be measured in diabetic patients, its measurement being a
major contribution to the quality of care of diabetic patients.
At the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, he was fired from
the University of Tehran and immigrated to U.S. As a professor of diabetes at the City of Hope National Medical Center
in Duarte, California, he worked on the development of inhibitors of glycation, compounds that may prevent diabetic
complications in the kidneys, eyes, and nervous system.
RAH EL (pseudonym of Rahel Bluwstein, 18901931), Hebrew
poet in Erez Israel. Rah el was born in Saratov, on the Volga
in northern Russia, and raised in Poltava. She began writing
poetry in Russian at the age of 15 and also studied painting.
In 1909 she emigrated to Erez Israel, settling in Reh ovot. She
abandoned her native Russian idiom and learned Hebrew.
Under the influence of the pioneer Zionist Hannah Maisel
68
(Shoh at) she became a pioneer and was one of the first trainees
at the young womens training farm at Kinneret. At Kinneret
she met Aaron David *Gordon, the philosopher of Zionist
agrarianism, and to him she dedicated her first Hebrew poem,
Halokh Nefesh (Mood), in Ha-Shiloah , 37 (1920). Having
decided on an agricultural life, she studied agronomy at the
University of Toulouse (1913). Unable to return to Erez Israel
because of World War I, she went to Russia, where she taught
Jewish refugee children. After the war she settled in Deganyah.
However, having contracted tuberculosis during the war, she
soon became too ill for farm life and had to spend the rest of
her life in hospitals and sanatoria.
Rah el is among the first modern Hebrew poets who
wrote in a conversational style. Her knowledge of Hebrew was
drawn from both the developing spoken idiom and the Bible.
She was also influenced by the conversational school which
then prevailed in Russian poetry (Blok, Akhmatova, and Yesenin). Her poems are characterized by a clear, uncomplicated
lyrical line and a musicality, then rare in Hebrew poetry. Invariably short, her poems are elegiac and nostalgic in tone,
many of them reflecting the pessimism of a young writer on
the brink of death. These qualities made her writings very popular with younger Hebrew readers and with the general public.
Many of the poems, including the widely sung Kinneret, have
been put to music. Rah el also translated Russian, Yiddish, and
French poetry and wrote occasional pieces of criticism. Two
volumes of her verse appeared in her lifetime: Safiah (Aftergrowth, 1927), Mi-Neged (From Opposite, 1930), and one
posthumously, Nevo (1932). These were collected in Shirat
Rah el (The Poetry of Rah el, 1935), the eighth edition (1961)
of which also contains her other works as well as a biography
by Bracha *H abas and a bibliography of her poems and their
translations. Uri Milstein edited a collection of Rah els poems,
letters, and articles with a biographical essay (1985) and Z.
Yafit published all of her poems accompanied by a biographical note (2000). An unknown short play written in Deganyah
1919/1920, in which Rahel depicts with a grain of irony the
life of the pioneers and the gap between ideals and daily life,
was discovered by Dana Olmert and published in the literary
supplement of Haaretz (November 19, 2004). Rahels poems
have been translated into many languages and information is
available at the ITHL website at www.ithl.org.il.
Bibliography: Kressel, Leksikon, 1 (1965), 2434; R. Wallenrod, Literature of Modern Israel (1956), 5459; Goell, Bibliography,
for list of her poetry translated into English. Add. Bibliography:
R. Kritz , Al Shirat Rah el (1969; 1987); idem, Shirei Rah el, Shirat Rah el
(with biographical notes and bibliography, 2003); A. Bar, Ha-Meshoreret mi-Kinneret: Sippurah shel Rah el (1993); M. Zur, Rahel, in: Y.
Bartal and Z. Zahor (eds.), Ha-Aliyah ha-Sheniyah, 3 (1998) 33646; E.
Zadik, Aliyah la-Regel le-Kever Rah el ha-Meshoreret: Semalim ve-Dat
Ezrah it ba-H evrah ha-Yisraelit (2000); R. Lapidus, Between Reeds
and New Growths: On the Influence of Anna Akhmatova on the Poetry of Rahel, in: Trumah, 13 (2003), 22737; Y. Peles, Kol Mah sheRaz ita la-Daat al Lev Korea, Einayim Meshavot vi-Ydei Gaaguim,
in: Haaretz (June 25, 2004).
[Ezra Spicehandler]
railroads
RAHV, PHILIP (19081973), U.S. editor and critic. Born in
Russia and named Ivan Greenberg, Rahv (literally, teacher)
came to the United States after living in Palestine. One of the
founders of the Partisan Review, Rahv helped to turn the magazine into an anti-Stalinist organ. He was also known for his
helping other writers find their audience. His later magazine
was called Modern Occasions. His critical works include Image
and Idea (1949), Literature in America (1957), and Myth and
the Powerhouse (1965). His Literature and the Sixth Sense was
published in 1969. Of note is his Essays on Literature and Politics, 19321972, edited by Arabel Porter and Andrew Dvosin
(1978). He also edited anthologies of U.S., British, and Russian
fiction. During the 1940s Rahv did much to revive interest in
the works of Henry James.
RAILROADS. Jewish financiers played a considerable role
in the construction of railroads in France and in Central and
Eastern Europe from the 1830s until the beginning of the
20t century. These Jewish financiers were the only investors besides the British among the private bankers dominant in Europe until the second half of the 19t century (see
also *Banking) who were prepared to risk their capital in the
pioneer stage of railroad construction. In the second half of
the 19t century, when large banking joint-stock firms sprang
up and expanded, private banks were increasingly pressed
into the background, and the share of private Jewish capital
in railroad investment diminished accordingly. In the majority of European countries this tendency became linked to nationalization of the railroads when financial crises occurred
in private railroad companies. The nationalization of Prussian
railroads was organized on the financial side by Bismarcks
adviser Gerson von *Bleichroeder. In the 19t-century era of
railroad fever former *court Jews who had become private
bankers with considerable funds took part in furthering the
industrial revolution through their investments in railroad
construction.
The *Rothschilds were urged by Nathan Mayer Rothschild soon after the opening of the first successful railroad
in England (1825) to invest money on the continent in railroad construction. Salomon Rothschild of Vienna sent Professor F.X. Riepel from the Vienna Institute of Technology to
England to study the new means of transportation with Rothschilds secretary, Leopold von Wertheimstein. Subsequently
they proposed the construction (1829) of a first line to run
straight through the Hapsburg Empire, connecting Vienna
with Galicia and Trieste. The July Revolution postponed the
execution of Rothschilds plans. It was only in 1836, after overcoming many obstacles (especially the rivalry of the Viennese
banking houses of *Arnstein and *Eskeles) that he began construction of the northern line from Vienna to Bochnia, in
Galicia. The railroad was only completed in 1858. The house
of Rothschild sold the shares on the stock market mainly to
small investors.
James Rothschild of Paris was encouraged to construct
the local line between Paris and St. Germain (opened in 1837)
69
rain
uted to the predominance of French finance in the development of foreign railroads in the post-1850 decade: in Austria,
where there was fierce competition between the Pereires and
the Rothschilds, the Pereires founded the important Austrian
State-Railroad Company, in conjunction with Sina, Arnstein,
and Eskeles, while the Rothschilds were successful in buying the Lombard-Venetian and the Central Italian Railway
(1856). In Spain there was lively rivalry between the Rothschilds, Pereires, and Jules Isaac *Mirs; and in Hungary they
built the Franz-Joseph line (1857). The Crdit Mobilier also
financed Swiss railroads.
The importance of railroads was grasped in Russia only
after its defeat in the Crimean War. The Grande Socit des
Chemins de fer Russes (1857) had, besides the Pereires, other
Jewish bankers as founders: Alexander *Stieglitz of St. Petersburg, S.A. Fraenkel of Warsaw, and the *Mendelssohns of Berlin. An important figure in Russian railroad construction in
the 1860s and 1870s was Samuel *Polyakov. He built railroads
of supreme importance for the Russian grain export trade, and
also wrote on the political aspect of railroad construction. He
and other Jewish entrepreneurs succeeded in attracting foreign
capital (Leopold *Kronenberg, J.J. Sack, Gerson von Bleichroeder, Sulzbach Brothers, etc.) without which their plans would
have been unattainable. Railroad construction by Jewish bankers in Russia created employment for numbers of Jews, who
filled technical and administrative posts. The advent of the
railroad brought many changes in Jewish economic and social life, described, for instance, in the poem Shenei Yosef ben
Shimon of J.L. *Gordon.
Bethel Henry *Strousberg started by working for English
firms, and when he had accumulated enough capital, founded
railway companies in Prussia and later in Hungary. He also
acquired locomotive factories and rolling mills for rails, and
subsequently coal mines. A careless venture into Romanian
railroad construction ruined his enterprise. His bankruptcy
influenced public opinion in favor of nationalization of railroad lines in Germany. It also revealed malpractices and
bribery, which were given a prominent place in antisemitic
propaganda.
Jewish bankers were large-scale investors in railroad construction outside Europe. Baron Maurice de *Hirsch bought,
in 1869, the concession for railroad building in Turkey from
the bankrupt International Land Credit Company. His connection by marriage with the Jewish banking enterprise
Bischoffsheim and Goldschmidt aided him initially. In 1869
he began the first stage of extending the Austro-Hungarian
lines southward. However, before beginning construction on
the Oriental Railroad, he took steps to secure financial backing, and chose a new type of 3 government loan. Turkish
lottery bonds, which attracted small investors in France and
Germany, were offered on the general market. Hirsch concluded his project in 1888.
At first Jewish financiers, mainly of German origin, acted
as intermediaries between foreign finance and the United
States. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, railway bonds,
70
RAIN (Heb. , ) . The large number of quotations referring to rain in the biblical and talmudic sources may be attributed to the fact that rain is the most important climatic element for the agriculture of Israel, particularly in non-irrigated
areas. In comparing these quotations with modern knowledge
of rainfall in Israel it is evident that although part of the quotations are in the realm of folklore, many of them are valid
and correspond to contemporarily measured data, although
the descriptions of rain in the Bible and talmudic literature
are mainly qualitative. This correspondence not only shows
the keen observations of weather phenomena made in ancient
times, but also indicates that during the last 3,000 years there
were fluctuations but not fundamental changes in the climate
of Israel. The importance of a normal rainfall regime, i.e., an
appropriate seasonal distribution of rainfall, for the success of
agricultural crops is clearly stated in the Bible on several occasions (Lev. 26:4; Deut. 28:12; Ezek. 34:26), sometimes with
special emphasis on the first and last rains of the season (the
yoreh and the malkosh) whose importance for agriculture is
particularly great (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 5:24). The local nature of
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
rain
rainfall, expressed in Erez Israel particularly at the beginning and end of the rainfall season, is also mentioned (Amos
4:7; cf. Taan. 6b). An impressive description of the results of
droughts is available in Jeremiah 14:16. Late and strong rains
at the beginning of June are as rare and notable nowadays as
they were at the time of Samuel (I Sam. 12:1618). Similarly,
three consecutive drought years in the region of Samaria are
as rare and notable in the last 50 years of rainfall measurements (1931/32, 1932/33, and 1933/34) as they were at the time
of Elijah and Ahab (I Kings 18:1).
In the Talmud and Midrashim
Rain is referred to on many occasions in the Talmud and midrashic literature, particularly in tractate Taanit (Mishnah,
Tosefta, and the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds). In the
Mishnah there is a quantitative definition of drought (Taan,
3:1). The following references are examples of keen observa-
tions of weather phenomena: R. Eleazar b. Perata paid attention to the variations from year to year in both amounts and
times of rain occurrence (Taan. 19b). R. Johanan and R. Papa
determined that thin clouds under thick clouds are a sign of
rainfall (ibid. 9b); the ragged fragments of low clouds, known
as scud (nautical term) or stratus fractus (meteorological
term), often moving rapidly below rain clouds, indicate rainy
weather (which is also the case today). On the same page in
the Babylonian Talmud a weather forecast is given by R. Ulla,
using the above-mentioned sign. Even a forecast for the rainfall of a whole year is given in the Jerusalem Talmud (Taan.
2:1, 65b). The dates of the beginning and end of the rainfall
season in Israel also fit modern conditions (Taan. 1:1; Ned. 8:5;
see also Yal., Num. 29). As for rain intensities, there are various
expressions for slight, moderate, and heavy rains in the Bible
(e.g., I Kings 18:45; Ezek. 13:11; 34:26; Ps. 68:10; Prov. 28:3; for
the Mishnah see Taan. 3).
71
rain
In Contemporary Israel
Israel is situated on the boundary of two different climatic regions: its northern half belongs to the southern part of a region
having the so-called Mediterranean type of climate, whose
main feature is that the greatest part of the annual rainfall occurs during the moderately cold winter months, while in the
warm summer practically no rain falls; the southern half of
Israel, the Negev, is situated on the northern boundary of a
hot desert. Like every country with a Mediterranean climate
Israel also lies near the limit of the cyclonic rains. Most of
the rain-bearing cold lows (barometric depressions) arriving
or forming in the eastern Mediterranean during the rainfall
season are situated in the northeastern part of this sea (the
Cyprus Low). Such a depression in the lower layers of the
atmosphere is generally associated with a cold barometric
trough in the higher layers (upper trough). The great majority of rainfall in Israel is due to this combination, even in the
southern Negev which is far away from the center of the
Cyprus Low. Rains usually fall in Israel when cold air masses
arrive mainly from Russia, the Balkans, or Turkey. These air
masses are cold and dry, but in passing over the relatively
much warmer waters of the Mediterranean they are heated
in their lower layers, absorb much moisture, and reach Israel
in a state of marked instability. Then, the land areas of Israel
serve as a trigger to induce rainfall.
REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL. For the areal distribution of rainfall over Israel four rules can be stated:
(1) rainfall decreases with increasing distance from the
sea, i.e., from west to east (continental effect);
(2) rainfall increases with increasing elevation (orographic effect);
(3) rainfall depends on exposure: of two localities at the
same elevation, other conditions being equal, the windward
slope facing ascending air (anabatic effect) receives more
rainfall than the leeward slope with descending air (katabatic effect);
(4) rainfall decreases from north to south, i.e., with increasing distance from the Cyprus Low and decreasing distance from the planetary desert.
A good example for the first rule is the Valley of Jezreel where the average annual rainfall decreases gradually
from west to east (650 mm.400 mm.), and for the fourth
rule the Coastal Plain (650 mm.200 mm., north to south).
In each of these regions there are no significant differences
in elevation. The second and third rules are clearly demonstrated on the Carmel range (600 mm.850 mm.), where the
isolines of rainfall (isohyets) are somewhat similar to those
of elevation (isohypses), demonstrating the importance of
the height factor. The same applies to two other compact
and continuous ranges, namely, Upper Galilee, which is the
highest and most northerly region in Israel and therefore
the rainiest one (600 mm.1000 mm.), and the Judean Hills
(450 mm.700 mm.); whereas the Samarian Hills and those
of Lower Galilee are broken up and scattered, so that their
72
isohyets do not take a markedly topographic course. The Samarian Hills, which generally become higher from north to
south, demonstrate the prevalence of height over latitude
when the latter factor is opposed to the former: this is the only
region in Israel where rainfall increases from north to south
(500 mm.700 mm.). In the Jordan Rift Valley, on the other
hand, the combined influence of southward progress and falling elevation is seen in the rapid decrease of the average annual rainfall from 570 mm. in the northern part of the H uleh
Area to 90 mm. at the northern edge of the Dead Sea. Further
south, the Arabah between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Eilat,
forming the eastern border of the Negev, is the driest region
in the country (25 mm.50 mm.). Even the highest hills of the
Negev do not enjoy 100 mm. while the northwestern Negev
receives 200 mm. as an annual average.
SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OR REGIMEN OF RAINFALL. In
effect rains fall in Israel only during the period October
through May, which is called the rainfall season. The three
central rainy months the winter of the temperate climates,
December, January, and February contribute two-thirds to
three-quarters of the annual rainfall in most regions of the
country. The remaining 30 is distributed among the first and
last months of the rainfall season: the autumn months October and November and the spring months March, April,
and May, although in the Coastal Plain the percentage of rainfall in autumn is greater than in the hill region, while in the
hills and other regions of the interior the percentage of spring
rains is larger than near the coast. In addition to this west-east
variation of the rainfall regime there is a north-south variation: while the northern half of the country has a Mediterranean rainfall regime with the characteristic steep increase
from the beginning of the season toward the peak month and
a rapid decrease from then to the end of the season, no specific
month can be singled out in the central and southern Negev
as having a marked maximum, and the curve typical for the
Mediterranean regime becomes ill-defined. All the preceding facts are true with respect to a normal rainfall regime,
i.e., a seasonal distribution of rainfall in which each month
receives its average value. But in fact there are large variations
from year to year in the seasonal rainfall, and particularly in
its monthly distribution, so that it is difficult to find a season
in which each of its months has even approximately received
its average amount.
VARIABILITY OF RAINFALL. There are several statistical
methods for measuring quantitatively the variations of annual rainfall from year to year. One measure, called Relative Variability, is defined as the percentage ratio between the
mean deviation of individual annual totals from their average
and the average; another measure, Relative Interannual Variability, relates, in percent, the mean value of absolute differences between successive annual totals to the average. The values of each of these measures of variability are relatively low
(2026 RV; 2537 RIV) in regions with much rainfall
rainbow
(the hill region and Coastal Plain) and higher ( 27 RV; 38
RIV) in regions with less rainfall (the Jordan Valley and Negev).
This property is of important consequence to non-irrigated areas in the eastern and southern parts of Israel in drought years.
For charts, tables, and further details see bibliography.
See *Rain, Prayer for; *Israel, Land of (Climate).
Bibliography: D. Ashbel, in: Aklim Erez Yisrael la-Azoreha
(1951); idem, in: Leksikon Mikrai, 1 (1965), 94103; N. Shalem, in: Desert Research (1953), 15364; N. Rosenan, in: IEJ, 5 (1955), 13753;
idem, in: UNESCO (ed.), Symposium on Changes of Climate (1963),
6773; idem, in: Atlas of Israel (1970), sheet IV/2; J. Katsnelson, in:
Archiv fuer Meteorologie, Geophysik und Bioklimatologie, 13 (1963/65),
16372; idem, in: Ha-Enz iklopedyah le-H aklaut, 1 (1966), 2762; idem,
in: Gishmei Erez Yisrael ke-Gorem Yesod be-Meshek ha-Mayim shel
ha-Arez (1968/69).
[Jacob Katsnelson]
RAIN, PRAYER FOR (Heb. , Tefillat Geshem (Ashkenazi); , Tikkun ha-Geshem (Sephardi)), prayers offered on various occasions, in which God is acknowledged as
the power causing rain and the change of seasons, and which
contain petitions for the fertility of the fields and for preservation from famine.
The principal prayer for rain is recited during the Musaf
service on the eighth day of Sukkot (*Shemini Az eret) as part
of the second benediction in the readers repetition of the
*Amidah (Ashkenazi tradition). The Sephardim recite it before
the Additional Service. The piyyutim of which this prayer is
composed vary according to the different rites. Those in the
Ashkenazi rite are by Eliezer *Kallir; the last of the six piyyutim
invokes the remembrance of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,
Aaron, and the Twelve Tribes, and culminates in the invocation: In their merit favor us with abundant water (rain)
For a blessing and not for a curse, for life and not for death,
for plenty and not for famine. Amen. From this service on
Shemini Az eret until that of the first day of Passover when the
prayer for *dew is said, the sentence mashiv ha-ruah u-morid
ha-geshem (cause the wind to blow and the rain to fall) is included in every Amidah prayer at the beginning of the second
benediction (Sh. Ar., Oh 114). This insertion is called by the
Mishnah (Taan. 1:1) gevurot (meaning the Powers of God).
In traditional synagogues following the customs of Eastern
Europe the h azzan officiates in the *kitel at the Musaf service
when the prayer for rain is read as on the Day of Atonement,
and recites the Kaddish before the Musaf service to a solemn
melody. In Israel, the Tefillat Geshem is recited after the Torah
scrolls have been returned to the ark and before the Musaf
service so as to avoid an interruption in the statutory Amidah; however, the h asidic rite in Israel recites it in the readers
repetition of the Amidah. The Tefillat Geshem (like the prayer
for dew) is part of the service in all Jewish rituals including
the *Conservative and *Reform where it appears in a shortened version.
Another prayer for rain is the petition (sheelah) and give
dew and rain for a blessing (ve-ten tal u-matar li-verakhah;
in the Sephardi rite this is a different and longer petition) in-
73
Bibliography: Elbogen, Gottesdienst, 4445, 2145; Davidson, Oz ar, 1 (1924), 322 (no. 7091), 324 (no. 7128), 337 (no. 7419);
2 (1929), 209 (no. 91), 418 (no. 3466); 3 (1930), 528 (no. 267); Union
Prayer Book, 1 (19272), 2689 (Reform); Silverman, Prayer, 2101
(Conservative); E. Levy, Yesodot ha-Tefillah (19522), 1612; ET, 5
(1953), 6579.
rainer, luise
16a). It was reported that R. Joshua b. Levi declared that upon
seeing the rainbow one should fall on his face as did Ezekiel
(Ezek. 1:28). Nevertheless, in Erez Israel, the rabbis disapproved of such action since it appeared as if the person was
bowing down to the rainbow. They, however, approved of reciting a blessing upon the rainbows appearance. The text of
this blessing as it is today recited is Blessed are Thou O Lord
our God, King of the Universe, Who remembers the Covenant, is faithful to His Covenant, and keeps His promise
(Ber. 59a; Sh. Ar. Oh 229:1). The blessing is to be recited even
if a rainbow is seen twice within 30 days Mishnah Berurah to
Sh. Ar., loc. cit.).
Bibliography: Idelsohn, Liturgy, 126, note j; ET, 4 (1952),
358.
RAINER, LUISE (1910 ), German actress. Born in Dusseldorf, Germany, into a prosperous Jewish family, Rainer
began her career in 1928. She later joined Max Reinhardts
company in Vienna, Austria. As part of his company, Rainer
became a popular stage actress in Berlin and Vienna in the
early 1930s, appearing in such plays as Saint Joan and Six
Characters in Search of an Author. In 1935 she went to Hollywood and became famous for her performance in the films
Escapade (1935); The Great Ziegfeld (Oscar for Best Actress,
1936); and The Good Earth (Oscar for Best Actress, 1937).
These were followed by less notable roles in The Emperors
Candlesticks (1937); The Big City (1937); The Toy Wife (1938);
The Great Waltz (1938); Dramatic School (1938); and Hostages
(1943). Ultimately disillusioned with the superficial quality of
Hollywood and frustrated at not being able to attain the more
substantial roles, Rainer retired from the screen in 1943. She
made a brief comeback decades later when she starred in the
Swiss TV movie A Dancer (1988) and appeared in the Hungarian film The Gambler (1997), based on the story by Dostoievsky; and the German film Poem: I Set My Foot upon the
Air and It Carried Me (2003).
Amassing a string of firsts to her credit, Rainer was the
first actor/actress to achieve the perfect Oscar track record of
two nominations, two wins; she was the first to receive double
Oscars consecutively; she was the first to obtain two Oscars
before turning 30; she was the first (and as of 2005 the only)
German actress to win an Academy Award; and she was the
first actress to win an Academy Award for portraying a reallife person Anna Held in the biopic The Great Ziegfeld.
Her first role on the English stage was in Behold the Bride
(London, 1939) and, on the New York stage, A Kiss for Cinderella (1942), followed by The Lady from the Sea (1950).
Clifford *Odets, the playwright, was her first husband;
they were married from 1937 to 1940. Rainer wed publisher
Robert Knittel in 1944, to whom she remained married until
his death in 1989.
[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
74
rkosi, mtys
rabbi of Congregation Bnai Jeshurun of Paterson, New Jersey (192153).
A prolific writer in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish, Raisin dealt with contemporary problems, with the history of the
Reform movement, and with Hebrew literature, on both
a popular and a scholarly level. His books included: Mordecai Manuel Noah: Zionist, Author and Statesman (1905); John
Milton (1924); Israel in America (1947); and A History of
the Jews in Modern Times (1919) which was published as a
supplement to *Graetzs History of the Jews. An ardent Zionist
when Zionism was unpopular in the Reform movement, his
views were influenced by *Ah ad Ha-Am. A number of his
works were autobiographical: Dappim mi-Pinkaso shel Rabbi
(1941); Out of My Life (1956); and Great Jews I have Known
(1959).
Bibliography: Morgenstern, in: Central Conference of
American Rabbis, Yearbook, 67 (1957), 154f.; Kressel, Leksikon, 2
(1967), 861f.
[Eisig Silberschlag]
RAISZ, ERWIN J. (18931968), U.S. geographer and authority on cartography. Raisz was born in Hungary, where he studied architecture and engineering. He settled in New York City
in 1923 and studied geology at Columbia University. From
1925 to 1931 he was an instructor in this field, but during this
period turned his attention to geography and cartography.
He instituted Columbias first course in cartography. From
1931 to 1950 he was a lecturer at the Institute of Geographical
Exploration at Harvard. In 1945 he founded the cartography
group of the Association of American Geographers and was
its chairman until 1952.
Raisz was the author of General Cartography (1938); the
Atlas of Global Geography (1944); Mapping the World (1956);
Principles of Cartography (1962); and Atlas of Florida (1964).
Bibliography: New York Times (Dec. 5, 1968).
75
rakous, vojtch
Rkosi returned to Hungary in 1944, and reorganized
the Hungarian Communist Party. Between 1945 and 1948 he
served as deputy leader of a coalition government, but step
by step he removed the other parties from political life and
assumed dictatorial powers. From 1949 he removed all traces
of the former regime, among them leaders of the Catholic
Church, Social Democrats, and even Communists and secret
police chiefs. Rkosi conducted his policy in strict conformity
with the Stalinist line. After Stalins death (1953) he was summoned to Moscow and severely criticized for the failure of his
economic policy. He resigned but was recalled to the premiership in the following year and remained in power until the
summer of 1956, shortly before the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution. Once again, he was obliged to flee to the Soviet
Union but after the rebellions suppression did not return to
Hungary until shortly before his death. Rkosi did not take
any interest in Jewish affairs and tried to hide his Jewish origins. His policy of trials against Zionists, the confiscation of
private enterprises, and the transfer of populations from the
large cities caused great suffering to many Jews.
Bibliography: M.M. Drachkovits and B. Lazitch (eds.), The
Comintern: Historical Highlights (1966); T. Aczl and M. Mray, The
Revolt of the Mind (1959).
[Baruch Yaron]
76
ramallah
RALL, YISRAEL (18301893), Hebrew writer and translator. Born in Brody, Galicia, he became interested in the Haskalah and studied classical and European languages. He lived
for many years in Odessa where he published a collection of
translations from classical Latin poetry, Shirei Romi (1876),
which established his reputation. After years of wandering
in Western Europe he settled in Lemberg, where he founded
the periodical Shem ve-Yafet (1887). He also published booklets in German and French in which he rebutted antisemitic
libels. Rall contributed to *Ha-Meliz , *Ha-Maggid, and also
to the German press.
Bibliography: Lachower, Sifrut, 2 (1963), 1716; Waxman,
Literature, 3 (19602), 262.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
the return from exile, the place was resettled by Judeans (Ezra
2:26; Neh. 7:30; 11:33). Later authors place it 6 mi. (c. 9 km.)
north of Jerusalem (Eusebius, Onom. 144:14; Jerome, Hosea
5:8, and Zephaniah 1:15), a location corresponding to the village of al-Rm, which was a fief of the Holy Sepulcher in the
Middle Ages.
(2) A town in the territory of Naphtali, mentioned together with Adamah and Hazor in Joshua 19:36. It is identified with Khirbet al-Jl, near al-Rma in the valley of BethCherem in Galilee. In 1933 I. Ben-Zvi discovered a synagogue
lintel with an Aramaic inscription there.
(3) A town in the territory of Asher (Josh. 19:29). Its identification with Rmiya, southeast of Tyre, is controversial.
(4) The hometown of Samuel (I Sam. 1:1; as RamathaimZophim) and possibly the residence of Deborah (Judg. 4:5).
There Samuel judged Israel (I Sam. 7:17; 8:4) and was later
buried (I Sam. 25:1; 28:3); his school of prophets was located
in Naioth in Ramah (I Sam. 19:2224). In the Septuagint, it is
identified with ha-Ramatha or Arimathea, which is described
in I Maccabees 11:34 as the headquarters of a Samaritan toparchy transferred to Judea in 145 B.C.E.; this place was the home
town of Joseph, a Jerusalem councilor, in whose tomb Jesus
was buried (Matt. 27:57, et al.). It was called Remphthis by Eusebius (Onom. 144:28) and is the present-day Rantis, northeast
of Lydda. However, the identification of this site with Samuels
birthplace is controversial. Various scholars view that both
names of Zuph on the border of the territories of Benjamin
and Ephraim (I Sam. 1:1; 9:4).
Bibliography: Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 427; Abel and BenZvi, in: jpos, 13 (1933), 94ff.; Alt, in: pjb, 24 (1928), 70; Aharoni,
Land, index.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
RAMALLAH (Rm Allh; al-Bra), twin towns in the northern Judean Hills, 9 mi. (15 km.) N. of Jerusalem. While al-Bra
is supposed to stand on the site of biblical *Beeroth, Ramallah is generally identified with *Ramah. The twin towns occupy a strategic position at 2,854 ft. (870 m.) above sea level,
where the Judean upfold broadens, and at a crossroads. During the British Mandate, Ramallah was preponderantly Christian-Arab with 4,710 Christian and 650 Muslim inhabitants
in 1946. The proportion was reversed in al-Bra, then a village
with 2,100 Muslims and 150 Christians. Because of Ramallahs
elevation, the authorities chose it as the site for the country
broadcasting transmitters. The clear, brisk climate encouraged the development of the town as a summer resort, which
gained impetus under Jordanian rule when wealthy citizens
built summer houses there and tourists came from other Arab
countries to spend the summer. In the *Six-Day War, Ramallah was taken by Israeli forces. The census taken by the Israeli
authorities in the fall of 1967 revealed that the population of
both towns had greatly increased since 1948, mainly through
the opening of refugee camps, while the relative strength of
the Christian communities had diminished. Ramallah in 1967
had 12,134 inhabitants, of whom 6,966 (57.4) were Christians,
77
ramat david
while al-Bra, with a population of 13,037, was larger than Ramallah and was almost exclusively Muslim. Following the Oslo
Agreements and the transfer of the city to the Palestinians,
the Palestinian Authority located its government institutions
there. Against a background of undiminished terrorism, Yasser *Arafat was confined to his headquarter compound in the
city (the Muqata) by Israeli forces from 2003 until his death in
2004, and was also buried there. According to the Palestinian
Bureau of Statistics, in 1997 the population of Ramallah was
18,017 and that of Al-Bra was 27,972.
[Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
78
ramat ha-golan
in the southern section, have cut deep ravines, laid bare lightcolored chalks, marls, and limestones underneath the black
basalt, and separated small portions of the plateau from each
other. Soils are mostly dark, fertile, and deep grumusols and
are covered with basalt boulders in the north.
The Lower Golan has been farming country throughout most of its historic past, with grain crops as the principal branch; the ample rainfall and resulting stronger erosion
make the Upper Golan a region of brush, forest, and pastures,
rather than tilled fields, and biblical expressions such as the
cows or cattle of Bashan (Amos 4:1; Ezek. 39:18) and oaks
of Bashan (Isa. 2:13; Ezek. 27:6) seem to refer to this section.
Deforestation by man has left only stunted remnants of ancient
forests in the northern Golan; flocks of sheep and herds of
cattle, however, continued to be the regions economic mainstay until the recent past.
History and Archaeology
The name Golan is first mentioned in the Bible as a settlement in the region of the Bashan (Deut. 4:43; Josh. 20:8), within
the territory allocated to the tribe of Manasseh (Deut.4:43).
It is referred to as a free city (Josh. 20:8) and later as a Levitical city (I Chron.6:7), thought to be Sahem ed-Djolan (Eusebius, Onom. 64:7), beyond the eastern border formed by the
river Rukkad. The name of the entire region appears to have
derived from this site. In the Persian period the region was
included in the satrapy of *Karnaim, which encompassed the
Golan and the *Bashan.
In the early Hellenistic period, the Golan formed a separate district under the name of Gaulanitis. The writings of *Josephus help to trace the history of the entire area (Antiq. 4:5,
3; 8: 2, 3; 13:15, 4; Wars 2:20, 6; 3:3, 15; 3:10, 10; 4:1,1). Early in
the reign of the Hasmonean Alexander Jannaeus, the cities of
Golan, Gamala and Seleucia were conquered (8381 B.C.E.,
and the Golan was annexed to the Hasmonean kingdom
(Antiq. 16:9, 2). After the conquest of Palestine by Pompey
(63 B.C.E.) the Golan was populated by the *Itureans, but
when Herod the Great came to the throne it came into his
possession (23 B.C.E.). It remained part of his descendants
kingdom until the death of Agrippa II. It was then annexed to
the Roman Provincia Judaea and later in the Roman period it
formed part of Palaestina Secunda. The more important large
villages were Seleucia, Sogane, Bethsaida, and Gamla, and
these were fortified by Josephus who had been proclaimed
Jewish rebel commander of the Galilee (Wars 2:20, 6). The revolt was crushed by the Romans in 67 C.E. During the Roman
and Byzantine periods the Gaulanitis was a prosperous rural
area but devoid of large towns. At the end of the 5t century
C.E., the emperor Anastasius made use of the Ghassanids, a
Monophysite Christian Arab tribe from the Yemen that had
moved into Syria, as frontier guards, particularly against the
Lakhimids who were nomads in the Upper Euphrates. The
Golan in the sixth century was populated by two groups: a
well-established community of Jews and the Christian Ghassanids. Following the Arab invasion of 636 C.E., the region
was slowly depopulated. The Mamluk and Ottoman authorities initiated enforced resettlement.
L. Oliphant was one of the first to record the archaeological sites in the Golan during his visits to the region between
1879 and 1886. At Khirbat Knif Oliphant found the remains
of a synagogue with a lintel bearing an incomplete Aramaic
inscription: remembered be for good Yose son of H alfu
son of H ana[n].
A large number of sites were recorded and described by
G. Schumacher following his work in the area between 1883
and 1885, and until 1914. Schumacher also prepared the first
proper map of the region. He investigated at least a dozen
sites with stones bearing Jewish symbols, such as the sevenbranched menorah and other motifs, and attributed these to
the remains of ancient synagogues. These sites include Fiq,
Umm al-Qantir, Khan-Bandaq, Lawiyya, al-Dikk (Dikke),
al-Rafid, al-Ah madiyya, al-Burayka most of them in southwestern Golan near the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the village of Fiq a basalt column was found incised with a sevenbranched menorah and under it an Aramaic inscription: I,
Judah, the cantor.
Since 1967 numerous surveys and excavations have been
carried out in the region, notably a general survey of the region by S. Gutman and C. Epstein in 19671968, a more methodical general survey by D. Urman in 19681972, surveys
of Chalcolithic sites and of dolmen fields by C. Epstein in
19732000, various investigations by Z. Maoz since 1977, a
study of settlements and their landscapes by C. Dauphin in
19781988, and a study of Iturean settlements by M. Hartal
since 1983. Since the late 1970s surveys and excavations have
been undertaken on Mount Hermon by S. Dar.
Prehistoric evidence (Upper Paleolithic) comes mostly
from Berkehat Ram with flints and basalt implements, and
from Biqat Kuneitra. A site from the southern Golan, Mjhiyyeh, has been dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. At
least 30 Chalcolithic unwalled settlements from the first half of
the 4t millennium B.C.E. have been investigated. Houses were
broad rooms built in chain formation. The settlers engaged in
agriculture and stock breeding and placed basalt pillar-shaped
house gods in their houses and courtyards. Their material culture was quite distinctive. The Early Bronze I is barely represented in the Golan, but more than 40 sites from the Early
Bronze Age II have been identified, including settlements (e.g.,
Gamla) and enclosures (e.g., Mitham Leviah). The enigmatic
megalithic structure at Rujm el-Hiri with concentric circles
and a tumulus at its center is also dated to this period.
Early Bronze Age IV settlements have only been identified in the southern Golan. Elsewhere there are very extensive fields of dolmens and tumuli/cairns. The earliest material
found in the dolmens is dated to the Early Bronze IV. However, it is likely that these finds represent the final use of these
structures, which may date back to the Early Bronze II. In the
Middle Bronze Age IIB, settlement was concentrated mainly
in the southern and northern parts of the region. Many of
the sites controlled roads and were probably built for strate-
79
[Efraim Orni]
ramat ha-golan
gic purposes. Fewer settlements of the Late Bronze Age were
found. Settlement was renewed in the Iron Age I, especially
above earlier Middle Bronze II sites. A lions head carved on an
orthostat, discovered not in situ, was dated on stylistic grounds
to the 9t century B.C.E. It was probably originally placed at
the entrance of a citadel of a local ruler. Numerous Iron Age II
sites are known from the Golan and particularly at sites along
the shores of the Sea of Galilee (see *En-Gev; Tel Hadar).
From the Hellenistic period there are agricultural villages
and fortified towers. Two sites (H orvat Zemel and H orvat
Namra) are identified as Iturean on the basis of the discovery of a distinctive pottery (Golan Ware) within these settlements. Early Roman sites were scattered throughout the
Golan. One major site was Gamla which fell to the Romans
in 67 C.E. Numerous sites from the Late Roman period are
known (2ndearly 4t centuries C.E.), with exceptional remains
at the site identified as Hippos (Sussita) and Banias. Villages
were built in the Golan, many of which were of pagan character, judging by the discovery of statue fragments and altars.
Roads were built criss-crossing the region, linking the land of
Israel with Damascus.
The Byzantine period saw an enormous increase of sites
in the Golan to close to one hundred. Numerous large villages are known but the region did not have towns or cities.
A project led by C. Dauphin has traced the growth of four settlements (Kafr Naffakh, Naaran, Farj, and Er-Ramthaniyyeh)
between the Hellenistic and Ottoman periods, focusing particularly on the Byzantine period. Olive oil production (but
not exclusively) was undertaken in the western parts of the
Golan. Viticulture was also practiced. The agricultural landscapes surrounding the four above settlements were also investigated. Remains of numerous churches and synagogues have
been found. An ongoing debate exists among scholars as to
whether the ethnic divide between the Jewish and Christian
populations in the Golan in this period was sharply defined or
whether some or many of the settlements had mixed populations as well as to the extent of the Jewish-Christian element
in the population between the 1st and 5t centuries C.E. Some
agricultural villages were abandoned prior to the Umayyad
period (7t century), but others survived, notably Kaz rin, until the earthquake of 749 C.E.
[Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)]
Modern Period
One of Syrias backward provinces, Golan entered modern
history in the 1880s, when the Turkish authorities settled Circassians there to ward off Bedouin robbers. The regional center, *al-Qunaytira, came into being at that time. Shortly afterward, Jews made attempts to found settlements in the Golan,
initially at Rumsaniyya, south of al-Qunaytira; then at Benei
Yehudah east of Lake Kinneret; and finally, in 1908, in the
Bet Z ayyada (al-Butayh a) Valley (a much larger enterprise,
at Benei Binyamin and Jiln, was undertaken with Baron E.
de Rothschilds aid in the Bashan, further east). Prior to 1967,
the Golans population included Sunnite Muslims, as well as
Circassians, Druze, Alawids (Nusayris), a small Christian mi-
80
nority, and others. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Syrians covered
the Golan with a network of artillery positions and fortifications to harass Israeli settlements in Upper Galilee and the
Lake Kinneret area, and geared the regions entire economy to
military needs. In the last two days of the Six-Day War (June
910), almost the entire population took to flight together with
the Syrian army, with the exception of the Druze who stayed
on in six villages in the north (in the September 1967 census
they numbered over 6,000). The remaining Druze villagers
in the area quickly made contact with their kinsmen in Israel
and developed friendly relations with the Israeli administration and their new Jewish neighbors.
The first initiative for new Jewish settlement in the region
was taken in July 1967 by a group of Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuh ad,
which founded Kibbutz Merom Golan. By 1970 the number
of Golan settlements had increased to 12, including Ramat
Banias (Senir; of Ha-Shomer ha-Z air), Merom Golan and
Ein Zivan (Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuh ad) in the north; Nah al Geshur (Ha-Shomer ha-Z air) in the center; Ramot Magshimim
(moshav shittufi of Ha-Poel ha-Mizrachi), Givat Yoav (Tenuat
ha-Moshavim), Neot Golan (moshav shittufi of Ha-Oved
ha-Z iyyoni), El Al (Tenuat ha-Moshavim), Mevo H ammah
(Ih ud ha-Kibbutzim), Nah al Golan, and Ramot (Tenuat haMoshavim) in the south Hermon. In 1977 *Kaz rin, an urban
community, was established. Subsequently, other settlements
were founded, bringing the total up to 33 at the beginning of
the new millennium, with a total population of 37,000, including 18,300 Druze (see *Israel, State of, under Religious Life).
After 1967, land reclamation was carried out on a large scale
and the first storage ponds were installed to retain runoff and
ease the problem of water shortage, which is serious despite
the relatively ample rainfall. The main economic branches in
the area are agriculture, tourism, and industry. Farming is
based on citrus groves, orchards, vineyards, and vegetables
crops. Tourism includes 1,000 guest rooms and other tourist
attractions. Ramat ha-Golan industry is located in three industrial zones, in Katzrin, Benei Yehudah, and the Technological
Center. It includes the Golan Heights Wineries and the Eden
natural mineral water bottling plants.
Since the 1990s there have been sporadic negotiations between Israel and Syria about the future of the area in a political
settlement, and various Israeli prime ministers have reportedly
expressed a willingness to return most of it to Syria. In 1999 the
Knesset passed the Golan Law, requiring an absolute majority
of 61 Knesset votes to confirm the return of any Golan land.
[Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: G. Schumacher, The Jaulan (1888); S. Klein,
The Jewish Transjordan (1925); C. Epstein and S. Gutman, The
Golan, in: M. Kochavi (ed.), Judaea, Samaria and the Golan (1972),
24398; Z. Ilan, The Jewish Settlement and Synagogues in the Golan
(1980); idem, Erez ha-Golan (1980); Z.U. Maoz, The Art and Architecture of the Synagogues of the Golan, in: L.I. Levine (ed.), Ancient
Synagogues Revealed (1981), 98115; C.M. Dauphin, Jewish and Christian Communities in the Roman and Byzantine Gaulanitis: A Study
of Evidence From Archaeological Surveys, in: PEQ (1982), 12942; Y.
Roth, Survey of the Southern Golan (1984); Z. Ilan, Attempts at Jew-
ramat raH el
ish Settlement in TransJordan, 18711947 (1984); C. Epstein, Dolmens
Excavated in the Golan, in: Atiqot, 17 (1985), 2058; D. Urman, The
Golan: A Profile of a Region During the Roman and Byzantine Periods (1985; cf. Dauphin, AJA, 91 [1987], 15657; S. Gibson, Institute of
Archaeology Bulletin [1988]: 8788); Z.U. Maoz, Ramat Ha-Golan in
Antiquity: A Geographical-Historical Study (1986); M. Anbar and E.
Schiller (eds.), Ramat Ha-Golan (1987); Z.U. Maoz and A. Killebrew,
Ancient Qasrin Synagogue and Village, in: BAR, 51 (1988), 519; I.
Cohen, Daily Life in the Druze Villages in the Hermon and on its Slopes
(1989); M. Hartal, Northern Golan Heights (1989); Vinitsky, The Date
of the Dolmens in the Golan and the Galilee A Reassessment, Tel
Aviv, 19 (1992), 10012; C. Dauphin and S. Gibson, Ancient Settlements in their Landscapes: the Results of Ten years of Survey on the
Golan Heights (19781988), in: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, 12 (199293), 731; S. Dar, Settlements and Cult Sites on
Mount Hermon, Israel (1993); A. Degani and M. Inbar (eds.), Golan
Heights and Mount Hermon, 2 vols. (1993); S. Gutman, Gamla A City
in Rebellion (1994); R. Gersht and S. Dar, A Roman Cuirassed Basalt
Torso from Khirbet-Beida, in: ARAM, 7 (1995), 36978; R.C. Gregg
and D. Urman, Jews, Pagans and Christians in the Golan Heights (1996;
cf. B. Isaac, in J.H. Humphrey (ed.), The Roman and Byzantine Near
East, vol. 2 [1999] 17988); D. Urman, Additional Jewish Inscriptions
from Dabura and Qisrin in the Golan, in: Tarbiz, 65 (1996), 51521;
C. Dauphin, S. Brock, R.C. Gregg, and A.F.L. Beeston, Paens, Juifs,
Judo-Chrtiens, Chrtiens et Musulmans en Gaulanitide, in: ProcheOrient Chrtien, 46 (1996), 30540; S. Dar, The Material Culture of
the Ituraeans, in: Michmanim (1998), 2344; C. Epstein, The Chalcolithic Culture of the Golan (1998). Website: www2.golan.org.il
RAMAT HAKOVESH (Heb. ) , kibbutz in central Israel, N.E. of *Kefar Sava, affiliated with Ha-Kibbutz haMeuh ad. It was founded in 1932 by pioneers from Eastern Europe who, before setting up their own kibbutz, had worked in
Kefar Savas citrus groves. In the 193639 Arab riots, the kibbutz was the easternmost outpost of Jewish settlement in the
southern Sharon and suffered attacks, losing 15 of its members.
Similarly, the kibbutz found itself in the front line during the
Israel *War of Independence (1948), and again suffered losses.
In 1970 Ramat ha-Kovesh had 520, rising to 586 in 2002. Its
economy was based on citrus groves and irrigated crops, etc.,
as well as on a large bakery. The kibbutz also opertated a factory for rubber products and an events garden. The name,
Height of the Conqueror, symbolizes the settlers early history as conquerors of labor in Kefar Sava
81
ramat raH el
Geruth Chimham, mentioned in Jeremiah 41:17 as a place
near Bethlehem.
Already in 193031, B. Mazar and M. Stekelis, working
on behalf of the Israel Exploration Society, excavated a Jewish
burial cave some 200 m. south of the hilltop of the site. Y. Aharoni began excavating the site in 1954 and later conducted four
successive seasons there, between 1959 and 1962, on behalf of
the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums, the Israel
Exploration Society, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and
the University of Rome. G. Barkay made a few soundings at
the site in 1984 on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology of
Tel Aviv University, the Israel Exploration Society, the Israel
Department of Antiquities and Museums, and the American
Institute of Holy Land Studies on Mount Zion. In the course
of the sites restoration and reconstruction as an Archaeological Park, trial excavations were made by Gideon Suleimanny
on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Excavations on
behalf of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University
and the University of Heidelberg were resumed at the site in
2004 under the direction of O. Lipschits, M. Oeming, and Y.
Gadot, as part of a major excavation project.
As at other hilly archaeological sites, differentiating between the strata at Ramat Rah el has been difficult. The generally accepted view, however, is that there were seven periods of occupation:
1. The site was first settled in the time of the kings of
Judah at the end of the eighth and early seventh centuries
B.C.E. (Stratum VB). Scanty architectural remains have been
found, and a large number of storage jar handles, stamped
with royal seal impressions of the lmlk type. Aharoni assumed
that during this period there was a royal fortress at the site
(though only scanty architectural remains were assigned to
this stratum, and most of them were found in the fillings of
stratum VA, out of any clear archaeological context). Some agricultural terraces and private dwellings are the main structural finds from this stratum; in one of the houses Aharoni
found seal impressions of Shebnah [son of] Shah ar. The same
seal impressions have also been discovered at Lachish and
Mizpah. Lipschits, Oeming, and Gadot assigned to this same
stratum another private seal impression Ahaziahu [son of]
Tanhum. The same seal impressions are known at Mizpah,
Lachish, and Beth-Shemesh.
2. In the next stratum (VA), dated to the seventh century
B.C.E., an imposing palace stood on top of the mound. This
is the first palace from the period of the kingdom of Judah
that has so far been found in archaeological excavations. The
palace walls were built of ashlar blocks, uniquely in Judean
architecture, and it was decorated with proto-Aeolic capitals.
Ten of these were found in Ramat Rah el, and other than one
found in Kenyons excavations in the city of David (dated by
her to the 10t9t centuries), this is the only example found
in Judah. Lipschits, Oeming, and Gadot have suggested that
the capitals may have been first used in the palace of stratum
VB. Among the other main finds were window balustrades of
the palace (cf. Jer. 22:14), a painted potsherd depicting a king
(?) seated on a throne, and a seal impression of Eliakim, steward of Yokhan, also known from Beth-Shemesh and Tell Beit
Mirsim. Aharoni assumed that the palace was built at the end
of the seventh century and assigned it to king *Jehoiakim son
of Josiah (608598 B.C.E.), whose palace is described by Jeremiah (22:1319). This date is, however, not justified, at least
from the archaeological point of view. Aharoni assumed that
the palace was surrounded by a wide fortified courtyard extending over an area of about 20 dunams (five acres). However, the 2005 excavation season at the site revealed that this
courtyard, if it existed, was much smaller and confined to the
western side of the mound. As a result of the recent work it is
possible to reconstruct a small citadel that stood west of the
palace, next to its western wall, and a system of wide, open
pools adjacent to the southwestern corner of the palace. However, the architectural and chronological connections between
the palace and the citadel with the pools and water system
are still unclear.
3. The next settlement (Stratum IVB), was dated to the
long time-span extending between the Persian and Hasmonean periods. Numerous small finds from these periods have
been found, with unclear and segmented architectural finds.
Hundreds of seal impressions on jar handles were attributed
to the Persian and Hellenistic occupation. The site was the
main center of the Yehud seal impressions (of all types), as
nearly 200 impressions were found. Many jar-handle impressions with the name yrlm (Jerusalem) were found at the
site, dated to the Hasmonean occupation. Other seal impressions were stamped with the names of royal officials or governors of the province, two of whom Jehoezer and Ahiyab
(new reading by Lipschits and Vanderhooft) could have
been previously unknown Jewish governors. We may accept
Aharonis assumption that a new citadel was built at the site
during the post-Exilic period, and served as one of the main
administrative centers in Judah. So far, however, no significant architectural finds from the Persian and Hellenistic periods have been found.
4. A small unfortified village from the Early Roman period (Stratum IVA), dated to the first century B.C.E.first century C.E. After its destruction ca. 70 C.E., the site remained
abandoned until the third century. The main find from this
period are tomb caves containing ossuaries with Jewish names
written in Aramaic and Greek.
5. After a gap of more than a century, a Roman-style
house with a well-built bathhouse was erected on the hill,
probably for the Tenth Roman Legion, as confirmed by bricks
stamped LXFR (Legio X Fretensis). The many small remains
from this stratum (Stratum III) are dated to the third and
fourth centuries C.E.
6. Between the middle of the fifth century and the sixth
century, a Christian church was built on the tell with an attached monastery complex and a large settlement around it
(Stratum II). There are clear two phases in this period. This
church should be connected to the other, larger, church of the
Kathisma (the Seat), that was excavated close by, about
82
Modern Period
The founders of Kibbutz Ramat Rah el originated from Eastern
Europe. They came with the Third Aliyah to the country and
belonged to *Gedud ha-Avodah (Labor Legion). In 1921 they
were sent to Jerusalem as an urban work group and set up a
temporary camp on the site of Jerusalems Reh avyah quarter.
The first houses in this quarter were built by the work group,
who became construction workers and stone dressers. In 1926
the kibbutz was transferred to its present site on a dominating
hill overlooking a wide expanse of the Judean Desert to the
east, *Herodium, and the town of *Bethlehem with Rachels
Tomb to the south (from which the settlement took its name).
Ramat Rah el joined Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuh ad at the end of the
1920s. In the 1929 Arab riots a large armed mob stormed Ramat Rah el and completely destroyed it. The kibbutz was rebuilt
in 1930. Ramat Rah el again came under repeated attacks in
the 193639 Arab riots. As the settlements cultivable area was
then severely limited, its economy was partly based on outside
work in which the members performed important pioneering
tasks, e.g., in the potash works near the Dead Sea, the railway
service, and in enterprises established in the kibbutz, notably
a laundry and bakery for Jerusalem customers. In 1946 additional land was allocated and the deciduous fruit orchards
and vegetable gardens were enlarged. In the Israel *War of
Independence (1948), Ramat Rah el constituted one of Jewish
Jerusalems forward defense positions and the battles around
it were decisive for the citys fate. In May 1948 the kibbutz was
attacked by the Arab Legion and irregulars advancing from the
east and by an Egyptian tank force simultaneously attacking
from the Bethlehem road in the west. In the following battles,
the place changed hands several times and was completely destroyed, but finally remained in Israel hands. The armistice
border was drawn around it to the east, south, and southwest.
The village was rebuilt and received farmland in the nearby
demilitarized zone around the former high commissioners
palace and in the Coastal Plain. A seminary was opened at
the kibbutz. In the 195152 split in Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuh ad,
Ramat Rah el joined Ih ud ha-Kevuzot ve-ha-Kibbutzim, while
a part of its members went to Ein Karmel. In the autumn of
1956 nearby Jordanian positions opened fire on a party of the
Israel Exploration Society congress visiting the local excavations and killed four persons. In the *Six-Day War (1967), the
kibbutz again found itself in the front line, when the way to
Bethlehem and the Hebron Hills was opened by Israel forces
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
83
ramat Z evi
Kevuz ot ve-ha-Kibbutzim, founded in 1932 by pioneers from
Eastern Europe. In 1939 an ideological split brought about an
exchange of members with *Bet Alfa, with those in favor of
*Ha-Shomer ha-Z air concentrating in the latter kibbutz, while
the members who supported the *Mapai Party stayed in Ramat Yoh anan. In the Israel *War of Independence, the kibbutz
was attacked by a strong unit of Druze irregulars, but held out
and counterattacked successfully (April 1316, 1948). After this
battle, the Druze in Israel ceased to side with the Arabs. In
1970 Ramat Yoh anan had 500 inhabitants, increasing to 700
in 2002. The kibbutzs economy was based on highly intensive
farming (field crops, orchards, citrus groves, and dairy cattle)
and on a plastics factory. Ramat Yoh anan had among its members several painters and writers. The ancient tradition of gathering the Omer (sheaf ) during the Passover week was first
renewed in Ramat Yoh anan. The name, Height of Yoh anan,
commemorates Gen. Jan (Yoh anan) *Smuts.
[Efraim Orni]
84
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
ramon, lull
During the 12t and 13t centuries, the city was often attacked by Muslims. It was finally captured by the *Mamluk
sultan Baybars and as the capital of a province, it regained
some of its former importance. By the 14t century, it was
again the largest town in Palestine and a Jewish community
was reestablished there. With the Ottoman conquest, it once
more declined, although most pilgrims passed through the
town, at the time called Rames, on their way to Jerusalem. The
tax records for 169091 show no Jews living there. The main
buildings of the early city which still stand are the Cathedral
of St. John (now the Great Mosque), the White Mosque and
its minaret (completed in 1318) and the Unayziyya cistern
(dating from the eighth century).
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
85
ramon, Haim
carnatione adversus Judaeos et sarracenos, better known under its shorter appellation Liber Predicationis Contra Judaeos
(scholarly edition published in Madrid-Barcelona, 1957). The
book comprises 52 sermons, one for each week of the year,
preceded by a verse from the Bible. In these Lull strives to
demonstrate, against Jewish and Muslim arguments as to the
irrationality of Christianity, that the Christian truth is not only
rational but also borne out by common sense.
Lull was also active as a preacher. In 1299 James II
(12911327) allowed him to give sermons on Saturdays and
Sundays in the synagogues and on Fridays and Sundays in
mosques. In his important Ars Magna (c. 1274) Lull reduces all
knowledge to a few basic metaphysical principles. The theory
of the attributes of God occupies the central part of this work
and it is interesting to compare the dignitates of Lull with the
Sefirot of the kabbalists. The similarity between the two categories possibly stems from Neoplatonic influence common to the
kabbalists and to Lull; the latter maintained friendly relations
with a circle of Jewish religious thinkers in Catalonia, such as
Solomon b. Abraham *Adret and R. Aaron ha-Levi of Barcelona, author of Sefer ha-H innukh; Lull presumably learned
about the foundations of *Kabbalah from them.
86
ramot, Bracha
took place in the Labor Party Central Committee for ministerial posts in the new government formed in January 2005,
he was appointed minister without portfolio. At the end of
2005, when Sharon left the Likud and formed the new Kadimah Party, Ramon left the Labor Party to join him, along with
Shimon Peres and others. After the 2006 elections he was appointed minister of justice.
Bibliography: A. Barzilai, Ramon: Biographia Politit
(1996).
frills bands that were based in the seedy Bowery club CBGB
in New York. Rules that The Ramones eponymous 1976 debut album instated into a bloated mid-1970s rock world were
no song needed to be more than two minutes long, include
more than three chords, or needed a guitar solo guidelines
the band stuck to closely for their entire career. During their
career, The Ramones played over 2,000 shows. Diagnosed with
lymphoma in 1995, and given three to six months to live, Joey
maintained his health and spirits for five years until a broken
hip led to a decline. His death was treated as the end of an era,
and given almost the same amount of coverage as the deaths
of rock icons John Lennon and Jerry Garcia. Ramones first
solo album Dont Worry About Me was posthumously released in 2002, the same year he entered the Rock & Roll Hall
of Fame as a member of The Ramones. In November 2003, the
city of New York named the corner of 2nd St. and the Bowery
near CBGB as Joey Ramone Place. In September 2005, Ramone
was awarded the Heeb Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award
at the inaugural Jewish Music Awards.
[David Brinn ( 2nd ed.)]
RAMOT, BRACHA (19272006), physician and medical researcher. Ramot was born in Raseinei, Lithuania. In 1941, after the occupation of Lithuania by the Soviets, she was transferred to Komi in North Russia, where she studied to become
a practical nurse (felsher) and substituted for a family physician. Simultaneously, she also graduated from an evening high
school. She arrived in Israel illegally via Poland and Cyprus
in 1947, to be joined by her family 27 years later. During the
Israel War of Independence she served in the *Palmah as a
nurse. She then studied at the Hebrew University-Hadassah
Medical School, from which she graduated in 1952. She did
her internship and residency in medicine at the Tel Hashomer
(now Sheba) Hospital.
In 195456 Ramot trained with Karl Singer in hematology at the Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, and in 195657 at
the Albert Einstein College of Medicine with Irving London.
Upon her return to Israel, she established the Institute of Hematology at Tel Hashomer Hospital and took an active part
in the founding of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine of Tel Aviv
University. From 1971 until her retirement in 1994 she was professor and head of the Hematology Section at the Postgraduate School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. In 197579 she
was head of the Blood Service of *Magen David Adom and in
199196 she was medical director of the Maccabi Health Services. She educated an entire generation of hematologists who
became leaders in the field in Israel. In 2001 she was awarded
the Israel Prize in medical sciences.
Ramot was involved in a number of fields of basic and
clinical research. They included red cell enzymes and cell aging, circadian rhythms of enzymes, variants of glucose-6-phospahate dehydrogenase (G6PD), genetic variants of serum proteins in Jewish ethnic groups and Arabs, and effects of genetic
and environmental factors on the hematologic malignancies.
She described the clinical and pathologic entity of small in-
87
ramoth
testinal lymphoma with malabsorption in Arab and non-Ashkenazi Jewish young adults.
[Bracha Rager (2nd ed.)]
index; N. Glueck, in: AASOR, 2528 (1951), 96ff.; H.J. Stoebe, in:
ZDPV, 82 (1966), 27.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
RAMOTH (Heb. ) , Levitical city in the territory of Issachar (I Chron. 6:58), called Jarmuth in one of the lists apportioning territory to the Levites (Josh. 21:29). In the city list
of Issachar, the town is called Remeth (Josh. 19:21). It seems to
have been the center of the mountainous district of Yarmutu,
which was inhabited by Habiru even before the Israelite con
quest; Seti I, in one of his stelae found at Beth-Shean, describes
his victory over them in approximately 1300 B.C.E. The suggested identification is with Kokhav ha-Yarden (Ar. Kawkab
al-Haw, the Crusader Belvoir), a dominating height (895 ft.,
275 m.) overlooking the Jordan Valley; it is possibly identical
with the fortress of *Agrippina. The topographical position of
the site justifies the name Ramoth (the Heights).
88
[Efraim Orni]
rand, ayn
Bibliography: E.P. Uphill, in: jnes, 27 (1968), 291316; 28
(1969), 1539.
[Alan Richard Schulman]
of Chicago, where she became the William H. Colvin Professor in the department of music. She was visiting professor at
Princeton University in 1987.
Rans music shows a diversity of styles and flexibility
maintained in the process of composing. Her early works are
more indebted to modernism than her later ones. Though the
emphasis is on the comprehensibility of the music, the result
is often an overt expression of a large gamut of sentiments, at
times extravagantly so. Being mostly fantasy-like, the works
feature great contrasts and have a sharply dramatic profile. Ran
explores the dramatic potential of a certain compositional idea
or of specific musical instruments and sets musical elements
in action similar to theatrical personae in a play.
Her list of works includes O the Chimneys for mezzosoprano, chamber ensemble and magnetic tape (1968); For an
Actor, monologue for clarinet (1978); Private Games for clarinet and cello (1979); Verticals for piano (1982); Amichai Songs
for mezzo-soprano, oboe/English horn, viola da gamba and
harpsichord (1985); Concerto da Camera I & II (1985 and 1987);
String Quartet No. 2 Vistas (1988/89); Concerto for Orchestra (1986); Inscriptions for violin (1991); Legends for orchestra
(1992/93); Invocation for horn, timpani and chimes (1994); Soliloquy for violin, cello and piano (1997); Between Two Worlds
(The Dybbuk), opera (1997); Vessels of Courage and Hope for
orchestra (1998); and Voices for flute and orchestra (2000).
Rans numerous honors include an award from the Rockefeller Fund (1968), Ford Foundation (1972), and the Guggenheim Foundation (1977 & 1990). From 199097 she served as
composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
and from 199497 with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her Symphony (1989/90) earned her the 1991 Pulitzer Prize in Music
and the 1992 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. In 1998 she
received the Koussevitsky Foundation Grant. In 2003 she was
elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
[Yuval Shaked (2nd ed.)]
89
Bibliography: M.B. Rowton, in: Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 34 (1948), 5774; J.A. Wilson, The Burden of Egypt (1951), 239ff.;
P. Montet, Gographie de lEgypte ancienne, 1 (1957), 214; O. Eissfeldt,
in: CAH2, vol. 2, ch. 26, 1719; R.O. Faulkner, ibid., ch. 23.
[Irene Grumach]
rand, yaakov
visa to visit American relatives and in 1926, after a brief stay
in Chicago, she resolved never to return to the Soviet Union.
She set out for Hollywood to become a screenwriter, changing
her name to Ayn (rhymes with pine) Rand, a variant spelling
of the name of a Finnish writer. While working as an extra
in Cecil B. DeMilles King of Kings, she met an aspiring actor,
Frank OConner. They married in 1929. Rand became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1931. The following year
she achieved literary success with the sale of her fist screenplay,
Red Pawn, to Universal Studios. In 1934 she wrote the play The
Night of January 16t; it was highly successful. She then published two novels, We the Living (1936) and Anthem (1938).
Her first major professional success came with the bestselling novel The Fountainhead (1943), which she wrote over a
period of seven years. The theme of The Fountainhead is individualism and collectivism in mans soul. The hero is Rands
ideal, a noble soul, an architect who is firmly and serenely devoted to his own ideals and believes that no man should copy
the style of another. The other characters demand that he renounce his values, but the hero maintains his integrity.
Rands Atlas Shrugged (1957), her most extensive statement of her Objectivist philosophy in any of her fiction, became an international bestseller. In the appendix, she asserted:
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic
being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his
life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and
reason as his only absolute. Along with Nathaniel Branden,
a young philosophy student, his wife, Barbara, Alan *Greenspan, the future head of the Federal Reserve System, and others, members of The Collective, she launched the Objectivist
movement to promote her philosophy of individual ability
and laissez-faire capitalism. After several years, Rand and
Brandens relationship blossomed into an intense romance,
despite the fact that both were married. Eventually, the affair
led to the Brandens divorce.
Rands political views were radically pro-capitalist, antistatist, and anti-Communist. She had a strong dislike for
mysticism, religion, and compulsory charity, all of which she
believed helped foster a crippling culture of resentment towards individual human happiness and success. Although
she became a cult figure in libertarian circles, her view of selfishness as a virtue and altruism as a vice was a reversal of the
traditional Judeo-Christian ethic. In 1985, Leonard Peikoff, a
surviving member of The Collective and Rands designated
heir, established the Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the
Advancement of Objectivism.
RAND, YAAKOV (1926 ), professor of education, specializing in special education. His research contributed to the development of cognitive teaching techniques. Rand was born
in Romania, and left for Israel in 1947. Seized by the British,
he was sent to Cyprus and finally arrived to Israel in 1948. In
1964 he graduated in psychology and special education from
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in 1971 he received
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ransom
30 years, and supported medical and artistic organizations.
A member of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in New York,
he was also prominent in many Jewish scientific and educational philanthropies.
RANKIN, HARRY (19202002), Canadian lawyer and politician. Rankin was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, and became one of the citys most beloved and controversial public figures. During World War II, Rankin served
in the Canadian Army Seaforth Highlanders and was twice
wounded. Returning to civilian life, he completed a B.A. and
law degree in just five years at the University of British Columbia. Staunchly left-wing, Rankin was nearly prevented
from taking the bar because he had belonged to the Communist University Club. He went on to become treasurer and a
life member of the BC Law Society and was appointed Queens
Counsel. In addition to helping establish the provinces first
system of legal aid, much of Rankins work as a lawyer was performed without charge. He was a tireless advocate for tenant
rights, the working class, Aboriginals, Vancouvers downtown
east side, and many disadvantaged groups and individuals. He
and his first wife, Jonnie (Ottwell) Rankin, were early members of the citys Peoples Cooperative Bookstore, and their
Vancouver home was a well-known meeting place for leftist
political and labor activists. In 1966 Rankin was elected as a
City Council alderman, a position that he held for 24 years.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
RANSCHBURG, BEZALEL BEN JOEL (17601820), rabbinical author. In accordance with the imperial decree of 1787
(see *Names) he adopted the name Daniel Rosenbaum but
was later called Ranschburg, the Yiddish pronunciation of
the town Ronsperg, the German name for *Pobezovice where
he was born. He attended yeshivot at Schwabach, Fuerth,
and Prague, where he was a pupil of Leib Fischels and also
studied under Ezekiel *Landau. He never held an official appointment and was supported by his wife and her father, but
acted as rosh yeshivah in Prague. Ranschburg fought Reform
(Resp. H atam Sofer). Among his pupils was Zacharias *Frankel (MGWJ, 45 (1901), 220).
He devoted himself to commenting on those tractates of
the Talmud on which there are few commentaries, such as his
Horah Gever on *Horayot (Prague, 1802) and Pith ei Niddah
(1957; published in Jerusalem 1928 under the title Hokhmat
Bez alel). His Sedeh Zofim on *Asher b. Jehiels halakhot was appended to the Prague Talmud edition (183946). His Maaseh
Rav (Prague, 1823) deals partly with tractate Nazir. *Haggahot based on it are included in all subsequent editions of the
Talmud. Many letters on halakhic subjects which he wrote
to the censor Carolus Fischer (partly signed Ilan Shoshan)
are preserved in the Prague University Library (MGWJ, 62
(1918), 4956).
Bibliography: B. Ranschburg, Horah Gever (1802), introd.; idem, Maaseh Rav (1823), introd.; S. Kauder, Ahavat Emet
(1828), 47b50b; O. Muneles, Bibliographical Survey of Jewish Prague
(1952), index.
[Meir Lamed]
91
raoul glaber
(Ex. 21:19; 22:16). Later, set amounts were established (Deut.
22:29), such as the redemption fees for those consecrated to
YHWH (Lev. 27). To be distinguished from kofer in the sense
of ransom, which is paid to an aggrieved party, is kofer in
the sense of bribe, which is paid to a judge in the hope of
influencing his decision (I Sam. 12:3; Amos 5:12).
Bibliography: Pedersen, Israel, 12 (1926), 39899;
Pritchard, Texts, 18990; E.A. Speiser, in: JBL, 182 (1963), 3016.
[David L. Lieber]
RAOUL (Rodulphus) GLABER (before 10001049?), Benedictine chronicler. In his very comprehensive account of the
anti-Jewish persecutions perpetrated in France (and in Germany) at the beginning of the 11t century, Glaber confirms
or completes many details of the Hebrew report concerning
the same events, in which Jacob b. Jekuthiel of Rouen had become involved. His narrative gives a clearer insight than the
Hebrew report as to what extent this persecution gave rise to
the idea of the *Crusades. He is also the source of information on a Judaizing movement promoted by Raynaud, Duke
of Sens, from 1009, and a similar Judaizing heresy in Lombardy in 1024.
Bibliography: B. Blumenkranz, Auteurs chrtiens latins
(1963), 2569.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
92
raphael
ment to the Defenders of Kibbutz Negbah is also famous. Rapaport is a conservative sculptor whose rhetorical, patriotic
monuments are characterized by idealization and pathos. In
later works he experimented with abstract form.
RAPE (Heb. , ones), sexual intercourse with a woman
against her will. Unless the contrary be proved by the testimony of witnesses, intercourse with a woman in a place where
no one could have come to her aid even if she had cried out
(in the open country, Deut. 22:25, 27) will be presumed to
have occurred against her will. If, however, it happened in a
place where she could have summoned help (in the town,
Deut. 23), but there are no witnesses to testify that she did so,
she will be presumed to have been seduced, i.e., to have consented to intercourse (ibid. and Sif. Deut. 242:5 and commentaries; Yad, Naarah Betulah 1:2 and Hassagot Rabad thereto).
If intercourse took place while she was asleep and thus unaware, she is considered to have been raped because of the
absence of her free will. Intercourse with a female minor is
always regarded as rape since she has no will of her own (Yev.
33b, 61b; Sh. Ar., EH 178:3 and Beit Shemuel n.3, thereto). If
intercourse began as a forcible violation but terminated with
the womans consent, she will nevertheless be regarded as
having been raped since in such circumstances her passions
and nature have compelled her to acquiesce (Ket. 51b; Yad,
Issurei Biah 1:9).
Legal Consequences
IN CIVIL MATTERS. A person who violates a virgin naarah
(between the ages of 12 years and one day and 12 years and six
months) must pay a fine at the fixed amount of 50 shekels of
silver (Deut. 22:2829), as well as compensation for pain and
suffering, shame, and blemish, which is to be assessed according to the circumstances in each case (Yad, Naarah Betulah
2:16; see *Damages). If the naarah is seduced, the seducer is
liable to pay the same fine and compensation, but in view of
her consent is not liable for compensation for pain and suffering (zaar; ibid.). Since when laying down the liability for the
fine the pentateuchal law speaks of a naarah only, there is no
liability for a fine upon the rape or seduction of a bogeret i.e.,
a girl above the age of 12 years and six months (Yad, ibid. 1:8),
but compensation for pain and suffering, shame, and blemish is due if she was raped (Tur, EH 177, contrary to Yad, ibid.
2:10, 11). The seducer of a bogeret is exempt from all financial
liability toward her since, having consented to the intercourse,
she is presumed to have waived all such claims (Ket. 42a; Yad,
ibid.; Beit Yosef, EH 177).
IN PERSONAL LAW MATTERS. In addition to the financial liabilities mentioned above, the violator of a naarah is compelled
to marry her, She shall be his wife he cannot put her away
all his days (Deut. 22:29), unless marriage between them is
prohibited by the pentateuchal or rabbinic law (see *Marriage,
Prohibited). However, for the reasons set out above concerning the fine, this obligation does not apply if the victim is a bogeret (Ket. 39a; Yad, ibid. 1:3; 5:7; Resp. Radbaz, no. 63; Glosses
93
raphael, Alexander
ring to Raphael were taken over by both Christian angelology
and syncretistic magic. His name occurs frequently in magical
papyri in Greek and Coptic, on amulets, and in many Jewish
and Mandean incantations. As a planetary angel he governs
the sun, and in the division of the four corners of the world he
commands the west. He is one of the four angels of the Presence who stand on the four sides of God, a notion taken over
into the prayer at bedtime: to my right Michael and to my
left Gabriel, in front of me Uriel and behind me Raphael, and
over my head Gods Shekhinah [the presence of God]. According to esoteric Midrashim, his original name was Laviel
or Buel but the name was changed to Raphael when he defended against the other angels Gods decision to create man.
In kabbalistic literature he keeps his high rank and is credited
with many missions and functions. Among the four elements
he governs earth; in the colors of the rainbow he represents
green. M. Recanati even sees him as the angel who governs
primordial matter before it divides up into the four elements.
According to others, he commands the host of angels known
as the ofannim. He is also ordained over one of the four rivers coming out of paradise. In the Zohar he is the angel who
dominates the morning hours which bring relief to the sick
and suffering.
Bibliography: M. Schwab, Vocabulaire de langlologie
(1897), 10, 249; A. Kohuth, Die juedische Angelologie (1866), 35; C.
Preisendanz, Papyri graecae magicae, 3 (1928), index; G. Davidson,
A Dictionary of Angels (1967), 2402; R. Margolioth, Malakhei Elyon
(1945), 18492.
[Gershom Scholem]
94
Raphael, William
he served as senior adviser to the foreign minister, when he
was appointed ambassador to England and Israels first nonresident ambassador to Ireland. Upon his return to Israel in
1977 he was appointed political adviser to the foreign minister, retiring in 1978. In 1981 he published his memoirs Destination Peace.
RAPHAEL, JOHN (Nathaniel, known as Percival; 1868
1917), author, critic, and journalist. He reported the *Dreyfus case for The Daily Mail and was Paris correspondent for
various British periodicals. Raphaels plays include The Uninvited Guest (1911), based on a drama by Tristan *Bernard, and
a French adaptation of Potash and Perlmutter by Montague
*Glass (1916). He also wrote books about Paris and made
translations from the French.
RAPHAEL, MARK (Marco; c. 1460after 1534), Italian rabbi
converted to Christianity by Francesco *Giorgio, who acted as
his godfather. Raphael played an important role in the theological controversy engendered by the divorce suit brought
by Henry VIII against his wife Catherine of Aragon and instituted at Venice by the secret envoy of the king, Richard Croke.
Associated with the kabbalistic circles which were influential
at the time, as well as with the most erudite of the hebraizing humanists in Venice, Raphael entered the service of the
Venetian republic in 1525, which made him a grant for having invented an improved invisible ink. He ranged himself on
the side of the king in 1529. Although many eminent rabbis
of Venice had been consulted, including Kalonymus b. David,
Elijah Menahem *H alfan, and Baruch (Bendit) Axelrod ben
Eleazar, as well as Solomon *Molcho, Henry VIII attached the
greatest weight to Raphael s opinion. Raphael wrote a number
of theological treatises in Hebrew, still not discovered, at the
instigation of Giorgio, who translated them for the king. The
quality of his arguments, which varied according to need, and
his vast erudition were feared by the kings opponents. Warmly
recommended by Giorgio to Henry VIII, Raphael was invited
to England in 1530, and he remained in the kings service for
several years, accompanying him on his visit to France in 1532,
serving him in the most diverse capacities and receiving substantial rewards. Henry VIII even sent him on a mission of
investigation to the Welsh silver and iron mines. He was still
alive in 1534, when he complained about his lack of means to
his protector Thomas Cromwell.
County School, where he was inspired to study science by Edgar Ware. He graduated B.Sc. (1941), Ph.D. (1943, under the
supervision of I. Heilbron and E.R.H. Jones), and D.Sc. (1952)
from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University
of London. Raphael was head of the chemotherapy research
unit of the pharmaceutical company May and Baker (194346)
and then ICI research fellow at Imperial College (194649).
He was lecturer in chemistry at Glasgow University (194954)
before his appointment as the first professor of organic chemistry at Queens University, Belfast (195457), where he established a new department. He returned to Glasgow University
as Regius Professor of Chemistry (19571972). Later, he was
appointed professor of organic chemistry at Cambridge University and Fellow of Christs College (197288). Raphaels research started with his Ph.D. thesis and mainly concerned the
chemistry of acetylenic compounds and their application to
the synthesis of a wide range of novel products derived from
natural substances. He was the first to synthesize penicillinic
acid and linoleic acid. He synthesized novel compounds related to carbohydrate synthesis and many other compounds of
great theoretical and practical importance. He also developed
new pathways for synthesizing histamine and many alkaloids.
He was an outstanding teacher and he established thriving research and teaching departments in the universities where he
held chairs. He served on the governing committees of his own
and other universities and of the societies with which he was
associated. His many honors included election to the Royal
Society of London (1962) and the award of its Davy Medal
(1981), the Ciba-Geigy Award for Synthetic Chemistry (1975),
and appointment as C.B.E. (1982). He was visiting professor at
the Haifa Technion and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(1981). He married the violinist and violist Prudence Gaffikin
(1944). He was passionately interested in music and the improvement of violin tone by utilizing his chemical expertise.
He was a noted raconteur of Jewish humor.
[Michael Denman (2nd ed.)]
RAPHAEL, RALPH ALEXANDER (19211998) British organic chemist. Raphael was born in Croydon, Greater London, and educated at Wesley College, Dublin and Tottenham
RAPHAEL, WILLIAM (18331914), artist and teacher. Raphael is Canadas first known professional Jewish artist. He
was born into a religious home in East Prussia and studied at
the Royal Academy of Berlin and emigrated first to New York
and then to Montreal in 1857. Here he produced mainly genre
scenes, landscapes, and portraits in the Biedermeier realist tradition. His earliest livelihood derived from portrait commissions in Montreal, Quebec City, and Trois Rivires and from
photography-based art for William Notman. In Jewish public
spaces, portraits remain of Dr. Aaron David Hart, ophthalmologist, and Dr. Abraham David *de Sola, rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. Raphael loved the Canadian
landscape and its indigenous peoples and habitants, both of
which became part of his lively genre scenes and site-specific
landscapes. He created artistically rendered drawings in Behind Bonsecours Market, Montreal, 1866, (where he includes
himself as the immigrant artist clutching his portfolio and
family menorah), Habitants Attacked by Wolves, 1870 (made
95
raphael, yitzhak
into the first Canadian chromolithograph for distribution by
the Art Association), and his Murray Bay Indian Encampment
scenes. Raphael painted religious subjects for Catholic institutions and taught in those institutions as well. Canadian artist
Wyatt Eaton received his first art lessons with him before 1867.
Raphael also taught at Montreal High School; the Art Association of Montreal (the first teacher of Figure Painting and
Drawing there, 1881); the Sisters of St. Anne Convent (where
he trained nuns to teach art); and the Villa Maria Convent and
society pupils at Raphaels private art school from 1885. One of
his nine children, Samuel, became an artist in New York. Raphael was a charter member of the Royal Canadian Academy
and the Society of Canadian Artists. He was a member of the
Art Association of Montreal; the Ontario Society of Artists;
the Pen and Pencil Club of Montreal; and the Council of Arts
and Manufacturers of Quebec. Raphael was also a founder of
the National Gallery of Canada and of Montreals first Reform
temple, Temple Emanuel.
Bibliography: S.R. Goelman, William Raphael (18331914)
(1996).
[Sharon Goelman (2nd ed.)]
96
tional Religious Party ministers, including Raphael, were dismissed from the government.
Raphael was chairman of Mossad ha-Rav Kook and Yad
ha-Rav Maimon, and a member of the Party Executive and of
the World Center of ha-Mizrachi-ha-Poel ha-Mizrachi. In 1979
he received the Bialik prize for Jewish knowledge.
Among his writings are an autobiography Lo Zakhiti
ba-Or min ha-Hefker (1981) and a book on H asidism. He
was also an encyclopedia editor on religious Zionism in the
Enz iklopedyah shel ha-Z iyyonut ha-Datit, 3 vols. (195865), and
on H asidism, in the Enz iklopedyah le-H asidut (2000).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]
rapoport
RAPHALL, MORRIS JACOB (17981868), rabbi. Raphall,
who was born in Stockholm, Sweden, settled in England in
1825. He quickly became prominent in British Jewry and one
of its chief exponents to the Christian world, fighting for the
political rights of Jews and against defamations of Judaism.
He published Hebrew Review and Magazine of Rabbinical
Literature (3 vols., October 1834July 1836), the first Jewish
periodical in England, and, with David Aaron de *Sola, he
produced the first translation of parts of the Mishnah into
English, Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna (1843; 18452). In
1849 Raphall went to the U.S. to serve as rabbi of Bnai Jeshurun Synagogue in New York. There he associated himself with
Isaac *Leeser and S.M. *Isaacs and preached against Reform.
His lectures on Jewish history attracted large crowds, including many Christians. In 1860 he gave the first invocation by a
rabbi before the House of Representatives.
At the peak of the secession crisis, on Jan. 4, 1861, a day
President Buchanan had proclaimed a National Fast Day,
Raphall delivered what became the most highly publicized
rabbinical statement on the Bible and Slavery. Placing Judaism squarely in opposition to abolitionism, he denied that any
statement in the Bible could be interpreted to prohibit slavery,
and insisted that, on the contrary, biblical law granted the right
to own slaves. He did distinguish between biblical slavery and
the southern system; the Bible, he said, regarded the slave as a
person, whereas Southerners treated the slave as a thing. But
he directed his major attack against the abolitionists for their
misrepresentation of the Bible and their agitation against the
legitimate right of slaveholding. The sermon was widely reprinted, drawing praise throughout the South and criticism
from Jewish and non-Jewish abolitionists in the North. A
notable reply came from the Reform leader and abolitionist
Rabbi David *Einhorn.
An active fund-raiser on behalf of the needy, Raphall was
particularly concerned for the poor of Palestine. His books include Ruhama: Devotional Exercises for the Use of the Daughters of Israel (1852), Post-Biblical History of the Jews (2 vols.,
1855), and Path to Immortality (1859).
97
98
rappaport, henry
RAPOPORT (Rappaport), SOLOMON JUDAH LEIB
(known by his acronym Shir; 17901867), rabbi and scholar,
pioneer of Haskalah and *Wissenschaft des Judentums. Rapoport, born in Lemberg, Galicia, received a traditional education and became known for his brilliance as a talmudist. Under the influence of Nachman *Krochmal he took an early
interest in Haskalah and secular learning, studying classical,
Semitic, and modern languages, as well as science. Supported
at first by his father-in-law Aryeh Leib *Heller, who was one of
the leading talmudists of his time, Rapoport later had to take
the position of a manager of the government kosher-meat tax.
Without income again in 1832, Rapoport tried unsuccessfully
to obtain a rabbinical position in Berlin and in Italy through
recommendations by L. Zunz and S.D. Luzzatto, but his German was poor and he had no university education. After a period in business in Brody, he became rabbi of Tarnopol (1837),
where he had to contend with the violent opposition of the
H asidim, whom he had attacked in a pamphlet (Ner Mitzvah,
in: Nah alat Yehudah, 1868) in defense of Haskalah in 1815 (see
also his introduction to Sheerit Yehudah, in: Bikkurei ha-Ittim, 8, 1827). Rapoport was appointed chief rabbi of Prague
in 1840, successfully opposing the candidacy of Z evi Hirsch
*Chajes for the same position.
After some youthful efforts at poetry and drama, including a paraphrase of Racines Esther entitled Sheerit Yehudah
(The Remnant of Judah, first published in Bikkurei ha-Ittim,
8, 1827), Rapoport turned to Jewish scholarship, publishing
articles in Bikkurei ha-Ittim and Kerem H emed. Dealing with
biblical subjects, he considered the Book of Judges a composite work, certain Psalms to be post-Davidic, and some chapters in Isaiah as belonging to a later prophet. His real mark
on Jewish scholarship was made in a series of bibliographical
studies of the geonic leaders Saadiah, Hai, Hananel b. H ushiel,
Nissim b. Jacob, and H efez b. Yaz liah , and of Eleazar ha-Kallir and Nathan b. Jehiel of Rome, author of the Arukh (published in Bikkurei ha-Ittim, 182831; and also separately and
posthumously under the title Yeriot Shelomo, 1904, repr. 1913
and 1960). These studies illuminated a relatively obscure period of Jewish history and paved the way for later research;
moreover, they set a new standard of critical methodology to
be applied to the history of rabbinics. In them Rapoport traced
the migration of rabbinic scholarship and tradition from Erez
Israel through italy to Central and Western Europe, and from
Babylonia through North Africa to Spain.
Of importance, too, was his Erekh Millin, a talmudic encyclopedia dealing mainly with historical and archaeological
aspects of the Talmud (vol. 1 (1852); the rest, 1914). Rapoport
also wrote an introduction to Abraham b. H iyyas ethical treatise Hegyon ha-Nefesh (ed. by Freimann, 1860, reprint 1967).
Rapoport wrote articles for Abraham Geigers Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, Julius Fuersts Orient, and Zacharias Frankels
Zeitschrift fuer die religioesen Interessen des Judentums and
became editor of *Kerem H emed. He was in close contact
with these and other leading figures of the Wissenschaft des
Judentums (see his correspondence in A. Harkavy, Zikkaron
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
RAPPAPORT, ARMIN H. (19161983), U.S. historian. Rappaport was born in New York City. He taught briefly at Stanford University and then for nearly two decades at the University of California, Berkeley, where he gained recognition as one
of the foremost scholars of American diplomatic history. He
also served as assistant dean of students from 1957 to 1967.
He was then appointed professor of history and, from
1967, provost of the Third College, University of California,
San Diego. He was one of the founding members of the UCSD
history department and served as its chairman. He was editor of the journal of Diplomatic History and president of the
Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations. Rappaport was also involved in La Jolla, California, Jewish community affairs.
UCSD established the Rappaport Prize, which is awarded
annually for the best history essay.
Rappaports major works include The British Press and
Wilsonian Neutrality (1951), The Navy League of the United
States (1962), Henry L. Stimson and Japan (1963), Patterns in
American History (with A. De Conde and W. Steckel, 1965),
Present in the Past (with R. Traina, 1972), and A Short History
of American Diplomacy (1975). He also edited several books
of sources and issues in American diplomacy.
[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
99
RAPPAPORT, ROY (19261997), U.S. anthropologist. A native of New York City, Rappaport enlisted in the U.S. Army at
the age of 17, seeing combat duty with the Infantry in World
War II, for which he received the Purple Heart. He earned
his bachelors degree in hotel administration from Cornell
University in 1949; in 1951 he opened Avaloch Inn, near Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. He then studied anthropology at Columbia University, receiving his doctorate in
1966.
Rappaport joined the faculty of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as an assistant professor in 1965, becoming
associate professor in 1968 and professor of anthropology in
1972, eventually serving as chair of the department of anthropology. An internationally respected scholar, his work explored the relationship between religion, society, and ecology,
and his many professional activities reflected these interests.
His early work, Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a
New Guinea People (1968), based on his fieldwork among the
Maring people, established his reputation. Another notable
work, Ecology, Meaning and Religion, was published in 1979.
His last book, Holiness and Humanity: Ritual in the Making
of a Religious Life, completed shortly before his death in 1997,
was published in 1999; it is considered to represent the scope
of his academic work, and it was described as a milestone in
the anthropology of religion.
Rappaport served as a consultant for educational, anthropological, and environmental projects, including the National
Academy of Sciences Task Force. He was a consultant to the
state of Nevada and to Nye County concerning the storage of
nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, and he advised the federal
government regarding oil leasing on the outer continental
shelf. He contributed numerous articles to academic journals, including American Anthropologist, Ethnology, Scientific
American, and the Journal of the Polynesian Society. He was a
member of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and
the American Ethnological Society. Rappaport was president
of the American Anthropological Association, and he served
on several national committees on environmental issues.
[Dorothy Bauhoff (2nd ed.)]
100
rashi
conducted his own defense, created a sensation. In 1921 Rappoport joined the French Communist Party and edited the
Revue Communiste and the official party organ Humanit. Already disillusioned by the evolution of communism in Russia,
and shocked by the Moscow trials, Rappoport resigned from
the Communist Party in 1938. He condemned the Munich
pact and expressed his great sympathy for the Jewish victims
of Nazism, regretting that he had not fought more often for
Jewish rights.
Rappoport published several works on politics and history including La Philosophie de lhistoire comme science de
lvolution (19252), Jean Jaurs, Lhomme, le penseur, le socialiste (1916, 1925), and La revolution mondiale (1921). His autobiography was published in the Paris Yiddish newspaper, Arbeter Shtime.
His Life
Rashi was born at Troyes, France. (See Chart: Rashi Family).
His mother was the sister of the liturgical writer, *Simeon b.
Isaac. His father was a scholar whom Rashi quoted in his writings (Av. Zar. 75a). Few facts are known about his early life,
although many legends are told about this period. A legend
tells that his father cast a precious gem into the sea rather than
surrender it to Christians who desired it for idolatrous purposes. A heavenly voice then foretold the birth of a son who
would enlighten the world with his wisdom. It is also related
that his mother was imperiled in a narrow street during her
pregnancy. She pressed against a wall which formed a niche
to rescue her.
Troyes was then the capital city of Champagne which attracted merchants from many countries. Rashi learned about
different currency standards, banking, and trade. He knew
of soldering, engraving, weaving figures into material, and
the embroidering of silk with gold. He also learned much
about agriculture and husbandry. After his initial education
in Troyes, Rashi was attracted to the great academies of Mainz
and Worms where he studied after his marriage. His main
teachers were *Jacob b. Yakar and *Isaac b. Judah at Mainz,
and *Isaac b. Eleazar ha-Levi at Worms. At about the age of
25, Rashi returned to Troyes. He maintained close relations
with his teachers, occasionally returning to the academies to
discuss unclear talmudic texts with them.
Rashis return to Troyes was notable, since, due to his influence, henceforth the schools of Champagne and northern
France were destined to rival and finally supplant those of the
Rhenish provinces. Around 1070, he founded a school which
attracted many pupils and became even more important after
the death of his own teachers. His most gifted pupils were his
relatives, *Simh ah b. Samuel of Vitry, Shemaiah, *Judah b.
Abraham, Joseph b. Judah, and *Jacob b. Samson. Nothing is
known about Rashis wife. Although the couple had no sons,
they are generally believed to have had three daughters, all of
whom married prominent scholars. One of them, Jochebed,
married R. *Meir b. Samuel who attended the Mainz academy
with Rashi. Four sons were born to Jochebed and Meir and
they all became famous scholars: *Samuel (Rashbam), *Isaac
101
Bibliography: Z. Kadish, in: Lite, 1 (1951), 138386; N. BenH ayyim, ibid., 157677; Lite, 2 (1965), index; Yahadut Lita, 1 (1959),
index; 2 (1967), 35960.
[Joseph Gar]
RASHI (Solomon ben Isaac; 10401105), leading commentator on the Bible and Talmud.
rashi
RASHI
(SOLOMON b. ISAAC)
1040 1105
JOCHEBED
ISAAC
(RIBAM)
SAMUEL
(RASHBAM)
b.c. 1080 1085
d. 1158
JOSEPH
SOLOMON
MOSES
SIMHAH b. SAMUEL
of Vitry
MEIR b. SAMUEL
JACOB
(RABBENU TAM)
1096 1171
SOLOMON
dtr.
ISAAC
SAMUEL
of Dampierre
MIRIAM
JUDAH b. NATHAN
YOM TOV
RACHEL
ELIEZER
SHEMAIAH
ISAAC
of Dampierre
ELHANAN
d. 1184
SAMUEL
Biblical Exegesis
Rashi commented on most, if not all, the books of the Bible.
The comments ascribed to him on Job, from 40:25, on Ezra,
Nehemiah, and Chronicles are not his, being different in style
and method of exegesis. According to Poznaski, Rashi did
not manage to comment on these, since in writing his commentary he followed the order of the books in the Bible. Lipschuetz, however, contends that the exegesis on these books
is substantially Rashis but was recast and augmented by his
pupils. Comments of pupils of Rashi, who studied with him,
are embodied in his biblical commentary, which contains
102
[Aaron Rothkoff]
rashi
verses, now resorted to the Mekhilta, the halakhic Midrash on
Exodus. The latter explains the twofold difficulty in the verse,
namely, the prior mention of the mother and the use of the
verb fear rather than honor as in the Ten Commandments,
whereas the Sifra explains only the first difficulty.
Another characteristic aspect of Rashis exegesis is the
manner in which he formulated his comment. In many instances he did not quote a Midrash literally but either augmented or abridged it, or even altered its wording (cf. Gen.
1:5, 6, 7 with Gen. R.), his aim being to make for easier understanding and lucidity, and to adapt the language of the Midrash to that of the text. In this way Rashi obviated a patchwork impression and instead achieved a uniform style. The
criterion on which he based his choice of comment is clearly
stated by him: As for me, I am only concerned with the literal
meaning of the Scriptures and with such aggadot as explain
the biblical passages in a fitting manner (Gen. 3:8). In many
instances where he departs from this latter principle he adds
the comment that these aggadot do not give the literal interpretation. But it is not to be assumed that where he failed to
add this comment he regarded such Midrashim as providing
a literal exposition of the text (thus, for example, the Midrash
quoted without this comment in his explanation on Gen. 1:6
(Let there be a firmament) does not accord with his exegesis
of Gen. 1:1). While Rashi based his comment on the halakhic
part of the Pentateuch on talmudic literature, his purpose was
not to lay down the halakhah, and he therefore quoted only
some of the many halakhot dealing with the subject in question. Sometimes he states that the halakhic Midrash does not
give the literal interpretation of a passage (Ex. 16:29, 22:8); at
others he interprets a verse contrary to the decided halakhah
(Lev. 13:6). His partiality for the literal explanation is further
attested by the fact that, having revised his commentary several times, he wished at the end of his days to improve it on
the basis of the plain meanings which appear daily (Rashbam, to Gen. 37:2).
Generally, Rashi did not state his sources but these have
been given in detail by Zunz in his book on Rashi, the most
important of his sources being the Targums. In his Pentateuch
commentary, Rashi derived much help from Targum Onkelos. Not only did he expound many verses according to it,
but on occasion dwelt at length on its rendering (Gen. 49:24;
Ex. 24:14); interpreted the words of Targum Onkelos; quoted
from the Talmud in support of them, and dealt with the etymology of some Aramaic word in the Targum (Deut. 14:5). He
laid down general rules explaining Onkelos choice of words
(Gen. 43:15), but in many instances rejected his translation
where he found this unacceptable (Gen. 15:11). On several passages Rashi had a different version of Targum Onkelos (Gen.
27:36; Ex. 23:27), which was subsequently emended by publishers in accordance with his version. In his commentary on the
Prophets and the Hagiographa he made much use of Targum
Jonathan and even quotes Targum Sheni on Esther but apparently did not know the Palestinian Targum on the Pentateuch
nor the Targum on the Hagiographa. Some of his sources he
heard from others (Deut. 29:3). On one occasion he even declared: I have had no one to help me, nor a teacher, in all this
edifice, but it is as revealed to me from Heaven.
103
[Avraham Grossman]
Rashi as Grammarian
Rashi centers his commentaries on meticulous analysis of
the language of the text. He was both philologist and linguist
and derived his grammatical principles from rabbinic literature and the Hebrew works of the Spanish grammarians,
*Menahem b. Jacob ibn Saruq and *Dunash b. Labrat (Ps.
39:7, 55:22). Since he knew no Arabic, Rashi never learned of
Judah b. David H ayyujs and Jonah *Ibn Janah s work on triconsonantalism. Like Menahem, Rashi sometimes assumes
the existence of roots of one consonant (like hoga), although,
following Dunash, he generally regards the verbs primae waw
as being tri-consonantal. Verbs tertiae he are in his view biconsonantal. To support this view Rashi calls attention to the
nominal derivation from the root (such as z adah-z ediah in
Ex. 21:13). Verbs primae nun are bi-consonantal (e.g., nih atu,
Ps. 38:3), as are those mediae waw as the middle letter, and the
geminates like yegudennu (Gen. 49:19). By turns, he utilizes
the terms yesod, ikkar, and shoresh to indicate the root; yesod
nofel (omitted root) to represent a consonantal root which
falls away in conjugation; and paol and asoh to indicate the
conjugation of the verb. For the names of vowels he utilizes
pathah (a), pathah qatan or segol (e (or: ae)), h ireq (i), qames
or qames gadol (a), s ereh (e), melopum (o), uruq (u). Scattered
throughout his commentaries are many remarks on syntax,
tenses, moods, conjugations (such as the privative use of the
piel Ex. 27:3), collective nouns (Gen. 32:6), deletion of parts
of the sentence, prepositions required by certain verbs (Judg.
6:32), and changes in word order (Gen. 2:19). Occasionally he
formulates rules on linguistic usage (Jer. 51:12), and discusses
the shades of meaning of various synonyms (Gen. 1:11; Micah
5:7). He discriminates clearly between biblical Hebrew and
mishnaic Hebrew (e.g., Ps. 76:11), even though he sometimes
interprets the verse in accordance with the rabbinic literature
(Ex. 12:7), for which he was criticized by his grandson, Samuel
b. Meir. Rashi often resorts to the vernacular French in order
to explicate difficult words and phrases, for example, about
1,000 such words and phrases are so explained in his commentary on the Bible. This practice has proven invaluable for
the study of Old French glosses (see *Laaz). He wrote a small
number of glosses in German. However, some of the existing
German glosses, and all of the Slavonic glosses, were added by
other scholars in subsequent generations (I Kings 6:7).
[Menahem Zevi Kaddari]
rashi
the belief in the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai) by the passage And the Canaanite was then in the land (Gen. 12:6),
but contented himself with the brief comment: He [i.e., the
Canaanite] was increasingly conquering Erez Israel from the
descendants of Shem. In many instances he even refrained
from entering into the detailed proof of his comments hinted
at in the verses he cites. A thorough study of his statements
is thus necessary to reveal the problems that faced him, his
manner of solving them, and the support for his comments
that he derived from scriptural verses and rabbinic sources.
His honesty led him in many instances to declare: I do not
know what it is (Ex. 22:28; Is. 13:21).
Other Characteristic Aspects of Rashis Commentary
(1) He placed great reliance on the cantillation signs: Had
I not seen the accent zakef gadol on the word u-feneihem, I
would not have been able to explain it (Ezek. 1:11), but also
on occasion he disagreed with them (Gen. 20:16).
(2) Sometimes he combined verses (Deut. 4:44), or explained apparently superfluous details in order to throw light
on events mentioned elsewhere (Ex. 13:18), two methods that
were later developed and elaborated by his French pupils in
their exegesis.
(3) On occasion, as at the beginning of his commentary on Zechariah and Song of Songs, he prefaced his comments with the principles underlying his exegesis, or added
illustrations for greater clarity (I Kings 6:31), some of which
were omitted by copyists and publishers (Rashbam Num. 34:2:
Our teacher, my grandfather, explained and made a drawing of the borders).
(4) He refrained from dealing with problems associated
with philosophy which had not penetrated into German Jewish culture, and thus the question of reconciling philosophy
with the biblical concept of the universe did not arise. In many
instances he did not even deal with moralistic appreciations
of the Patriarchs actions, e.g., the driving out of Hagar), nor
was he concerned with mysticism.
(5) On various occasions he referred to contemporary
events (Ex. 28:41; Job 19:24). Here and there one can detect
in his comments an echo of the persecution of the Jews in his
day (Isa. 53:9; Ps. 38:18). He also disputed the christological
interpretation of biblical passages (e.g., Isa. 9:6), a course also
adopted by his pupils in Germany in their exegesis.
Rashis commentary on the Bible, and particularly that on
the Pentateuch, enjoyed an enormous circulation. More than
200 supercommentaries were written on his Pentateuch commentary, some even by distinguished halakhists, such as, for
example, Joseph *Caro, the author of the Shulh an Arukh. Of
particular importance is Elijah Mizrah is supercommentary.
The study of Rashis commentary spread to such an extent that
he was accorded the title of Parshandata (the expounder of
the law, the commentator par excellence, a pun on Esther
9:7). It was even laid down in the halakhah that the reading of
the weekly portion with his commentary could take the place
of the obligatory reading twice in the original and once in
104
rashi
text. He provides introductions to themes, intersperses the
commentary with the words of the text, and combines recurring statements. With an excellent feeling for the methodology
of the Talmud, he points out difficulties in the construction of
the passages and unusual terminology. In all this his commentary is unique. In Rashis view, the only acceptable explanation
of the Mishnah is that given to it by the Gemara (see BM 33a
and b et al.), with the result that he does not give an independent explanation of the Mishnah. Rashi did not write commentaries to those tractates that have no Babylonian Talmud
(the commentary to Avot ascribed to him is not his).
Although carefully planned, the linguistic variety led
many scholars to point to inconsistencies and contradictions,
but most of these have no real substance and can be explained
against the background of his methods. From the statements
of medieval scholars it is known that Rashi emended his commentary here and there after it had already been issued. However, there are only a few emendations which are definitely
from Rashis pen and an examination of the manuscripts
proves that Rashi did not write his commentary more than
once, i.e., there were no revised editions of it. The commentary circulated rapidly, and from the beginning of the 13t century almost every talmudic scholar made use of it and pointed
out difficulties which he answered or explained. Some even
worked over his commentary to various tractates, e.g., to Sukkah, Ketubbot, Bava Kamma, and Sanhedrin. Rashis corrections of the Talmud text were for the most part introduced into
the standard editions and became the accepted text.
As a Halakhist
Despite the fact that Rashis main aim in his commentary to
the Talmud was not to determine the halakhah, practical halakhic rulings are scattered here and there, and at times even
at length, and he was regarded as a halakhic authority of the
first rank in Germany during a very long period. In the same
way as his commentary on the Talmud became the basis for
all later literary activity in this field in France and Germany,
even though his pupils and their pupils did not hesitate to
query his comments, disagree with them, and suggest alternatives, so with regard to his halakhic rulings. They based themselves upon his oral teachings and his practices as testified to
by those who witnessed them, though they did not hesitate
to differ from him in practice from time to time. His grandson Jacob already disagreed with him on halakhah, and did
not even refrain from criticizing him sharply (cf. Sefer ha-Yashar, novellae no. 449). To such an extent was he regarded as
a halakhic authority that shortly after his death his responsa,
teachings, communications, and practices were assembled in
different collections. This literature, the greater part of which
has survived, both published and in manuscript, is very ramified, and has acquired the general title of the school of Rashi.
The published collections are: Sefer ha-Pardes (Constantinople, 1807, ed, by H.L. Ehrenreich, 1924), Sefer ha-Orah (ed. by
S. Buber, 1905), Siddur Rashi (ed. by S. Buber, 1911), Mah zor
Rashis Daughters
Legends about the exceptional piety and learning of Rashis
daughters include the claim that they wore tefillin. There is
no direct evidence for this assertion but it may have arisen
from the likelihood that Rashis daughters, like other daughters of learned men who had no sons, were better educated
than most women in the Jewish communities of their time.
Moreover, Jewish women of medieval Ashkenaz, who played
a significant role in the economic success of their households
and community, had an unusually elevated social position. As
A. Grossman has demonstrated, this high status was reflected,
in part, by womens increased involvement in Jewish religious
life, including their voluntary assumption of religious practices from which they were exempt in talmudic Judaism. Certainly, Rashis grandson, Rabbenu Tam, knew of women who
chose to recite blessings over the performance of time-bound
commandments, including donning tefillin. Like many contemporaneous sages in Ashkenaz, he accepted these practices
(Tosafot to Er. 96a, S.V. dilma).
A legend also survives that one of Rashis daughters had
significant rabbinic scholarship. This may be based on a report
in Shem ha-Gedolim that when Rashi fell ill he called upon his
daughter to write an involved responsum. While this reading
was accepted by the 19t-century historian Heinrich *Graetz,
most contemporary scholars believe it stems from a scribal
error which made its way into Sefer ha-Pardes. They suggest
that instead of ve-lakhen bitti karati (and thus I called my
daughter), the text should be read u-le-ven bitti karati (and
105
[Jona Fraenkel]
rashid al-din
RASHID ALDIN (Fazlallah Tabib al-Hamdani, the physician from Hamadan; 12471318). He was born to Jewish parents in *Hamadan. He was the son of Imd al-Dawla b. Abu
al-Khayr, a pharmacist by profession. We do not have any
knowledge of the early periods of his life until we hear of him
entering the service of the Ilkhan Abaqa (r. 12651282), the
second *Mongol Emperor, as a physician. We are informed
from some early sources that he had embraced Islam around
the year 1278, when he was 30 years old. Twenty years later,
namely around 1298, Rashid al-Din became a deputy to Sadr
106
raskin, saul
80 years later, Rashid al-Dins body was transferred from the
Muslim graveyard and buried in the Jewish cemetery.
Bibliography: E. Blochet, Introduction lhistoire des Mongols (1910); W.J. Fischel, Ueber Raschid ad-Daulas juedischen Ursprung, in: MGWJ, 81 (1937), 14553; J. Karl, Die Geschichte der Kinder
Israels des Rasid ad-Din (1973; Abdallah Kshni, Tarikh-i Uljeitu
(1969), in Persian; S.H. Nasr et al. (eds), Proceedings of the Colloquium
on Rashid al-Din (1971), in Persian; A. Netzer, Rashid al-Din and His
Jewish Background, in: Sh. Shaked and A. Netzer (eds.), Irano-Judaica, 3 (1994), 11826; B. Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran (1939); F. Suqai,
Tli kitb wafayt al-ayn ibn al-Suqi (1974).
[Amnon Netzer (2nd ed.)]
Raskin sang with the New York Oratorio Society and was
soloist with the Symphony of the Air. She joined the New York
City Opera Company in 1959, making her debut at City Center as Despina in Cosi fan Tutte. From her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1962 as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro,
Raskins repertoire ranged over about 20 operatic roles, especially baroque opera. She stayed at the Met 10 years until 1972.
She also sang at the Chicago Lyric and other opera houses.
In 1964, Raskin received a Ford Foundation grant for
a solo recital where she premiered pieces by Hugo Weisgall
and Miriam Gideon. While she enjoyed an active recital life,
especially in baroque music, unfortunately the amount of recital work that she would have preferred did not materialize
during her mature career years. She took advantage of other
opportunities and recorded for numerous record labels. She
also turned to teaching, becoming an instructor at Manhattan School of Music, the 92nd Street Y, and at Mannes College.
Raskin served on the music panel of the National Endowment
of the Arts and as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera auditions. Raskin continued singing until just before her death
from ovarian cancer at the age of 56. Her voice was often described as ravishing.
[Judith S. Pinnolis (2nd ed.)]
107
Rasky, Harry
His work has been collected by many major museums and galleries, including the Brooklyn Museum.
Bibliography: A. Kampf, Jewish Experience in the Art of the
Twentieth Century (1984); S. Raskin, Pirke Aboth in Etchings (1969).
[Nancy Buchwald (2nd ed.)]
RASSEGNA MENSILE DI ISRAEL, LA, Italian Jewish review founded by Alfonso *Pacifici in 1925 as a monthly supplement to the weekly newspaper Israel. It dealt with Jewish
history and contemporary Jewish life from the traditional
point of view. Its editor until 1938 was Guido *Bedarida, but
it became most effective under the direction, until 1965, of
Dante *Lattes. From 1965 the review was directed by Yoseph
*Colombo. The Rassegna was closed by the Fascist government in 1938, but reappeared in 1948 and in time regained its
importance. For the centenary of Samuel David *Luzzatto in
1966, a special number of 300 pages was issued.
[Yoseph Colombo]
108
rathbone, eleanor
Jewish migratory waves coming mostly from Libya, on the one
hand, and the influence of circumstances that are extrinsic to
the local Jewish situation. These phenomena were specifically
connected to Italian political and social life, mostly involving,
in broad terms, the vicissitudes of Italian public opinion in
the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict. After the editorship
of Augusto Segre (19751979) the Rassegna was distinguished
chiefly as a publication with a high-quality scholarly content,
published by the Italian Jewish Communities Union.
[Massimo Longo Adorno (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: I. Zolli, Il giornalismo israelit ico in Italia
(1924); A. Milano, in: RMI, 12 (1937/38), no. 79. Add. Bibliography: B. Di Porto, La Rassegna Mensile di Israel in Epoca Fascista, in:
RMI, 61 (1995), no. 1, 760.
was considered for the Lvov rabbinate but withdrew his candidacy when asked to give up his Zionist work. He was then
appointed rabbi of Chernovtsy. In 1944 he settled in Erez Israel
and became a member of the chief rabbinate. There he was
consulted by the Supreme Rabbinic Court, and examined candidates for the post of dayyan.
Some of his responsa were published under the title
Kol Mevasser (2 vols., 195562). These deal with such topical
matters as the permissibility of a bat mitzvah ceremony for
girls and of the wording of the ketubbah in Hebrew instead
of Aramaic. He ruled that Hallel with blessings and the SheHeh eyanu should be recited on Israel Independence Day.
Bibliography: O. Feuchtwanger, Righteous Lives (1965),
98101; S.N. Gottlieb, Oholei Shem (1912), 407; Kaniel, in: Shanah beShanah (1963), 4937.
[Mordechai Hacohen]
109
RATHENAU, EMIL MORITZ (18381915), German industrialist and engineer. Emil Rathenau was born in Berlin into a
family of businessmen and entrepreneurs. Through his mother
he was related to the painter Max *Liebermann. After leaving school before the final examination he started his education as an engineer and technician, which lasted until 1862.
Afterwards he worked in different companies in Germany and
Great Britain. In 1865 he bought an engineering plant in Berlin. One year later he married Sabine Mathilde Nachmann,
with whom he had three children Walther (1867), Erich (1871),
and Edith (1883). Shortly after the foundation of the German
Reich, Rathenaus company was closed. After some years living independently on his own resources, he established the
Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft in 1883. In 1887 it was enlarged
and named Allgemeine Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft (AEG). By
the turn of the century the AEG became Germanys secondlargest electrical company, topped only by Siemens. The AEG
was active worldwide. Rathenau was an obsessive and brilliant entrepreneur. He was creative in finding new ways of
marketing and creating new needs for products of the AEG.
Thanks to his close contacts with banks, with which the AEG
cooperated (especially the Deutsche Bank, later the Berliner
Handelsgesellschaft under Carl *Fuerstenberg), he invented
new systems of financing his business projects by founding his
own company banks (i.e., the Elektrobank in Zurich). Buying licenses for innovative technical products he carefully applied scientific advances to the purposes of the AEG. As a Jew,
Rathenau followed the path of acculturation. He avoided any
kind of close religious or cultural contacts with the Jewish
community. He assumed that a Jewish state could never be
self-supporting and thus rejected Zionism. In spite of all this
Rathenau was an opponent of the conversion of Jews. Early in
his life, he was confronted with antisemitism, including antisemitic comments by his competitors. Being a National Liberal Rathenau always remained faithful to the constitutional
monarchy. He was one of the few unbaptized Jews who could
come into close contact with German Emperor Wilhelm II.
When World War I broke out Rathenau initially expected that
it would last only a short time. As an entrepreneur he followed
traditional and patriarchal social patterns even though he was
able to think in modern abstract terms of building up a modern world-wide company. In the years before his death Emil
Rathenau succeeded in placing his son Walther *Rathenau at
the helm of the AEG.
Bibliography: Riedler, Emil Rathenau und das Werden der
Growirtschaft (1916), containing an autobiographic fragment by Emil
Rathenau from 1908; AEG (ed.), 50 Jahre AEG: Als Manuskript gedruckt
110
(1956), M. Pohl, Emil Rathenau und die AEG (1988), W. Knopp, Ein Industrieller im Strom der Zeit: Emil Rathenau (18381915), in: Jahrbuch
Preuischer Kulturbesitz, vol. 26 (1989), 33954, U. Wengenroth, Emil
Rathenau, in: W. Treue et al. (ed.), Berlinische Lebensbilder: Techniker
(1990), 193209, P. Strunk, Die AEG: Aufstieg und Niedergang einer
Industrielegende (1999).
[Christian Schoelzel (2nd ed.)]
ratisbonne brothers
tician Rathenau also revealed a strong desire to be a man
of letters. In this he opposed his fathers wishes to see his
son exclusively in the world of money and technology. His
publications number more than 150 titles, monographs, essays, poems, and plays. Rathenau wrote about politics, economics, financial affairs, aesthetics, social matters, the arts,
literature, and philosophy. He developed a philosophy of
world history which was based on the antagonism of two
types of human beings, the Furchtmensch (as a symbol
for a mechanistic and rational capitalism) and the Mutmensch (as a symbol for the world of art, social progress,
and morality). Both were fighting for dominance in the world.
The ideal, which only the Mutmensch could reach was Rathenaus Reich der Seele a way of living characterized by
love, freedom, and transcendent spirituality. Out of his experiences as an industrialist and also with the ideal aim of
reaching the Reich der Seele, after the war Rathenau also
developed his theory of a cooperative economy (Gemeinwirtschaft). However, Rathenau was a staunch opponent of
socialism. For him the question of a constitutional monarchy or a democracy (which he demanded in opposing the
feudal structures in Prussia until 1918) was not as important
as having all institutions run by capable and moral people.
In foreign affairs Rathenau had an international perspective
strongly influenced by his business interests. During the war
he became increasingly nationalistic, which also reflects the
development of his ideas for creating a Mitteleuropa under
German hegemony. From the end of the World War I until
1920 Rathenau turned towards a cooperative revisionism of
the Versailles Treaty.
Rathenau revealed a complex relationship towards his
own Jewishness. He internalized antisemitic stereotypes with
the idea of escaping discrimination by identifying with the
perpetrators. Rathenau regarded Jews as a race and demanded their physical and spiritual transformation (Hre
Israel! (1897) published in Die Zukunft). He opposed Zionism
and all kinds of Jewish organizations (e.g., the Centralverein). Beneath these tendencies Rathenau also displayed more
hidden, positive attitudes towards Jewishness: He refused to
leave the Jewish community. The baptism of Jews seemed to
him only possible for religious reasons, not for reasons of social opportunism. He was interested in H asidism and started
to re-learn Hebrew. In his belief Rathenau tried to find parallels between Jewishness and Christianity. After World War I
he tried to create his own religion integrating the ideal of the
Reich der Seele in it.
Rathenau suffered severely from constant attacks by antisemites from his early years on. From 1918 there were warnings about assassination plots against him and, indeed, in 1922
he was assassinated by members of the Organization Consul, an antisemitic, antidemocratic, volkish secret organization. The murderers killed Rathenau as a symbol of the Republic of Weimar and as a Jew. Rathenau became a symbol
of the Weimar democracy, and remains one of its most-read
authors.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
Bibliography: SOURCES: W. Rathenau, Gesammelte Reden (1924); ibid., Gesammelte Schriften in fnf Bnden (1925); ibd.,
Neue Briefe (1927); ibid., Briefe: Neue Folge (1928); ibd., Nachgelassene Schriften, 2 vol. (1928); ibid., Politische Briefe (1929); ibd., Schriften
aus Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit (1929); ibd., Briefe: Neue Ausgabe in
drei Bnden (1930, volumes 1 and 2 have been published 1926 the
first time); H.W. Richter (ed.), Walther Rathenau: Schriften und Reden (1964, 19862); H. Pogge von Strandmann (ed.), Walther Rathenau: Tagebuch 19071922 (1967). Add. Bibliography: E. Schulin
(ed.), Walther Rathenau: Hauptwerke und Gesprche (1977, 19922); H.D. Hellige (ed.), Walther Rathenau: Maximilian Harden: Briefwechsel
18971920 (1983). LITERATURE: H. Graf Kessler, Walther Rathenau:
Sein Leben und sein Werk (1928, 1988); P. Loewenberg, Walther Rathenau and German Society (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1966); P. Berglar, Walther Rathenau (1970, 19872); R. Kallner, Herzl
und Rathenau: Wege juedischer Existenz an der Wende des 20. Jahrhunderts (1976); E. Schulin, Walther Rathenau: Repraesentant, Kritiker und Opfer seiner Zeit (1979, 19922); H. Wilderotter et al. (ed.),
Walther Rathenau 18671922: Die Extreme berhren sich (1993); M.
Sabrow, Der Rathenaumord: Rekonstruktion einer Verschwrung gegen die Republik von Weimar (1994); C. Schoelzel, Walther Rathenau:
Industrieller. Schriftsteller. Politiker (2004); idem, Walther Rathenau.
Eine Biographie (2005).
[Christian Schoelzel (2nd ed.)]
RATISBONNE BROTHERS, two French Jews who converted to Christianity and who became prominent in the
Catholic Church in the 19t century. The Ratisbonne brothers
were sons of a Strasbourg Jewish banker who was president of
the Consistoire of Alsace. His second eldest son, THEODORE
RATISBONNE (18021884) was born in Strasbourg and practiced law in his native city. He devoted much of his time to the
improvement of the social and economic plight of the Jews
in the Strasbourg ghetto. However, his study of the Bible and
church history led him to be baptized secretly. He adopted
the name Marie and was hereafter known as Marie Thodore
Ratisbonne. After being ordained a priest in 1830 he taught at a
church school in Strasbourg and in 1840 went to Paris to work
for the archconfraternity of the parish Notre-Dame des Victoires. In 1843, together with his brother Alphonse, he founded
the Congregation of Notre Dame de Sion for women and in
1852 the Fathers of Zion. Marie Thodore Ratisbonnes avowed
aims in founding these religious societies were to bring about
a better understanding between Jews and Christians and to
convert Jews. He wrote profusely, and among his principal
works are Histoire de Saint Bernard et de son sicle (2 vols.,
1840; 190311) Manuel de la mre chrtienne (1859; 192622).
ALPHONSE RATISBONNE (18121884), the ninth child of
the family, was also born in Strasbourg and began his career as
a lawyer and banker. Like his brother Thodore he was filled
with fervor to help his fellow Jews. At first he found it difficult to forgive his brothers conversion and felt hatred toward
Christendom for its persecution of Jews. However, an experience during a visit to a church in Rome in which he reportedly saw a vision of Mary (January 20, 1842) moved him so
powerfully that he had himself baptized eleven days later. He
took the name of Marie, became a Jesuit, as Marie Alphonse
111
ratner, bruce C.
Ratisbonne, and in 1848 was ordained a priest. He left the Society of Jesus in 1852 to collaborate with Thodore in Paris, but
in 1855 went to Palestine, where he spent the rest of his life
working for the conversion of Jews and Muslims. In 1856 he
established the Ecce Homo convent for the Sisters of Zion in
the Old City of Jerusalem and, subsequently, two orphanages.
He wrote Monument la gloire de Marie (1847).
The Ratisbonne Congregations
The Sisters of Zion benefited from the fact that in the middle
of the 19t century there was a prodigious development in the
education of girls, particularly in France, and that the French
teaching congregations were spreading throughout the world.
A congregation whose aim was the conversion of the Jews
would have attracted a very limited number of candidates,
whereas the movement toward teaching and the establishment
of boarding schools made it possible to reach young ladies attracted to religious life. The development deflected the primitive orientation of the congregation: if in their life of prayer
their objects remained unchanged the sisters made no efforts
at proselytizing. The Fathers of Zion who did not constitute a
canonically erected religious congregation during the lifetime
of the Ratisbonne brothers were at the beginning primarily
chaplains and spiritual directors to the Sisters and their pupils. Until the end of World War I both congregations had little
contact with Jews and Judaism. With the rise of Hitlerism Fathers and Sisters were among its most prominent opponents
on the Catholic side and insisted in their publications on the
necessity of common action by Jews and Christians against
neo-paganism. In the countries occupied by Nazi Germany
Sisters and Fathers made efforts to provide Jews with shelter
and a passage to safety, although they themselves were closely
observed by the Gestapo. After World War II they were active
in the development of the mentality which led to the Declaration Nostra Aetate by the second Vatican Council. Both Congregations now hold that proselytizing must be entirely abandoned and they considered themselves pioneers of a new era
of Jewish-Christian understanding. The Sisters and Fathers of
Zion have taken a positive attitude toward the State of Israel.
Bibliography: J. Guitton, Le conversion de Ratisbonne
(1964); L.M. Leggatt (tr.), A Nineteenth Century Miracle (1922); M.J.
Egan, Our Ladys Jew, Father M.A. Ratisbonne (1953); idem, Christs
Conquest: The Coming of Grace to Theodore Ratisbonne (1945).
[Marie Joseph Stiassny]
112
public service, and his first job out of school was as a lawyer
for the Model Cities program in Queens. In 1978, he became
head of the citys consumer-protection division. He taught law
for four years at New York University Law School before being named commissioner of consumer affairs for New York
City. He quit government at the end of 1981 to fortify his net
worth in real estate development. He formed the Forest City
Ratner Companies, an affiliate of Forest City Enterprises, in
1982. He picked unlikely places to develop, like little-known
poor areas of Brooklyn. He built an office building in Brooklyn
and then the Metrotech office complex in downtown Brooklyn, which proved to be major factors in raising the vitality of
the area. From there he built hotels in Manhattan and spread
his projects across Harlem, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. In 2004 he bought the New Jersey Nets, a professional
basketball team, and was engaged in extensive negotiations
with New York City and others to build an arena at Brooklyn Atlantic Yards for the team and to create a cultural-business center there, with Frank *Gehry as the architect. He was
also a partner with the New York Times Company in building the newspapers new headquarters, with Renzo Piano as
architect. He was a member of the board of the Museum of
Jewish Heritage.
[Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)]
ratosh, yonathan
tors of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., a national real estate development firm with interests in retail stores and building
materials.
Ratner served a wide variety of community organizations and educational institutions in the United States and
Israel. He was a member of the board of overseers of the
Jewish Theological Seminary from 1953, a member of the
board of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and former vice president and board
member from 1965 of the American Friends of the Hebrew
University. He worked for many charitable organizations,
including the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland,
the UJA, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
RATNER, MARC BORISOVICH (18711917), Russian lawyer and socialist. Born in Kiev, Ratner was brought up in an
assimilated environment. He was expelled from high school
because of clandestine Socialist activities. As a law student he
was arrested and exiled for two years, but later graduated as
a lawyer. In his student days he attracted attention with his
articles in Russkoye Bogatstvo on the agrarian problem, Marxism, political economy, and labor legislation. He appeared
as counsel for the defense in political trials and as civil prosecutor in the pogrom trials. The Kishinev pogrom brought
him closer to Jewish affairs. He was among the leaders of
the *Vozrozhdeniye and later the *Jewish Socialist Workers
Party, in which, with Chaim *Zhitlowsky, he represented the
populist socialist-revolutionary trend. He fought for the inclusion of Yiddish in the curriculum of the *Society for the
Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia, and was a
candidate to the second *Duma. As a result of his activities
during the 1905 revolution, he was compelled to leave Russia. Ratner was the initiator of the convention of the socialist
parties of oppressed nations in Russia (1907). He represented
the Jewish Socialist Workers Party at the Congress of the Socialist International in Copenhagen (1910) and initiated the
campaign for the recognition of a Jewish section of the International. The hardships of emigration (Switzerland, Vienna)
ruined his health. A short while before his death he settled
in Jassy, Romania.
In his works on the national question he rejected assimilationism and supported the idea of a national-personal,
exterritorial, autonomy. Noteworthy are his Evolyutsiya natsionalno-politicheskoy mysli v russkom yevreystve (The Evolution of National-Political Thought among Russian Jewry, in
Serp, vol. 2, 1907); Natsionalny vopros v svete sotsialisticheskago mirovozzreniya (The National Question in Light of the
Socialist Weltanschauung, in Russkoye Bogatstvo, nos. 25,
1908); and articles on autonomism in Yevreyskiy Mir, nos. 6,
9, and 10 (1909).
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 4 (1929), 18793; O.I.
Janowsky, Jews and Minority Rights (1933), index; Kniga o russkom
yevreystve (1960), index; B. Borochov, Ketavim 2 (1958), index.
[Moshe Mishkinsky]
113
114
RATTNER, ABRAHAM (18931978), U.S. painter and sculptor. An expressionist artist who painted many biblical subjects
imbued with subjective elements, Rattner was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, to Russian immigrant parents. He studied
at George Washington University and the Corcoran School of
Art in Washington, D.C., and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. His studies were interrupted
by service in the army during World War I as a camouflage
artist. Upon his return from war Rattner re-enrolled at the
Pennsylvania Academy and soon won a fellowship to travel
in Europe. After his travels, Rattner lived in Paris (192039),
only returning to the United States because of Germanys invasion of France. While in Paris, Rattner received additional
art instruction at cole des Beaux-Arts, Grand Chaumire,
and Acadmie Ranson. He had his first one-man show at the
Galerie Bonjean in Paris (1935), from which the French government bought Card Party for the Louvre. At this time Rattner exhibited paintings influenced by Cubism and Futurism.
Later that year Rattner had a one-man exhibition in New York
at the Julien Levy Gallery, establishing the artist as a progeniENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
115
[Richard H. Popkin]
116
RAUTER, HANNS ALBIN (18951949), Austrian *SS officer and *Himmlers principal representative in the occupied
*Netherlands. One of the founders of the fascist Steirischer
Heimatschutz (Styrian Homeguard), he became its chief. In
1933 he adhered with his organization to the Austrian branch
of the Nazi Party. Himmler appointed him in 1940 Higher
SS and Police leader in the Netherlands. In this capacity he
won Himmlers praise for precisely and zealously carrying
out the persecution of Dutch Jewry and their deportation to
the camps in Poland. Rauter was considered the chief executor of the Final Solution (see *Holocaust, General Survey)
of the Jews of the Netherlands. He was sentenced to death by
a Dutch court and executed in 1949.
Bibliography: Het proces Rauter (Dutch, 1952); J. Presser,
Ashes in the Wind (1968); G. Reitlinger, Final Solution (1953), index.
[Yehuda Reshef]
rav
turning to Babylonia equipped with the teachings of Judah
ha-Nasi and with a profound, comprehensive knowledge of
the Torah of Erez Israel, Rav introduced into Babylonia several halakhot previously not practiced there. Thus Huna, one
of Ravs distinguished pupils, declared: From the time Rav
arrived in Babylonia, we in Babylonia have put ourselves on
the same footing as Erez Israel with regard to the breeding of
small cattle (which was prohibited there; BK 80a), as well as
with regard to bills of divorce (the bearers of which in Erez
Israel were exempted from stating, In my presence it was
written and in my presence it was signed; Git. 6a). Rav enacted regulations relating to matrimony (Yev. 52a; Kid. 12b)
and the education of children (Ket. 50a), and frequently visited
different communities in Babylonia to institute various ordinances there and to raise their religious and social standard
(the sources have been collected by J. Umanski, notes 140/1).
That he relied on his independent judgment, unrestrained by other authorities, when issuing regulations and
arriving at decisions, shows the extensive authority enjoyed
by him in Babylonia and recognized, according to all indications, also by the exilarch and his officials. Rav was a member
of the exilarchs bet din (Kid. 44b) and his daughter married
into the exilarchs family (H ul. 92a). The fact that Rav was economically independent (Ber. 57b), owning landed property
(Kid. 59a) and enjoying an income from the manufacture and
sale of beer (Pes. 107a), helped to sustain his eminent status.
Although there is evidence that he was in some contact with
Artabanus V, the last of the royal Arsacid dynasty (Ar. Zar.
10b), unlike Samuel, he did not maintain close relations with
the authorities or with non-Jews, his chief activity being directed to internal affairs, to the religious welfare of the members of the Babylonian Jewish community. In addition to his
labors in his bet din and the academy, Rav was one of the most
eminent and prolific Babylonian aggadists and frequently delivered public discourses. In his addresses, greatly influenced
by the Erez Israel aggadah, he urged his audiences to observe
the mitzvot and to study the Torah.
In explaining the reason for the mitzvot and for their
observance he declared: The mitzvot were given only as a
means of refining men. For what difference does it make to
God whether one slaughters an animal from the front or from
the back of the neck? (Gen. R. 44:1). Of the study of the Torah
he said that it is more important than the offering of the daily
sacrifices (Er. 63b), that it is superior to the building of the
Temple (Meg. 16b), that whoever departs from the words
of the Torah is consumed by fire (BB 79a), and that he who
says, I shall rise early to study this chapter or this tractate,
has vowed a great vow to the God of Israel (Ned. 8a). In his
solicitude for the status and dignity of scholars he asserted
that anyone who insults a scholar is a heretic (eppikoros; Sanh.
99b) and has no remedy for his wounds (Shab. 119b). Urging
scholars to be diligent in teaching the Torah, he declared that
whoever withholds a halakhah from a disciple is as though
he has robbed him of his ancestral heritage (Sanh. 91b), and
that whoever teaches Torah to his neighbors son will be
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rava
Bibliography: Bacher, Bab Amor; Hyman, Toledot, 1542;
Kohut, Arukh, 1 (19262) 610; 7 (19262), 2369; Weiss, Dor, 3 (19044),
12943; Halevy, Dorot, 2 (1923), passim; Graetz-Rabbinowitz, 2 (1893),
3506; I.S. Zuri, Rav (Heb., 1925); J. Umanski, H akhmei ha-Talmud,
Sefer Rav (1931); M. Beer, in: Divrei ha-Congress ha-Olami ha-Revii
le-Maddaei ha-Yahadut, 1 (1967), Heb. pt., 99101; Epstein, Mishnah,
1 (1948), 166211; S. Rosenthal, in: Sefer H . Yalon (1963), 281337; H .
Albeck, Mavo la-Talmudim (1969), 170f.
[Moshe Beer]
telling them what he had to endure there and the large sums
with which he bribed the court (H ag. 5b). Apparently much
money was demanded from the Jews, as from the rest of the
population, to finance Shapurs wars against the Romans. Rava
also maintained close ties with Ifra Hormuz, the kings mother,
who sent him money for distribution among the poor (BB 10b)
and a calf to be sacrificed on her behalf (Zev. 116b). She told
her son of Ravas greatness when the king wished to punish
him for having sentenced a man to flogging which proved fatal
(Taan. 24b). Mah ozas geographic proximity to Be-Ardashir,
one of the countrys capitals, may have facilitated Ravas contacts with the authorities there.
Ravas main activity, however, lay in teaching and in
spreading knowledge of the Torah. He instituted various regulations for the people of Mah oza (Bez ah 30a; Er. 40a; MK 22a;
Nid. 66b). He denounced for their pursuit of pleasure (RH
17a), many among the well-to-do (BK 119a) who ate and drank
to excess (Shab. 109a) and whose wives did no work (Shab.
32b33a). On the other hand, he praised the industry of the
workers of Mah oza (BM 77a). Large audiences gathered on
Sabbaths to hear Ravas discourses (Er. 44b), and in numerous
statements he stressed the signal religious value of studying the
Torah. Once, when he noticed a disciple of the sages praying
at great length, he said: They forsake eternal life and occupy
themselves with temporal life (Shab. 10a). He declared that
whoever occupies himself with the study of the Torah has no
need of sacrifices (Men. 110a) and is superior to a high priest
who enters into the innermost part of the sanctuary (Sot. 4b),
that the Torah is an antidote to the evil inclination (BB 16a),
that suffering comes upon a man for neglecting the study of
the Torah (Ber. 5a), and that King Asa was punished for having
imposed forced labor on the disciples of the sages who were
thus compelled to neglect the study of the Torah (Sot. 10a).
He claimed exemption from government taxes for disciples
of the sages (Ned. 62b), to whom he gave the right to sell their
goods in the market (BB 22a). To uphold their honor and prevent them from wasting their time, which should be devoted
to the study of the Torah, he allowed them to disclose that
they were disciples of the sages so that they might be judged
or give evidence without having to wait for the cases of others to be finished (Ned. 62a). But he also demanded of them
that they be worthy of the name, declaring that any disciple
of the sages whose inside is not like his outside is not a disciple of the sages (Yoma 72b).
Yet despite its great importance Rava did not regard the
study of the Torah as an end in itself. Thus a favorite saying of
his was, The goal of wisdom is repentance and good deeds,
so that a man should not study the Torah and Mishnah and
then despise his father and mother, his teacher, and his superior in wisdom and rank (Ber. 17a). In like manner, when
describing what is demanded of man in this world, he said:
When man is brought in for judgment [in the next world]
he is asked, Did you deal faithfully, fix times for studying the
Torah, did you engage in procreation, hope for salvation, did
you search after wisdom, infer one thing from another? Yet,
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raven
even so, if the fear of the Lord is his treasure (Isa. 33:6) it is
well; if not, it is not well (Shab. 31a). Ravas special outlook
can be better comprehended when compared with Hamnunas
statement that the first matter for which a man is called to
render account in the hereafter is with regard to the study of
the Torah (Sanh. 7a). Rava likewise said: Jerusalem was destroyed only because men of integrity ceased therein (Shab.
119b). An illuminating view of his is that length of life, children, and sustenance depend not on merit but on luck (MK
28a). He had many affinities with mysticism and performed
miracles (see Sanh. 65b). On one occasion he even wished
to discourse in the bet midrash on the mystery of the Tetragrammaton but was stopped by a certain old man (Pes. 50a).
On Ravas death the academy at Mah oza was divided in two,
*Nah man b. Isaac, the head of the *kallah at Mah oza, succeeding Rava as head of the academy there, while R. *Papa, a pupil
of Rava, established one at Naresh.
Bibliography: Bacher, Pal Amor; Hyman, Toledot, S.V.; H .
Albeck, Mavo la-Talmudim (1969), 3746.
[Moshe Beer]
RAVA, MAURIZIO (1878after 1935), Italian colonial administrator and traveler. Born in Milan, Rava studied painting. Due to poor health he moved to warmer climates, traveling in Africa and Asia. He published his impressions in
Italian magazines and geographical periodicals. In 1909 he
founded Il Carrocio, a political literary periodical, staunchly
supporting the new Italian Nationalist Party. Rava strongly
advocated Italian colonial expansion. He served in the Libyan campaign and was decorated for valor. In 1927 Rava was
appointed secretary-general of the *Tripoli government and
from 1932 to 1935 was governor of Italian Somaliland. Rava
published many studies on Italian administration in *Libya,
East Africa, and Ethiopia.
RAVAYA (Ravalia, Ravaylla), family of courtiers in 13t-century Spain, originating from Gerona in Aragon. Its prominent
members included ASTRUG RAVAYA, bailiff of Gerona from
1276 to 1281. In the 1260s Astrug and his son JOSEPH (d. 1282)
loaned large sums to King James I, and also farmed the royal
revenues. Joseph was the treasurer of King Pedro the Great
(127685). In the reign of Pedros father, James I, Joseph had
served as the infantes banker and for a time managed all the
latters property. From 1268 Joseph was bailiff of Besal and
from 1271 also of Gerona and district. Apart from the king
and the infante, Joseph was the only person in the kingdom
of Aragon whose functions enabled him to act in the three
states of the crown (Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia). The
general local bailiffs as well as various other officials were all
subordinated to his authority. Muca de *Portella, Aaron Abinafia, and Josephs brother, Moses (see below), served under
him as district commissioners, their functions being similar
to those of the general bailiffs in later periods. As kings treasurer, Joseph had to supervise the royal accounts and manage the crown revenues. In 1279 he is mentioned by the title
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
thesaurarius (treasurer). Joseph had a part in the appointment or dismissal of royal officials and often served Pedro in
an advisory capacity. He accompanied the king at the siege
of Balaguer against the rebel Catalonian nobles (1280) and
during the campaign against Sicily (1282). Various state documents contain Josephs signature in Hebrew and other administrative notes in this language.
Josephs brother, MOSES, headed the crown administration of Catalonia until his dismissal (before February 1283). In
that year, when he was about to inherit his brothers office in
charge of the three states of the kingdom, the king ordered that
Moses functions should be restricted to Catalonia only, while
for the first time Christian officials were appointed to these
posts in Aragon and Valencia. Moses also continued his activities under Alfonso III (128591), despite the laws of 1283 which
barred Jews from holding public office in the kingdom.
Bibliography: Baer, Spain, index; Sefarad, index; D. Romano, Los funcionarios judos de Pedro el Grande de Aragn (1970).
119
ravenna
RAVENNA, city in Emilia Romagna, N. central Italy. There
is evidence that a Jewish settlement existed in Ravenna in the
third and fourth centuries, probably the earliest Jewish community in the region. A piece of an amphora with the word
Shalom written on it attests physically the Jewish presence,
when Ravenna was the capital of Byzantine Italy. Around the
beginning of the sixth century Ravenna became the capital
of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths under Theodoric, who was
well disposed toward the Jews. Thus in 519, after the Christian populace incited by the clergy burnt down the synagogue
in Ravenna, Theodoric ordered that those responsible should
pay compensation: persons who refused were to be publicly
flogged. The early medieval Jewish community of Byzantine
Ravenna probably consisted of merchants engaged in overseas commerce.
In 1352 there is mention of the first loan bank owned by
Jews. When the Republic of Venice took control of Ravenna,
a number of Jews immigrated. Ravenna Jews were goldsmiths,
wine merchants, and hemp merchants. When Ravenna passed
under the rule of the pope the situation of the Jews worsened.
The vigilance committee of the Italian Jewish communities
met at Ravenna in 1443 to consider measures to counteract
the restrictive papal bull recently issued. The original nucleus
had by now been joined by loan-bankers, whose lucrative activities continued until 1492 when a public loan-bank (*Monti
di Piet) was opened. In the same year the first expulsion occurred. The previous year the synagogue had been destroyed
by the populace incited by the preaching of the *Franciscans,
and the Jews had been attacked. Since Ravenna was now under the sovereignty of the Church, the anti-Jewish regulations
issued by the popes in the second half of the 16t century were
all enforced, and the Talmud was burned in 1553. Jews came
back to Ravenna; thus in 1515 the General Council decreed the
erection of a ghetto in the area where Via Luca Lunghi stands
today. The Jews also erected a small synagogue. The Jews were
expelled once more in 1555. In 1569, when Pope *Pius V ordered the Jews to leave the minor centers of the Papal States,
the Jews were expelled from Ravenna. Thirty loan-bankers returned following the concessions made by *Sixtus V in 1587. In
1593, the Jews were again expelled by Clement VIII.
The Biblioteca Classense includes various manuscripts
in Hebrew and a printed book, Sefer Kol Bo, dated to 1525.
The book was printed in the workshop of Gershon Soncino
at Rimini.
Not far from Ravenna at Piangipane, there is the Allied
War Cemetery. Part of the burial ground includes the graves
of the 34 soldiers of the Jewish Brigade Group who fought in
the Senio area at Alfonisine di Romagna and Brisighella between March and April 1945.
Bibliography : L. Ruggini, Ebrei e orientali nellItalia settentrionale (= Studia et Documenta Historiae et Juris, 25 (1959),
186308), index; A. Balletti, Gli ebrei e gli Estensi (19302), 18ff.; Roth,
Italy, index; Milano, Italia, index; Loevinson, in: REJ, 94 (1933), 1735.
Add. Bibliography: M. Perani, Frammenti di manoscritti ebraici medievali negli Archivi di Stato di Imola e Ravenna, in: La Biblio-
120
ravikovitch, dalia
that the first female prisoners were murdered there in January 1945.
Ravensbrueck prisoners served as guinea pigs for pseudomedical experiments carried out by the *Auschwitz physicians, August Horst and Karl Clauberg. The surviving victims
were often crippled for life. Ravensbrueck also became a training site for women SS auxiliary guards who went on to work
in Auschwitz or *Majdanek. The rising number of Jewish inmates was concentrated in a special Jewish block, where the
worst living conditions prevailed. With the implementation
of the Final Solution, all Jewish prisoners were sent to Auschwitz or Majdanek in October 1942. In the summer of 1944
Hungarian Jewish women arrived, followed later by others
from other camps. Due to the intervention of *Himmlers favorite, the Finnish Dr. Kersten, and of the representatives of
the World Jewish Congress in Sweden, together with the activities of *Bernadotte, on April 21 Himmler gave his consent
to release thousands of women from Ravensbrueck and two
other camps nearby. They were transferred by the Red Cross to
Sweden and Denmark. Among them were at least 1,000 Jewish
women. This rescue action had been decisively influenced by
the personal intervention of Norbert Masur (d. 1971), a member of the Swedish section of the World Jewish Congress, who
flew with Kersten to Berlin on April 19 and conferred with
Himmler in a meeting arranged by Kersten, during the night
of April 20 to 21. With the approach of the Soviet army, evacuation of Ravensbrueck was ordered by Himmler and 15,000
women were sent on a forced death march. Up to this time,
132,000 women and children had passed through the camp,
of whom 92,000 died or were murdered in the camp. When
the Red Army reached the camp on April 30, 1945, they found
3,000 gravely ill and dying prisoners there.
No armed resistance was possible in Ravensbrueck, but
other examples of illegal and punishable activities are noteworthy. Those of a political nature include attempts by women
working in the nearby Siemens factory to sabotage its manufacture of rocket components, to steal newspapers, or to keep
lists of prisoners. Women also taught clandestinely and attempted small theatrical productions. Acts that offered reminders of home and emotional reassurance to the imprisoned women are also important. Women secretly created
cookbooks, artwork, and other small items. These artistic and
hand-crafted gifts that prisoners fashioned from scraps and
threads of clothing and exchanged among themselves were
unique ways in which women were able to resist the dehumanizing and deadly conditions.
Bibliography: W. Machlejd (ed.), Experimental Operations on Prisoners of Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp (1960); M.
Buber-Neumann, Under Two Dictators (1950), passim; IMT, Trial of
the Major War Criminals, 23 (1949), index S.V. concentration camps;
E.N. Masur, En Jude Talar med Himmler (1945); L. Yahil, in: Yad
Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), 21020; E. Buchmann (ed.), Die Frauen
von Ravensbrueck (1959); D. Dufournier, Ravensbrueck: the Womens
Camp of Death (1948); M. Maurel, An Ordinary Camp (1958); Ravensbrueck: German Concentration Camp for Women (1961). Add.
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ravina
Bibliography: R. Gurfein, Mi-Karov u-me-Rah ok (1964),
24750; A. Cohen, Soferim Ivriyyim Benei Zemannenu (1964), 2967;
G. Yardeni-Agmon, in: Haaretz (Jan. 30, 1970), 1415; M. Shalev, in:
Haaretz (27 Sivan 1969); Y. Zemora, in: Moznayim, 43 (1976), 41824;
A. Feinberg, Mavet ba-Mishpah ah,, in: Moznayim, 42 (1976), 14546;
M. Baruch, Iyyun be-Shirei D. Ravikovitch (1973); D. Ben-Shem, in:
Maalot, 8:4 (1977), 4850; J. Hassine, Shirah ve-Mitos bi-Yz iratah shel
D. Ravikovitch (1989); R.E. Sherwin, Two New Translations: The
Poems of L. Goldberg and D. Ravikovich, in: Modern Hebrew Literature, 3:12 (1977), 3842; A. Hirschfeld, Ravikovitch ah arei Asor,
in: Yedioth Aharonoth (January 9, 1987); I. Pincas, Leaving Traces,
in: Modern Hebrew Literature, 1 (1988), 3638; N. Carmel-Yonatan,
Tafnit Amitit, in: Moznayim, 61:56 (1988), 7173; Y. Oppenheimer,
Al Litikah u-Politikah be-Shirat D. Ravikovitch, in: Siman Keriah, 22
(1991), 41530; O. Yaglin, Al Sheloshah Shirim shel D. Ravikovitch, in:
Reh ov, 2 (1995), 7181; Y. Mazor, Al Shirat D. Ravikovitch, in: Iton 77,
206 (1997), 1619; D. Meirovitz, in: Haaretz (April 29, 1998); M. Gluzman, Ha-Kinah ha-Olezet, in: Helikon, 26 (1998), 1926; R. Wichert,
Ha-Em, ha-Ahavah, ha-Milh amah, in: Moznayim, 72:9 (1998), 3436;
H. Zamir, Ha-Metim ve-ha-H ayyim, ha-Maaminim ve-ha-Akurim,
in: Mikan, 1 (2000), 4463; M. Ben-Naftali, Keriah, in: Resling, 7
(2000), 6579; E. Feliu, Dahlia Ravikovitch o la libertat de la imaginacio, in: Tamid, 4 (20022003), 14786; N. Keren, Z aakatah haKevusha shel ha-Em ha-Alumah, in: Teoriyah u-Vikoret, 21 (2002),
193200.
122
ravitch, melech
her brother Mar (Ket. 69a). On the death of Rabbah Tosfaah
in 474, Ravina succeeded him as head of the academy of Sura
(Iggeret R. Sherira Gaon, ed. by B.W. Lewin (1921), 95; and see
Abraham ibn Daud, Sefer ha-Kabbalah Book of Tradition,
ed. by G.D. Cohen, 1942). During that period the Babylonian
government issued harsh decrees against the Jewish community; synagogues were closed and Jewish children compelled
to apostasize (Iggeret R. Sherira Gaon, p. 97). According to
Sherira Gaon it is this Ravina who together with Ashi concluded the teaching (see above). The death of Ravina marks
the end of the era of amoraim in Babylonia and the beginning
of the age of the savoraim.
Bibliography: Halevy, Dorot, 2 (1923), 53651; 3 (1923),
7485; Hyman, Toledot S.V.; B.M. Lewin, Rabbanan Savoraim veTalmudam (1937), 26; S. Albeck, in: Sinai Sefer Yovel (1958), 57ff.;
H . Albeck, ibid., 73 ff.
[Moshe Beer / Yitzhak Dov Gilat]
der Zun (Song to the Sun), Dos Gezang fun Has un Libe
tsum Yidishn Folk (Song of Hate and Love for the Jewish
People), and Efntlekher Mishpet Ibern Toyt (Public Judgment of Death), all four of which, having initially appeared
in periodicals, were published in book form in Di Fir Zaytn
fun Mayn Velt (The Four Sides of My World, 1929). Ravitchs
retreat from expressionism was reflected in the song and ballads of Kontinentn un Okeanen (Continents and Oceans,
1937), a volume which embodied his moods and experiences of
the restless decade that preceded his two years in Melbourne
(193637). Instead of trying to shock and mystify his readers,
he aimed at maximum clarity, proclaiming himself a citizen
of the world, a poet beyond nationalism. In 1946 he and his
brother H. *Bergner published the memoirs of their family as
recorded by their mother Hinde Bergner (18701942) on the
eve of World War II. In Montreal he served as a catalyst of Yiddish literary, educational, and cultural activities. During his
active association there with the Yidishe-folksbyblotek (Jewish
Public Library), he revived the Yidishe-folksuniversitet (Jewish
Peoples Popular University) to offer adult education programming in Jewish and non-Jewish topics from 1941 to 1954. Soon
after he settled in Montreal, Ravitch embarked on a project to
immortalize the Jewish cultural figures he had known in Poland, Israel, and America, and other countries and produced
five encyclopedic volumes, Mayn Leksikon (194582). He also
wrote three autobiographical volumes (Dos Mayse-bukh fun
Mayn Lebn (196275), which appeared in Hebrew as Sefer haMaasiyot shel H ayai (1976).
Ravitch was one of the worlds leading Yiddish literary
figures after the Holocaust. His poetry and essays appeared
in the international Yiddish press and in anthologies, as
well as in translation. Ravitch published numerous collections of poetry, including 67 Lirishe, Satirishe, Natsyonale, Sotsyale un Filozofishe Lider fun di Letste Finf-zeks Yor (1946), Di
Kroynung fun a Yungn Yidishn Dikhter in Amerike: Poeme
(1953), Di Lider fun Mayne Lider (1954), and Iker Shokhakhti:
Lider un Poemes fun di Yorn 19541969 (1969), as well as
in Hebrew translation (H amishim Shirim, 1969). His essays appeared in Eynems Yidishe Makhshoves in Tsvantsikstn
Yorhundert (1949), and posthumously in Eseyen (1992). Ravitch
edited and co-edited numerous collective projects, including
the weekly literary supplement of the Keneder Odler (194349),
Almanakh Yidish (1961), and Dos Amolike Yidishe Varshe
biz der Shvel fun Dritn Khurbn (1966). During his long
career, he was awarded numerous literary prizes including
the prestigious L. Lamed, Yud Yud Segal, and Itzik Manger
Prizes.
Add. Bibliography: C.L. Fuks (Fox) (ed.), Hundert Yor
Yidishe un Hebreyishe Literatur in Kanade (Montreal, 1982), 26471;
S. Niger et. al. (eds.), Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur, vol.
8, 31418; E.H Jeshurin and W. Ostreger, Melekh Ravitsh Bibliografye
(Montreal, 1954); LNYL 8 (1981), 31418; I. Bruce, in: Traduction, Terminologie, Redaction, 7/2 (1994), 3562; A. Eidherr, in: Informationen
zur Deutschdidaktik, 2 (2001), 6675.
[Sol Liptzin / Jerold C. Frakes and Rebecca Margolis (2nd ed.)]
123
ravitz, shelomo
RAVITZ, SHELOMO (c. 18861980), h azzan and composer.
Born in Novogrudok, Russia, Ravitz studied music from the
age of 15 and received his diploma in Vienna. He officiated in
various European communities, including Riga, and in Johannesburg before moving to Erez Israel in 1932. He became
h azzan of the Ohel Shem Synagogue in Tel Aviv and his reputation spread through his singing together with his own choir,
at the weekly oneg shabbat organized there by H .N. *Bialik.
He subsequently became h azzan of the Tel Aviv Great Synagogue, where his expressive, yet unexaggerated, style of singing brought him admiration and popularity. As director of the
Selah Seminary for h azzanim, Ravitz was the teacher of many
present-day h azzanim.
His compositions and arrangements of traditional melodies were published in Yalkut Zemirot (1954) and Kol Yisrael,
2 vols. (1964), edited by M.S. Geshuri. Ravitz also edited the
music section in each volume of Y.L. Baruch and Y.T. Levinsky (eds.), Sefer ha-Moadim, 8 vols. (194667), which serves as
a popular source of Jewish musical tradition in Israeli homes
and schools.
Bibliography: M.S. Geshuri (ed.), Kol Yisrael, 1 (1954),
xxiixxv; idem, in: Dukhan, 3 (1962), 3138; Yediot ha-Makhon haYisreeli le-Musikah Datit, 5 (1963), 2325; S. Samet, in: Haaretz (April
10, 1970), 18.
[David M.L. Olivestone]
124
rawidowicz, simon
RAWICZ (Ger. Rawitsch), town in Poznan province, W. Poland. The first settlement of Jews in Rawicz took place soon
after the founding of the town in 1639. In 1648 complaints
were lodged against Jewish merchants who were then expelled.
They returned soon thereafter, only to be expelled again in
1674. By 1698 an organized community was in existence and
in 1719 it received a Freibrief (letter of privileges) regulating
the rights and taxes of its members. By then the community
totaled 12 families. A h evra kaddisha was founded in 1728 and
the first rabbi, Menahem Mendel Gradenwitz, was appointed
in 1755. Its bet din was headed by learned talmudic authorities,
including R. Solomon b. Dov Baer (178693), later to be the
communitys rabbi. In 1774 a bet midrash was founded. Services were held in a private house until a synagogue was built
in 1783. The community (35 families in 1739) flourished, and
after a fire in *Leszno (1790) absorbed many refugees, including R. Akiva *Eger, who lived there for one year. The local Jews
were mainly shopkeepers, tailors, livestock merchants, and
artisans. In 1797 the community had 198 families, and by 1835
there were 401 families (a total of 1,574 persons, or about 50
of the total population). A new synagogue was built in 1889
when the community was at its economic peak and served by a
long line of scholarly rabbis, including its last one, the scholar
John Cohn (18931920). The Jewish population subsequently
declined to 363 in 1905. The town suffered during World War I,
and under Polish rule the community was subjected to discrimination which induced many to leave for Germany; only
15 remained in 1933. The cemetery and synagogue were both
destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. Markus *Brann,
the historian, and Arthur *Ruppin, the Zionist leader, were
both born in Rawicz.
RAWIDOWICZ, SIMON (18961957), Jewish scholar, philosopher, Hebraist, and ideologue. Born in Grajewo, then in
Russia, Rawidowicz received a traditional Jewish education,
during the course of which he became attracted to the Haskalah and Modern Hebrew literature. After the outbreak of
World War I in 1914, he moved with his family to Bialystok,
where he became active in the Hebrew cultural life of the city.
In 1919, he left for Berlin, where he obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1926 for his dissertation on Ludwig Feuerbach, which
he expanded into Ludwig Feuerbachs Philosophie: Ursprung
and Schicksal (Ludwig Feuerbachs Philosophy: Sources and
Influence, 1931; 19642). Concomitantly, he made his mark as a
scholar of Judaica with the publication of Kitvei Ranak (The
Writings of Nahman Krochmal, 1924; 19612), and volume
seven of the Jubilee Edition of the writings of Moses Mendelssohn (1930; 19712). Additionally, he established the Hebrew
Ayanot Publishing Company (192225) and the *Brit Ivrit Olamit (World Hebrew Union, 1931), and edited the Hebrew miscellany Ha-Tekufah (192830) with Saul Tchernikowsky and
Ben-Zion Katz. In 1933, he left Berlin and after looking unsuc-
125
126
RAYKIN, ARKADI ISAAKOVICH (19111987), Soviet Russian vaudeville actor and director. After theatrical training in
Leningrad, Raykin became widely known in the U.S.S.R. for
his mime and impersonations. In 1939 he established the Variety and Miniature Theater in Leningrad, becoming its director.
One of his most popular impersonations was that of Charlie
Chaplin. He also appeared as Don Quixote and caricatured
many types in his act Intourist Hotel. In later years his satire of
bureaucrats and pseudointellectuals became more caustic. In
1962 Raykin appeared at the International Festival of Pantomime in West Berlin, and in 1964 in England. His wife, Ruth
Joffe-Raykin, was a writer and an actor, as were his daughter
Yekaterina and his son Konstantin.
RAYMOND DE PENAFORTE (d. 1275), Dominican monk,
one of the initiators of anti-Jewish activities in Catalonia during the reign of James I (121376). Raymond was born in Peaforte, Catalonia, and studied law at the University of Bologna, completing his studies in 1216. In 1222 he founded the
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
raynor, bruce
Dominican monastery of Barcelona. He was a favorite of
Pope *Gregory IX and, among other duties, he served as
the Popes confessor beginning in 1230. When the heresy of
the *Albigenses spread to northern Catalonia from Provence,
Raymond influenced the king of Aragon to establish the Papal *Inquisition in the district of *Tarragona. As initiator
of missionary activities in his order, he made great efforts
to convert Jews to Christianity, founding Hebrew and Arabic schools for this purpose. He was the moving spirit of the
anti-Jewish legislation of James I in 1228. He was also among
the initiators and most prominent participants of the *Barcelona disputation of 1263. The accusation before the royal
tribunal of Barcelona against *Nah manides, in 1265, that he
had blasphemed Christianity, was also instigated by Raymond and the Christian anti-Jewish literature written after
the disputation of Barcelona was a product of his school. He
was canonized in 1601.
Bibliography: Baer, Spain, 1 (1961), 152, 156f., 161; F. VallsTaberner, San Ramn de Penyafort (1953), incl. bibl., 37280.
RAYNE, SIR MAX, BARON (19182003), British businessman and financier. The son of a tailor in Londons East End,
Rayne was educated at University College London and served
in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Rayne was was
one of the most successful of post-World War II property
developers and was chairman from 1961 of the property company London Merchant Securities. He was also chairman
or director of other property and industrial companies. Rayne
was active in support for the arts as a governor of the Royal
Ballet School, chairman of its London Trust (196775) and
of the National Theatre Board from 1971 to 1988. His support for medical work included the post of special trustee of
St. Thomass Hospital. He was an honorary vice president
of the (London) Jewish Welfare Board and served on other
bodies concerned with social service, including the King Edward VII Hospital Fund for London and St. Thomass Medical School. Rayne was knighted in 1969 and created a life
peer in 1976. In 1962 he established the Rayne Foundation,
a charity devoted to helping the disadvantaged, the arts, and
education.
[Vivian David Lipman]
127
rayss, tscharna
was named secretary-treasurer of UNITE and in 2001 he became president, succeeding Jay *Mazur. Although many Jewish
garment workers had been replaced by other ethnic groups by
then, Raynor said, This is still a Jewish union in terms of its
beliefs and ideals. It views itself as much more than wages and
benefits. Its deeply rooted in the traditions of social justice and
concern for the least of us. When I say Jewish union, thats
what I mean. Raynor had already led an organizing drive that
expanded UNITEs membership to include industrial laundry
workers. From 5,000 such members in 1998, the number grew
to more than 40,000 in 2000. As UNITEs president, Raynor
continued to focus on building its membership. At the same
time, he helped reform abusive labor practices by overseas
contractors of major U.S. brands. Raynor, who was also a vice
president of the AFL-CIO, then played a key role in the merger
with HERE. At the time of the merger, the combined organization had 440,000 members and an annual operating budget
in excess of $60 million.
Bibliography: Womens Wear Daily (Feb. 17, 1998); The Forward (July 20, 2001).
[Mort Sheinman (2nd ed.)]
128
[Shira Borut]
razim, sefer hawhich the angel Raziel delivered to him, commonly called
Sefer Raziel (see below). It had a wide circulation, being reprinted nearly 40 times. The third source is the apocryphal
Sefer *ha-Razim, known in manuscript form in post-talmudic times. This purported to be the book of mysteries which
the angel Raziel taught to Noah in the year he entered the ark
and which Noah later wrote down on tablets of sapphire. It
is a handbook of magic, both Jewish and syncretistic, giving
a detailed account of the angels in the seven heavens and the
magical practices connected with them and their conjuration.
Whereas the first part is of a strictly Jewish character, the magical practices contain strong pagan elements. In the opinion
of the editor, Mordecai Margalioth (1966), the text goes back
to the talmudic period, perhaps even to the earlier part, especially because of its close connection with some texts in the
Greek magical papyri. The age of the book is still a matter of
controversy. According to the Zohar, Adam received his book
while he was still in paradise, and the angel Raziel was none
other than the archangel *Uriel who revealed the deep mysteries of the Torah. The numerical value of the Hebrew name is
248, corresponding to the number of the positive commandments of the Torah and the name Abraham. The kabbalist
Abraham b. Samuel *Abulafia used this name as a pseudonym
in several of his books.
Bibliography: M. Margalioth, Sefer ha-Razim (a newly recovered book of magic from the talmudic period) (19669); M. Schwab,
Vocabulaire de langlologie (1897), 246; R. Margalioth, Malakhei Elyon
(1945), 2802; J. Dan, in: Tarbiz, 37 (1967/68), 20814; F. Secret, in:
REJ, 128 (1969), 22345.
[Gershom Scholem]
RAZIEL, BOOK OF, collection of mystical, cosmological, and magical Hebrew works and portions of works. First
printed in Amsterdam in 1701, it was reprinted many times,
because of the popular belief that the book protected its owners home from fire and other dangers. There are some manuscripts of, at least, parts of this work which date back to the
16t century. However, in its printed form, it was not compiled much earlier than the 17t century. Many manuscript
collections of material of the same sort are extant, and Raziel
is not unique among them in any way. The material included
in the collection can be divided into three distinct categories
or strata:
(1) Works, or parts of works, which belong to Heikhalot and *Merkabah mysticism, the mystical and cosmological literature of the talmudic and geonic periods. Of these,
Raziel contains a version of the Sefer ha-Malbush, a magical
work; baraita of Maaseh Bereshit, a cosmological and astrological description of the Creation, which has some mystical
overtones; and a major part of the Sefer ha-Razim (Book of
Magical Secrets), which is a collection of magical formulas
and angelological material from talmudic times. The introduction to Sefer ha-*Razim probably gave the whole collection its
name. In this introduction, the angel Raziel is claimed to have
revealed the secrets described to Adam. In this category, there
is some importance to a long version of the early anthropoENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
129
razin, aharon
cantations, and supernatural remedies, on which no special
works have otherwise been preserved in Hebew literature.
In the midst of deliberations on the angels, their names, and
their functions in the six heavens which precede the supreme
heaven, the book interweaves about 30 magical counsels for
suppliants who might include those seeking to know the
future, to sway the hearts of the great, to have their enemies
overtaken by misfortune, to be healed, to have their dreams
interpreted, to overcome an enemy or a wild animal, to see
the sun during the day or the night, or to speak with the moon
and the stars. The general contents of this work have long been
known, especially from the extracts scattered in the Book of
*Raziel, but most of its magical terms became known only
through Mordecai Margalioths discovery, as he probably succeeded in restoring Sefer ha-Razim to its original form. On the
basis of fragments from the genizah and Hebrew, Latin, and
Arabic manuscripts, he organized the work into a preface and
seven short chapters describing the Seven Heavens. The work
is relatively short (about 800 lines), but it is of considerable
literary and historic interest. Written in a beautiful midrashic
Hebrew containing hardly any Aramaic, it is however inlaid
with transliterated Greek words some of which are termini
technici of Greek magic as well as a short Greek prayer. The
names of about 700 angels are listed (some having a Greek
etymology); several have specified characters (symbolic
figures, which form a quasi-magical alphabet). The chapter
on the Seventh Heaven, dealing with the Divine Throne, the
Throne of the Great Light, praises God in an exalted liturgical style. The chapters dealing with the heavens are skillfully
constructed to form one unit (but it cannot be ascertained
if the preface in the Margalioth edition belongs to the work
because it differs widely in content from the seven chapters).
Nor is it at all certain that the original name of the work in
its original context was Sefer mi-Sifrei ha-Razim. It may perhaps have been entitled Raziel ha-Malakh or possibly Razei
H okhmah, or some other name.
In this work, Raziel is mentioned as the angel who stands
on the seventh step of the Second Heaven. Scholars differ on
the extent of the role and influence which mystical doctrines
wielded over the rabbis and their schools, but it may definitely
be assumed that these doctrines, which were accepted in the
Orient as well as by the Greeks and Romans, were not basically foreign to the Jews of Palestine during the Second Temple period and the generations which followed the destruction of the Temple. According to *Origen (third century),
such Hebrew names as Z evaot, Eloha, etc. were mentioned
along with the names of the archons, and Gabriel, Raphael,
Michael, and Soriel with the demons of the Gnostic sect of the
Ophites (Contra Celsum I, 22, 26; II, 6; IV, 3334; V. 9, 42, 45,
etc.). Those engaged in magic recited the prayer to the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob while invoking demons (Contra Celsum, IV, 33). Greek amulets which have been preserved
show a marked relation to Jewish concepts. The pagans even
attributed the worship of the sun and the moon to the Jews,
but Origen pointed out their error. Some of the themes of the
130
razsvet
worked in the kitchen and after working hours he trained the
boxers. Razon had to box weekly, often against heavyweights,
winning most of his matches. Due to his kitchen connections,
he was able to help many prisoners and hundreds owed their
lives to him. This ended when Buna was evacuated and the
death march began.
After a short stay in Gleiwitz, where Jung Perez died,
Jacko was moved to Dora. He boxed also there but received
little extra food for his talent and managed to feed only a few
individuals at most. Transferred to Bergen-Belsen, he found
the way to return to kitchen duty and helped Greek Jews in
their most dire hour, when the camp was full of living skeletons and food was scarce. He was liberated by the British in
May 1945.
After returning to Greece, Razon was a leader of Holocaust survivors who planned to immigrate to Palestine illegally. They sailed on the Henrietta Szold, with 356 passengers,
which was met by British warships in Haifa port. Razon led
a revolt against the British navy, which was eventually overcome, and he and the other passengers were deported to Cyprus where they were interned for several months.
Eventually he arrived in Palestine and participated in Israels War of Independence; he was one of the founders of the Organization of Greek Concentration Camp Survivors in Israel.
Bibliography: S. Raphael (ed.). Binitivei Shaol: Yehudei Yavan Beshoa Pirkei Aidout (1988), 454458.
[Yitzhak Kerem]
RAZOVSKY (Davidson), CECILIA (18911968), U.S. social worker and expert on immigration. Born in St. Louis, she
worked there as a volunteer at the Jewish Educational Alliance,
teaching English to foreigners. In 1917 she moved to Washington, D.C. and served as an inspector in the U.S. Childrens
Bureau. She was secretary in the immigration department of
the National Council of Jewish Women and in 1932 became
associate director of the council. Razovsky traveled widely to
study the conditions of Jewish refugees, and in Cuba she set
up a social service program for the refugees.
Razovsky was head of a group of experts assigned by
Secretary of Labor Perkins to study conditions on Ellis Island and was on several U.S. immigration committees. She
also served as assistant to the executive director of the National Refugee Service.
From 1922 to 1930 she was editor of The Immigrant and
she wrote articles, plays, and pamphlets on immigration. Her
pamphlet Handicaps in Naturalization (1932) investigated the
effects of the 1929 amendment to the Naturalization Law, raising the fee from five to twenty-five dollars. Her Making Americans (1938), a manual prepared for the National Council of
Jewish Women, contains information on the naturalization
process and suggests ways of organizing communal naturalization aid programs.
RAZRAN, GREGORY (19011973), U.S. psychologist. Razran was born in a village near Slutsk, Russia. He immigrated
131
razsvet
sian literature and public activity. Despite its brief existence
Razsvet opened up a new direction in Jewish life and thought
in Russia, especially among the intellectuals.
(3) The third Razsvet was a weekly journal of topical political and literary content, published in St. Petersburg by the
Zionist Organization of Russia from 1907, when it replaced
the weeklies Khronika Yevreyskoy Zhizni (Chronicle of Jewish Life) and Yevreyskiy Narod (The Jewish People), which
had been suppressed by the czarist administration. The editor of Razsvet was A.D. *Idelson, assisted by an editorial staff
consisting of S. Gepstein, A. *Goldstein, V. *Jabotinsky, A. Seidenman, and M. Soloveichik (*Solieli). Questions of major
policy were decided upon by the Zionist Central Committee.
Razsvet played an outstanding part in molding and disseminating the ideology and program of the Zionist movement
in Russia. Strictly adhering to Herzls political Zionism, the
journal also advocated immediate practical colonizing work
in Erez Israel and active Zionist participation in the defense
of the rights and interests of the Russian-Jewish community. It
laid the foundation of what later became known as synthetic
Zionism, a concept which harmoniously combined the traditional Zionist negation of *Galut with the struggle for Jewish
survival and national organization in the countries of dispersion. Razsvets militant nationalist crusade against all forms
of assimilation contributed essentially to the defeat of assimilationist tendencies and groups in Russian Jewry and made it
the most widely read Jewish publication in the Russian language. Early in its career its circulation reached 10,000. In July
1915 the weekly was closed down, and in its stead appeared in
Moscow the Yevreyskaya Zhizn. In July 1917 Razsvet again appeared in Petrograd, and its circulation rose to 25,000. After
the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, the Zionist press
was allowed to exist for a time. But in September 1918 Razsvet was closed by the Cheka. In its place appeared the Khronika Yevrevskoy Zhizni, edited by Y. Klebanov, which was also
closed down on July 18, 1919.
(4) The fourth Razsvet reappeared in 1922 in Berlin as
the organ of the Federation of Russian-Ukrainian Zionists in
exile. It was headed by an editorial board nominated by the
Federation and consisting of S. Gepstein (editor), J. *Schechtman (secretary), M. Aleinikov, H ayyim Greenberg, M. Hindes,
and V. *Jacobson. Soon after V. Jabotinskys resignation from
the Zionist executive (February 1923), Razsvet endorsed his
criticism of the official Zionist political line and his concept
of an activist Zionist policy; it strongly disapproved, however, of Jabotinskys later decision to leave the World Zionist
Organization. Soon Jabotinsky, J. *Brutzkus, Y. Klinov, M.
Schwartzman, and I. Trivus joined the reconstructed editorial board and Razsvet became the spokesman of the Zionist
Revisionists. Financial difficulties led to the periodicals brief
discontinuance in May 1924, but by the end of the year publication was resumed in Paris, with Jabotinsky as editor-inchief and M. Berchin and J. Schechtman as acting editors.
132
[Yehuda Slutsky]
reading
The first issue of the Paris edition sold 1,000 copies; the tenth
issue, 2,500. The ideology, program, and tactical line of the
Zionist-Revisionist World Union, founded in April 1925, was
largely molded by the Razsvet group. Although the readership of the journal largely consisted of Jewish migrs from
Russia in West European countries and groups in Erez Israel,
and of the Jewish communities in east and southeast Europe
which had a Russian cultural background, Razsvets influence
reached far beyond its immediate audience. Its articles were
frequently translated and reprinted in other periodicals and
widely commented upon by Zionists and non-Zionists alike.
Stressing that Razsvet was the only Russian-language journal
serving the Russian-Jewish diaspora, a group of noted nonRevisionist and non-Zionist migr leaders in Paris, headed
by Henry *Sliozberg, and including I. *Naiditsch, M. Goldstein, G. Vishnyak, and the sculptor N. *Aronson, formed
in the spring of 1933 the Society of Friends of Razsvet. The
editorial policy in Zionist affairs remained unaffected by the
agreement between the editorial board and the Friends, but
the coverage of matters of general topical Jewish interest cultural, economic, and political was expanded. The financial
position of the paper steadily deteriorated, however, as the
circle of the Jewish Russian-reading public shrank. Razsvet
had to be converted from a weekly to a biweekly, and even in
this form it appeared irregularly; the periodical was discontinued in 1935.
[Joseph B. Schechtman]
Bibliography: M.L. Lilienblum, Derekh Laavor Geulim
(1899); M. Kagan, in: Perezhitoye, 3 (1911), 1517; M. Ha-Kohen, Olami, 1 (1927), 112206; 2 (1927), 4246; S. Zinberg, Istoriya yevreyskoy pechati (1915); S. Ginzburg, Amolike Peterburg (1944), 15569; B.
Shochetman, in: He-Avar, 2 (1954), 6172; J.B. Schechtman, The Vladimir Jabotinsky Story, 1 (1956), index; M. Perlmann, in: JSOS, 24 (1962),
16282; idem, in: PAAJR, 33 (1965), 2150; J. Slutsky, Ha-Ittonut haYehudit-Rusit ba-Meah ha-19 (1970), 10215, 1227.
133
reading, fanny
and appointed attorney-general. Nevertheless, he was passed
over for the appointment of lord chancellor because of his
involvement in the Marconi scandal in which he was one of
four ministers accused of attempting to make financial gain
out of a government contract with the English Marconi Company. In 1913 Isaacs was made lord chief justice of England,
the first Jew ever to hold this post, and took the title of Lord
Reading. He presided over several famous criminal cases,
among them the trial of the Irish nationalist, Roger Casement, on charges of treason. Yet although he was well known
for his humanity and impartiality he was not considered a
great judge.
Following the outbreak of World War I, Isaacs became
increasingly involved in problems of government finance
and introduced the scheme by which the state guaranteed all
bills of exchange, thereby preventing a panic in the London
bill market. In 1915 he went to the United States as president
of the Anglo-French mission and secured a loan of 500 million dollars. Isaacs returned to the U.S. two years later as special envoy with the object of persuading America to join the
Allies. In the following spring he went to the U.S. for a third
time as high commissioner and special ambassador to convince the American government to send half a million American troops to France immediately. Isaacs remained lord chief
justice until 1920 when he was made viceroy of India, ruler
of India on behalf of the British crown, the only Jew ever to
hold this post. His appointment was hailed as a move to reconcile warring factions in India and also to assuage the growing hostility toward British rule. Isaacs succeeded in initiating
the widespread reforms embodied in the Montagu-Chelmsford report (1918), establishing a form of self-government in
most of the Indian provinces and introducing improvements
in agriculture and housing. He was much admired for the
genuine sympathy he and his wife showed for the people of
India but he failed, nevertheless, to obtain the cooperation of
Mahatma Gandhi and the Hindu nationalists and was eventually obliged to arrest Gandhi for incitement to civil disobedience and to call in the army to keep order. Isaacs returned to
England in 1926 and was given the title of marquess, the only
Jew to be so honored. He held numerous company directorships and remained a prominent figure in the Liberal Party,
representing the party at the Indian Round Table Conference
of 1930. For a short period in 1931 he was foreign secretary in
the national government headed by J. Ramsay Mac-Donald
and he retired in 1934 from public life with the honorary post
of lord warden of the Cinque ports.
Rufus Isaacs was one of the outstanding figures of his age
and in Anglo-Jewish history. He showed considerable interest in Jewish and Zionist affairs toward the end of his life and
in 1926 became chairman of the Palestine Electric Corporation. He visited Palestine in 1932 and associated himself with
various Zionist projects. After the advent of Hitler, Isaacs resigned the presidency of the Anglo-German Fellowship and
spoke in the House of Lords against the persecution of the
Jews in Germany.
134
135
Bibliography: ADB, 11, 34344; M. Newton, Making a Difference: The History of the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia (2000).
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
rebbetzin
2 are inextricably linked there can be no Israeli withdrawal
before there is a cessation of all cross border hostilities. One
cannot be without the other. This set the tone for the U.S. position throughout the war.
U.S. Ambassador Phillip Habib conducted a mission for
peaceful evacuation of the PLO from Beirut. Its success led in
turn to termination of the Lebanon war, and made it propitious for President Reagan to launch a major peace initiative
in his speech of September 1, 1982. That initiative, also known
as the Reagan Plan, called for direct negotiations between the
Israel and the Arab states; Palestinian autonomy, but not an
independent Palestinian state; and, for maintaining Jerusalem
as an undivided city, with its final status to be negotiated.
A byproduct of Ronald Reagans meetings with U.S.S.R.s
President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 aimed at creating a thaw
in the Cold War led to conditions for the liberation of Ethiopian Jews who were rescued and brought to Israel in Operation Moses between November 19, 1984, and January 5, 1985,
with some covert U.S. assistance.
In July through September of 1985, Israel had undertaken
the sale of arms to Iran through the Arms for Hostages Deal.
Although the Iran Contra Affair, which resulted from exposure of the illicit sale of U.S. arms to Iran resulted in a major
embarrassment to the Reagan Administration, it did not impair U.S.-Israeli relations.
Reagans consistent record in identifying with the cause
of Israel was somewhat marred by his decision to go to Germanys Bitburg Cemetery in 1985 (see *Bitburg Controversy),
despite the knowledge that this was the burial ground for SS
officers who committed the most heinous crimes. In hindsight,
the Presidents visit controversial as it was caused no lasting damage to the cause of remembrance.
[David Geffen / Allan Gerson (2nd ed.)]
REBBETZIN, Yiddish honorific for the wife of a rabbi. Although no such title existed in ancient Judaism, its emergence
in medieval and early modern Central and Eastern Europe indicates that rabbis wives frequently assumed an elevated status in Jewish society deriving from their husbands religious
roles and from their own activities. Rabbis tended to marry
daughters of elite families who had often received Jewish educations superior to those of most women. Many learned rebbetzins, such as the 12t-century *Dulcea of Worms, took on
a variety of spiritual and communal functions. These could
include leading worship in the womens section of the synagogue and teaching prayers and responses to other women as
well as coordinating bridal arrangements, preparing corpses
for burial, and dispensing charity. Rebbetzins were regarded as
reliable witnesses of their husbands rulings on ritual matters,
particularly related to Jewish dietary laws, and they might be
consulted for legal testimony as to their husbands customary practices.
In a social setting which honored scholarship above economic success, the rebbetzin frequently supported her family financially while her husband devoted himself to study. In
136
rebekah
Meneket Rivkah, published posthumously in Prague in
1609 (a second edition appeared in Cracow in 1618) and consisting of 36 folios, was written for a female readership, and
belongs to the genre of Yiddish *musar literature. The book
is divided into seven chapters, six of which deal with a particular domestic relationship in the life of a married woman
(her husband, her parents, her parents-in-law, her children,
her daughter-in-law, and servants and guests). In the first
chapter, the author develops a comprehensive ethical system,
in which she lists important profane and religious commandments related to the body. These include healthy nutrition and
the laws of *niddah, labeled as h okhmat ha-guf (wisdom of the
body), and the enumeration of social and practical-religious
ideals and commandments, termed h okhmat ha-neshamah
(wisdom of the soul).
Rebeccas many practical instructions paint a vivid picture of Jewish womens daily lives in the early modern period.
They are accompanied by long homiletical and exegetical
passages demonstrating her erudition. She provides biblical
citations in Hebrew, as well as quotations from contemporary Hebrew and Yiddish musar literature. Rebecca also includes Yiddish adaptations of stories from the Talmud and
midrash, and adopts terms and techniques of rabbinical exegesis. Meneket Rivkah is probably the first substantive published
book in Yiddish written by a Jewish women. The only other
extant Yiddish works by Jewish women from this period are
personal supplicatory prayers (*tkhines). It is significant, too,
because it contains homiletics and exegeses, genres which had
hitherto been written exclusively by learned men.
Rebecca also wrote a rhymed Yiddish hymn for the
holiday of Simh at Torah, entitled Eyn Simkhas Touro Lid,
which describes an eschatological, festive banquet for men
and women alike. The poem, which survives in two separate
undated 17t century printings, consists of 40 rhyming couplets (with acrostic), in which each verse is followed by the
refrain hallelujah.
In the Aggadah
The description of Rebekah as the daughter of Bethuel the
Aramean, of Padan-Aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean
(Gen. 25:20) is taken to indicate her righteousness. Despite the
fact that her father and brother were scoundrels and she came
from a land where deceit was rife, she succeeded in being pious (a play on the Hebrew arammi which by a transposition of
letters is read as ramai, scoundrel or cheat; Gen. R. 63:4).
Eliezer immediately perceived her greatness since the water of
the well rose to greet her when she came to draw water (Gen.
R. 60:5). The blessings of her mother and brother when she left
with Eliezer were not sincere, and they were considered the
blessings of the impious which are curses. This caused Rebekah to remain barren for years (60:13). Rebekah was either
three or fourteen years old at the time of her marriage (Tos.
to Yev. 61b). When she entered Sarahs tent, the divine cloud
that had overhung it during Sarahs lifetime immediately reappeared (Gen. R. 60:16). Nevertheless, their marriage was not
entirely happy, as a result of Rebekahs barrenness. Together
they prayed for children. Finally, God acceded to the prayers
of Isaac since the prayer of a pious man who is the son of a
pious man is far more efficacious than the prayer of one who
descends from a godless father (Yev. 64a). While pregnant,
Rebekah suffered agonizing pains because her twin sons had
already begun their lifelong quarrel in her womb. If she walked
near a synagogue, Jacob tried to break forth from her womb,
while Esau attempted to get out when she passed an idolatrous
temple (Gen. R. 63:6). Finally she went to consult in the bet
137
rebellious son
midrash of Shem and Eber where she was informed that two
opposing nations were in her womb (63:6, 7).
The children Esau and Jacob seemed alike, yet Rebekah
already perceived Jacobs greatness. The more often she heard
his voice (engaged in study), the deeper grew her affection for
him (63:10). Rebekah was not present when Isaac requested
Esau to bring him savory food so that he would bless him;
Isaacs charge was revealed to her through the holy spirit since
she was a prophetess (67:9). She thereupon insisted that Jacob
receive Isaacs blessing. She was not only actuated by love for
Jacob, but also by the wish to keep Isaac from committing a
detestable act by blessing the wicked Esau (65:6). She agreed
to bear the possible imprecation of Isaac just as the curse of
Adam fell upon his mother, the earth (65:15). Rebekah died
a short time after the death of her nurse Deborah. Her death
was not mentioned explicitly in the Scripture, but is implied
by the words allon bakhut (Allon-Bacuth; Gen. 35:8) which the
Midrash renders weeping for another, allon being connected
with the Greek another (Gen. R. 81:5). There was no
public mourning for Rebekah. Since Abraham was dead, Isaac
blind, and Jacob away from home, only Esau remained to represent the family in public. It was feared that onlookers might
say, Cursed be the breasts that sustained thee. To avoid this,
Rebekah was buried at night (Pd RK 23; PR 12:48b).
REBELLIOUS SON. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, that will not hearken to the voice of his father and
[not or] the voice of his mother and though they chasten
him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his
mother lay hold of him and bring him out unto the elders of
his city They shall say unto the elders of his city: This our
son is stubborn and rebellious, he doth not hearken to our
voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his
city shall stone him with stones that he die; so shalt thou put
away the evil from the midst of thee; and all Israel shall hear,
and fear (Deut. 21:1821).
It appears that this law was intended to limit the powers of the pater familias: the head of the household could no
longer punish the defiant son himself, according to his own
whim, but had to bring him before the elders (i.e., judges) for
punishment. In earlier laws (eg., Hammurapi Code, nos. 168,
169) only the father had to be defied; in biblical law it must be
both father and mother, and the father cannot act without the
mothers concurrence. If either was dead (Sif. Deut. 219) or refused to join in the prosecution, the son could not be indicted
(Sanh. 8:4), but it was not necessary that father and mother
should be validly married to each other (Sanh. 71a).
There is no record of a rebellious son ever having been
executed, except for a dictum of R. Jonathan stating that he
had once seen such a one and sat on his grave (Sanh. 71a).
However, it is an old and probably valid tradition that there
never had been, nor ever will be, a rebellious son, and that
138
Procedures of Rebuke
It is not sufficient to rebuke the wrongdoer once, rather one
must rebuke him incessantly so long as he is recalcitrant. According to R. Johanan, a person should persist in rebuking
his neighbor until the wrongdoer insults him; according to
Samuel, until he curses him; and according to Rav, until he is
ready to strike him (Ar. 16b). The obligation to rebuke ones
neighbor falls even upon one who is generally intellectually
and morally inferior to the person at fault, so that the disciple, for instance, must rebuke his teacher where necessary
(BM 31a). Every community must appoint a wise and respected
person whose function it is to publicly chastise wrongdoing
and call for repentance (Yad, Teshuvah 4:2).
The role of admonition is central in Jewish ethical
thought. The rabbis proclaim that there exists no love or
peace where there is no admonition, citing as an example the
peace covenant between Abimelech and Abraham which re-
139
[Yehouda Marton]
recanati
sulted from Abrahams reproving Abimelech (Gen. R. 54:3).
The duty of admonition extends not only to individuals,
but to the community at large, and even to the entire world,
to the extent that if one does not fulfill the commandment
of rebuke, the guilt of all those he might have reformed accrues to him (Shab. 54b). Some rabbis of the Talmud maintain
that the Second Temple was destroyed, despite the presence of
the righteous, because the righteous did not fulfill their obligation to rebuke the wrongdoers of their time, and thus shared
their guilt (Shab. 119b). In the opinion of Judah ha-Nasi,
the most righteous course for a man to choose is the love
of admonition: As long as there is admonition in the world
there is satisfaction, goodness, and blessing in the world
as it is written [Prov. 24:25] To them that rebuke shall be
delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them (Tam.
28a).
Bibliography: H .N. Bialik, and Y.H . Rawnitzki (eds.), Sefer
ha-Aggadah, 2 (1960), 5413; J.D. Eisenstein, Oz ar Musar u-Middot
(1941).
[Joshua H. Shmidman]
140
recanati, leon
participated in the formation of the Vaad ha-Haz z alah (Rescue Committee) for Greek Jewry.
As a veteran Revisionist he was elected to the First Knesset in Israel representing the H erut party. He was chairman of
the public services committee of the Knesset.
In the last years of his life, he spent much time collecting
material and writing for the Salonika memorial book, Zikhron
Salonika (vol. 1, 1972; vol. 2, 1986).
He was the brother of the banker Yehudah Leib (Leon)
Recanati.
141
development of Israel. Recanati was the chairman of the Sephardi community council in Tel Aviv and was active in a large
number of public institutions and bodies. His sons, Harry Rafael (1918 ) and Daniel (19211984), were both directors of the
Discount Bank and developed wide banking and commercial
interests in Israel and elsewhere. They were dedicated to public and social needs in Israel (see Israel: *Banking).
[Benjamin Jaffe]
[Yitzhak Kerem]
RECANATI, MENAHEM BEN BENJAMIN (late 13tearly14t centuries), Italian kabbalist and halakhic authority.
No information whatsoever is available on Recanatis life, although according to family tradition mentioned in Shalshelet
ha-Kabbalah he was once an ignorant man who miraculously
became filled with wisdom and understanding.
He wrote three kabbalistic works: Perush al ha-Torah
(Venice, 1523); Taamei ha-Mitzvot (Constantinople, 1544); and
Perush ha-Tefillot (ibid., 1544); and one halakhic work, Piskei
Halakhot (Bologna, 1538). Two commentaries on the Perush
al ha-Torah were written during the 16t century: one by Mattathias Delacrut (Neubauer, Cat, nos. 1615, 1623, 3); and Beur
Levush Even Yekarah by Mordecai Jaffe (Lublin, 1605; Lemberg, 184041). An important part of the Taamei ha-Mitzvot,
in which Recanati deals with the problem of the nature of the
Sefirot, still remains in manuscript. According to Recanati,
the Sefirot are not the essence of God but coverings in which
God enfolds Himself and instruments through which He acts.
This entire extract is quoted by Judah *H ayyat in his commentary to *Maarekhet ha-Elohut, and in their discussions of
this question other 16t-century kabbalists (notably Isaac Mor
H ayyim, Elhanan Sagi Nahor, Solomon *Alkabez , and Moses
*Cordovero) refer to Recanatis views. Even those who oppose
his theory refer to him with admiration and respect, with the
exception of David Messer *Leon, who attacks him harshly in
Magen David (MS Montefiore 290).
With the exception of his discussion on the essence of
the Sefirot, where his conclusion is the result of his own speculations, Recanatis doctrine is drawn mainly from written
sources. He cannot be regarded as the recipient of revelations from heaven (despite Guedemann; see bibl.), and in few
places indeed does he tell of his dreams and visions. Thanks to
him the doctrines of many kabbalists whose writings are otherwise unknown have been preserved. He made use of many
sources, which he usually does not mention by name, and
was especially indebted to *Nah manides, whom he refers to
as the great rabbi. Another kabbalist he mentions frequently
is R. Ezra (whose name is occasionally changed to R. Azriel),
and he made use of the writings of Jacob b. Sheshet Gerondi,
*Asher b. David, Joseph *Gikatilla, and *Moses b. Shem Tov
de Leon. Recanati was acquainted with two large works on
the reasons for the precepts which were written during his
lifetime: one by R. Joseph from Shushan (then attributed to
Isaac ibn Farh i) and another by an unknown author. An important part of his commentaries on Nah manides esoteric
142
RECCARED, Visigothic king of Spain (586601). He succeeded his father Leovigild and shortly thereafter converted
from Arianism to orthodox Christianity. This conversion was
followed in 589 by the Third Council of Toledo, where it was
decreed that all Arians must become orthodox. His preoccupation with religious matters seems to have led Reccared to
reaffirm and modify existing anti-Jewish legislation. He forbade Jews to own Christian slaves and decreed that if a Jew
circumcised a Christian slave, the latter was to be set free and
the owner was himself to be enslaved. Jews were further forbidden to have Christian wives or mistresses and any children
born from such a union were to be baptized. This is the earliest example of compulsory conversion of Jews in Visigothic
Spain. Aside from the enactment requiring the forced baptism
of offspring from mixed marriages, Reccareds legislation did
not go beyond that which had existed under his Arian predecessors. In fact the punishment for converting ones own
slaves was reduced from death to slavery. Like his predecessors, moreover, Reccared was lax in enforcing the anti-Jewish laws. Not only did Jews continue to own and trade Christian slaves, but the pope felt compelled to indicate his wrath
at this state of affairs. This had little effect, however, and the
Jews seem to have been little bothered by Reccareds legislation against them.
Bibliography: S. Katz, Jews in the Visigothic and Frankish Kingdoms of Spain and Gaul (1937), index; B. Blumenkranz, Juifs
et Chrtiens dans le monde occidental, 4301096 (1960), index; E.A.
Thompson, The Goths in Spain (1969).
[Bernard Bachrach]
rechabites
complicity, had them summarily executed, reminiscent of the
way he treated the man who brought the news of Sauls suicide. The assassins bodies were mutilated and hanged beside
the pool in Hebron, while the head of Ish-Bosheth was honorably buried in Abners grave in the same town (verse 12). Several possible motives may explain the captains regicide: the
hope of being rewarded by David; the desire to realize Abners
plan for a united kingdom with David as king, by eliminating
Davids most dangerous opponent; and revenge for Sauls conquering the confederacy of the Hivite cities (cf. Josh. 9:17).
Sauls conquering of the confederacy explains why the
Beerothites, including the sons of Rimmon, fled to Gittaim,
where they lived as aliens (II Sam. 4:3). In the course of time
the sons of Rimmon became officers of Ish-Bosheth and at
an opportune moment murdered him as an act of blood revenge.
Bibliography: M.H. Segal, in: JQR, 8 (1917/18), 9899.
Jehu was interested in proving to him his zealousness on behalf of God. Jonadab also participated at Jehus side in the
slaughter of the prophets of Baal in the House of Baal in Samaria (II Kings 10:23). There is no evidence in the text that
other men of the family of Rechab participated with Jonadab
or that he acted as a representative of the sect. However, although Jonadab was accepted by Jehu on the strength of his
personality, it may be assumed that his reputation as a zealous supporter of the God of Israel, who would tolerate no
compromises, derived from his position as a head of a family that was completely opposed, because of its zealous faith
and unique social character, to the rule of the House of Omri.
Jonadab may have promulgated his rules as a reaction to the
policies of Ahab, which notoriously provoked the opposition
of the prophets and the sons of prophets headed by *Elijah
and *Elisha. It appears that even at that time the Rechabites
were distinguished from the prophets by their asceticism and
extreme zealousness on behalf of the God of Israel (there is
no sign that the prophets also participated in the slaughter of
the worshipers of Baal in Samaria).
Origin of the Group
There is no definite information concerning the origins of the
Rechabites. From a vague verse in I Chronicles 2:55 These
are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the
house of Rechab it follows that the house of Rechab (as far
as it is possible to identify it with the house of the Rechabites
in Jer. 35 and the son of Rechab in II Kings 10) was related to
the *Kenites. This verse mentions the Rechabites only in passing, in connection with the lineage of the Kenites. It goes on
to say that the Kenites, or at least some of them, were among
the inhabitants of Jabez, implying that they established a permanent settlement there, which cannot of course refer to the
Rechabites. Even if the house of Rechab is also a place-name,
identical with the name of the family, as is usually the case in
the genealogies of Chronicles, there is no proof that it refers
to a permanent settlement. If preference is given to the text
of the Septuagint: these are the men of Rechab, over that of
I Chronicles 4:12: these are the men of Recah, it is seen that,
in accordance with the genealogical context in I Chronicles
4:1115, the Rechabites were related to the Kenazites and the
Calebites. Indeed, if these above verses reflect the process of
settlement of the desert tribes in Judah in the period of the
united monarchy in Israel, it may be estimated that the Rechabites were known, many years before Jonadab, as a special family in Judah. It is reasonable to suppose that, like the
Kenites and the Kenazites, the Rechabites were absorbed in
Judah at the time of the united monarchy, and in any case their
territory was adjacent to the permanent settlements in the hill
country of Judah. But their character as a religious sect dates
only from the time of Jonadab.
Seminomadic Shepherds
Not engaging in agriculture and living in tents, the Rechabites
must have subsisted by raising sheep and goats (cf. Gen. 4:20;
25:27). It follows that the Rechabites were among the nomads
143
rechitsa
and herdsmen who dwelt in proximity to the permanent settlements in Israel and Judah, and even wandered further to the
Wilderness of Judah. From the verses describing the meeting
between Jonadab and Jehu which took place between Jezreel
and Samaria it may be inferred that Jonadabs settlement was
in the neighborhood of the cities in Israel. But their wanderings in the different periods ranged over Israel and Judah.
Relation to Society at Large
It appears that, in contrast to the deeds of Jonadab in the days of
Jehu, the Rechabites in the following generations did not participate in the practical life of the kingdom and were essentially
not a rebellious sect. The impression is that they did not set
out to preach a way of life to the whole people, but, as is generally the case with a separatist group unified by family ties and
stringent communal restrictions, it served in its very existence
as a challenge to the conventions of the agrarian society and
culture; in this respect it was analogous to some of the ascetic
sects in the Wilderness of Judah in Second Temple times.
Second Temple Period
There are allusions to the existence of the family of the Rechabites in the days of the Second Temple. In Nehemiah reference is made to Malchijah son of Rechab, officer of the district of Beth-Cherem who held the Dung Gate (3:14), but there
is no mention of his being unique among the other officers.
Diodorus Siculus (19:9), in the name of Jerome of Cardia,
speaks of the asceticism of the early Nabateans at the end of
the fourth century B.C.E. in terminology almost exactly like
that which Jeremiah used in describing the Rechabites, and he
too placed special emphasis on the prohibition against drinking wine. There is no way of knowing of any connection between the Rechabites and the Nabateans, but it is probable that
there were parallels to biblical asceticism, such as that of the
house of Rechab, among other ethnic groups that settled in
the south and Transjordan. According to the Mishnah (Taan.
4:5), the children of Jonadab son of Rechab had (in Second
Temple times) a fixed day in the year for bringing wood for
the altar of the Temple. They were probably descended from
the tent-dwelling Rechabites, but they hardly constituted a
separate sect. There were water-drinking sacrificers, and the
Midrash traces their descent to Jonadab (Gen. R. 98:10; Sif.
Num. 78, 81, et al.; cf. Taan. 28a; TJ, Taan. 4:2, 68a), but this
merely indicates that sects of teetotalers existed in the Second
Temple period. The designation which connects them with
the pre-Exilic Rechabites may very well be typological rather
than truly genealogical.
Bibliography: E. Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstaemme (1906), 40409, 444ff.; J.W. Flight, in: JBL, 42 (1923), 158226
(incl. bibl.); S. Klein, in: Z iyyon Meassef, 2 (1927), 9; J.A. Montgomery, in: JBL, 51 (1932), 183213; H. Schmoekel, Jahwe und die Fremdvoelker (1934), 21222; S. Talmon, in: Eretz Israel, 5 (1958), 1113; N.
Glueck, Rivers in the Desert (1959), 1425; Kaufmann Y., Toledot, 2
(1960), 232, 338, 6256; S. Abramsky, in: Eretz-Israel, 8 (1967), 25564,
incl. bibl. For the Rechabites in the Second Temple period see: Y. Baer,
Yisrael ba-Ammim, 1 (1955), 45, 125.
[Samuel Abramsky]
144
recife
tion with D. Karmi). On the death of his father, he ran the office with his brother-in-law, Zarchi. The designs emerging
from the reorganized office shifted from a solid sobriety to
lively sculptural forms blending with the natural surroundings. In the Zikhron Yaakov Rest Home, Rechter repeated the
cellular pattern of his Tel Aviv Hilton. In a different mood,
Rechter experimented with concrete and glass at the Polyclinic in Haifa. Rechter worked on a town-planning scheme
for the development of the Tel Aviv seafront. One of his most
famous buildings is the Stage Arts building in Tel Aviv, a
monumental structure that includes a small piazza, two large
entrance gateways, and a large hall. Rechter was awarded the
Israel Prize for arts in 1972.
The Ministry of Education and Culture awards the Rechter Prize for excellence and creativity in architecture.
Dutch Period
The first organized Jewish community in Brazil was established in Recife during the period of Dutch colonial occupation (16301654) that brought Jews among other Dutch
colonists and permitted religious freedom. The West India
Company came to Brazil attracted by the sugar plantations and
more than 120 engenhos (sugar mills) in Pernambuco.
In 16361640 the Dutch Jews founded the first Brazilian
synagogue in Recife, the first on American soil: Kahal Kadosh
145
RECIFE, city in northeast Brazil, capital of the state of Pernambuco; population: 1,486,869 (2004); Jewish population
estimated at 1,300.
Colonial Period
When Recife became a prosperous center for sugar production in the 16t and 17t centuries, Portuguese New Christians
were already living in the city and its environs and in many
regions of the Brazilian Nordeste (North East). They worked
mainly in sugar production and commerce. The significant
number of New Christians in Recife took part in a variety of
activities, and some bound themselves through intermarriage
to prestigious Old Christian families.
The Inquisition dispatched an official inspector (visitator)
and an inquisitional commission was established in 15931595
in Olinda, the port of Recife. New Christians were tried and
arrested; some were taken to Lisbon and handed over to the
inquisitional tribunal. After the inspector had left, surveillance
of New Christians was continued by the bishop of Brazil, with
the assistance of the local clergy. Thus the New Christian Diego Fernandez, husband of Branca Dias, was accused by the
Inquisition of being a Judaizer and of keeping an esnorga,
a secret place to pray.
Two New Christian writers lived in Recife and stood out
in the colonial period with works that reveal elements of Jewish
expression: Bento Teixeira, author of Prosopopia one of the
most important Portuguese-Brazilian colonial poems published in Lisbon on 1601, and Ambrsio Fernandes Brando,
author of Dilogos das Grandezas do Brasil, in 1618.
Modern Period
The contemporary immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe
to Recife started in the 1910s, and in 1910 a synagogue was established in a private house. The Centro Israelita de Pernambuco and the local dishe Shul were founded in 1918. Synagoga
Israelita da Boa Vista and the Jewish cemetery were created in
1927. In 1930 Sephardi immigrants built their synagogue. The
Jewish community was very active with a network of institutions, including six schools, the assistance organization Relief, a
sports club, a library, a Yiddish theater group, youth and Zionist
groups, and women organizations such as WIZO and Pioneiras.
The community, which reached a population of 1,600, lived
mostly in the neighborhoods of Boa Viagem and Boa Vista.
In 1992 the Arquivo Histrico Judaico de Pernambuco
(Historic Jewish Archive of Pernambuco) was founded. In
1994 the Associao para a Restaurao da Memria Judaica das Amricas (Association for the Restoration of Jewish Memory in the Americas) was established and in 2000
the building where the synagogue Kahal Kadosh Z ur Israel
had been founded in the Dutch period was recognized as a
national historical patrimony by Instituto do Patrimnio
Histrico e Artstico Nacional Iphan, a federal agency, and
a memorial-museum was opened. Together with the old Rua
dos Judeus the memorial figures in the tourist tours of the
city of Recife.
146
reconstructionism
while acclimating to America, or abandoning Jewish identity
altogether. Kaplan believed that with the breakdown of belief
in the Torah as the revealed word of God, in the authority of
halakhah (Jewish law), in a supernatural conception of God,
and in the notion of the Jews as a separated and chosen people, a new rationale for maintenance of Jewish identity was
needed. Kaplan argued that in pre-modern times, Jews had
remained loyal to their identity despite hardship and suffering because they believed that adherence to Judaism assured
them of salvation in the next world. Before the French Revolution (1789) Europes Jews also lived in segregated communities; with the entry of Jews into citizenship in the countries
where they resided, the social and sociological constraints
that kept them apart from the larger culture were removed,
however imperfectly. Kaplan argued that Jews had to learn to
live in two civilizations: the Jewish one and the larger culture
of which they were now a part.
When Kaplan began his career, there was widespread
disagreement among Jews about how to define Judaism and
what comprised Jewish identity. Reform Judaism defined Judaism as a religion only, and Jews as a community of faith.
Zionist theoreticians defined Judaism as a nationality, and
Jews as citizens (in exile, perhaps, but citizens nonetheless) of
the Jewish nation. Secular Jews saw Judaism as a culture and
Jews as an ethnic group. Kaplan sought definitions that could
encompass this diversity. He decided that Judaism should be
understood as the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people, and that the Jews should share a common sense of
peoplehood. Judaism, like any other civilization, comprised a
history, a language, a religion, a social organization, standards
of conduct, and spiritual and social ideals. Under the influence
of modern sociology, Kaplan stated that whatever is an object
of collective concern takes on all the traits of a religion, which
in its turn functions in order to hold up to the individual the
value of the group and the importance of his complete identification with it. For Kaplan, belonging to the Jewish people
came before behaving according to Jewish practice or believing according to Jewish religion.
Kaplan believed that Judaism had to be transformed from
an other-worldly civilization into a this-worldly one. He
rejected supernaturalism in all of its manifestations. For Kaplan, the Torah was a human document recording the Jewish
peoples earliest record of their search for God and for the behaviors that would lead to human responsibility. What tradition called mitzvot (divine commandments) were for Kaplan
folkways (minhagim) that had been created by the Jewish
people, and thus were subject to adaptation, change, and/or rejection in response to the changing needs of the Jewish people.
The Jewish religion, said Kaplan, exists for the Jewish people,
not the Jewish people for the Jewish religion. Where Reform
Judaism saw ethical monotheism as the unbroken line of continuity throughout Jewish history, and Orthodox Judaism saw
the Torah and halakhah as the unchanging constants, Kaplan
held that it was Jewish peoplehood that was the sole constant
throughout the evolving history of Judaism.
Many Jewish intellectuals were attracted to Kaplans program for a Jewish life. Since Judaism was a civilization, Kaplan
argued that its parts could best function in interrelationship
with one another. Kaplan sought to replicate the model of the
European Jewish kehillah as what he called an organic community, in which the basic unit of Jewish life would be the
entire aggregate of a given communitys synagogues, educational institutions, Zionist organizations, agencies, and organizations, linked into a single structure with a democratically
elected leadership. In Kaplans vision, one would join the local
Jewish community, pay dues to that community, and in return
have access to all the services of that community from birth
to death. While this model was never implemented in the way
Kaplan envisioned, it did have an influence on the emergence
and development of the Jewish Federations and Jewish Community Relations Councils, each of which sought to embrace
the entire spectrum of the communities they represented.
Kaplan was also a pioneer in conceiving of the synagogue
as a Jewish center, in which social, intellectual and athletic activities would be as much a part of the institutional program
as the synagogue and the religious school. This vision not only
influenced the development of Jewish congregational life in
the period before World War II, but it also helped inspire the
creation and development of the Jewish Community Center
movement.
The most controversial aspect of Kaplans thinking was
his theology. The conception of God as a supernatural personality became for Kaplan a conception of God as force or process, or, in his preferred formulation, the Power that makes
for salvation. Salvation was understood by Kaplan as selffulfillment on a social and individual basis. It meant the progressive improvement of the human personality and the establishment of a free, just, and cooperative social order. Kaplan
maintained that there were adequate resources in the world
and capacities in humans to achieve such salvation. Since we
sense a power that orients us to this life and elicits from us the
best of which we are capable, this notion of God conforms to
our experience. Kaplan distinguished between conceptions
of God and belief in God. He felt that Judaism offered many
different conceptions of God, from rational to mystical, and
from personal to non-personal. It was belief in God as that
force or power in creation and in human life that supported
salvation, what Kaplan later called transnaturalism, that he
felt was essential; the conception of God that a Jew might
choose was less important. Some early Reconstructionists,
such as Milton *Steinberg, rejected Kaplans naturalistic theology while accepting the rest of Kaplans program.
Until the founding of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College (RRC) in 1968, Reconstructionist ideology was essentially defined by Kaplan and his immediate circle of disciples and followers. Once the RRC began to ordain Reconstructionist rabbis, and as the number of Reconstructionist
congregations began to grow in the 1980s and 1990s, Reconstructionism itself began to evolve, adapt and change to meet
new circumstances. The inclusion of h asidic, kabbalistic and
147
reconstructionism
meditative practices and teachings broadened the spectrum
of Reconstructionist spirituality in ways that the primarily rational approach of Kaplan might not have accommodated. As
an independent movement, Reconstructionism had to grapple with creating positions and practices that, if not exactly
couched as a return to halakhah, meant a serious engagement
with halakhah. The rise of literary analysis and appreciation
of biblical scripture in the last quarter of the 20t century
provided a new opportunity to reengage the Torah and other
biblical writings as myth and poetry, and not only as an historical document.
Reconstructionism in the 21st century remains firmly
grounded in Kaplans essential insight, that Judaism is the
product of the historical experience of the Jewish people,
and is not the revealed word of God or an inspired reaction
to revelation. The traditional sources and practices of Judaism still have, in Kaplans famous formulation, a vote but not
a veto. The organic Jewish community may never have actually been created, but the institutions of the movement and
the congregations affiliated with the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) try to operate with Kaplans principles of
democracy, egalitarianism, and openness. In particular, the
concept of values-based decision-making has become integral to Reconstructionism, as has inclusivity, the bringing
into the Jewish community of intermarried Jews, single Jews,
gay and lesbian Jews, single Jewish parents and elderly Jews,
among others. Kaplans emphasis on belonging over behaving
and believing remains central to Reconstructionism; what has
changed is that it is as much the belonging to a Jewish community (congregation or havurah) as to the Jewish people
that is now central.
The founding of the Reconstructionist movement may be
dated from the establishment by Mordecai Menahem *Kaplan
of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ) in January 1922. The society served both as a synagogue center and as
a forum for Kaplans ideas. Several months after the publication of Kaplans Judaism as a Civilization (1934), he launched
the magazine The Reconstructionist in collaboration with his
closest associates, of whom Milton Steinberg, Eugene *Kohn,
and Kaplans son-in-law, Ira *Eisenstein, formed the nucleus.
In 1941 the New Haggadah and A Guide to Jewish Ritual were
published. In the Guide, ritual was viewed not as law but a
means to group survival and the spiritual growth of the individual Jew. The individual was to be the arbiter of which
rituals or folkways would be followed, though when making
such choices, a balance between ones own needs and those
of the group was optimal. Preserving the integrity of the tradition, while being responsive to contemporary needs, was
fundamental.
In 1945 the Reconstructionist Sabbath Prayer Book appeared, which resulted in a ban (h erem) against Kaplan by the
Agudat ha-Rabbonim, a small Orthodox association, although
such an attempt was largely ignored. But several of Kaplans
colleagues on the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary
published an adverse statement of opinion (gillui daat) in
148
records, phonograph
A new magazine, Reconstructionism Today, was established in
1994. In 2005, The Reconstructionist, now a journal, published
its 70t anniversary issue. The initial publication of a projected
three-volume Reconstructionist Guide to Jewish Practice appeared in 2000. In 2003, a Reconstructionist youth movement,
Noar Hadash, was established. That same year, the first Reconstructionist summer camp opened (Camp JRF); in 2005, the
camp purchased a permanent home in the Pocono mountains
in Pennsylvania, which will also serve as a year-round conference and retreat center for the movement.
After Kaplan and Eisenstein, the most important and influential leader of the Reconstructionist movement has been
David *Teutsch, who served as vice president of the Jewish
Reconstructionist Foundation (198082), executive vice president of the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and
Havurot (198286), president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (19932002), editor-in-chief of the Kol Haneshamah prayerbook series (19892002), and director of the
Center for Jewish Ethics at the RRC (2002 ).
The intellectual history of the Reconstructionist movement came full circle with the publication in 2002 of the first
volume of excerpts from the daily journal kept by Kaplan from
1913 until the late 1970s. Edited by Kaplans biographer, Mel
Scult, the journals helped to bring to a new generation of Reconstructionists and to all interested in the history of American Judaism in the 20t-century, the insights of the founder of
Reconstructionism as he worked out the ideas, principles, and
positions that would become Reconstructionist Judaism.
Bibliography: R.T. Alpert and J.J. Staub, Exploring Judaism:
a Reconstructionist Approach (2000); E.S. Goldsmith, M. Scult, and
R.M. Seltzer (eds.), The American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan
(1990); Communings of the Spirit: The Journals of Mordecai M. Kaplan,
19131934 (2001); M. Scult, Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century: A
Biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan (1993); I. Eisenstein, Reconstructing Judaism: An Autobiography (1986).
[Richard Hirsch (2nd ed.)]
RECORDS, PHONOGRAPH. The earliest talking machine was patented by Thomas A. Edison in 1878 as a vertical
cylinder device. In 1887 Emile *Berliner produced a lateral flat
disc mechanism, bringing the disc gramophone into competition with the cylinder phonograph. By 1891 recordings
were introduced to public entertainment as coin-in-slot ma-
149
records, phonograph
chines, and soon included some Jewish monologues, skits,
and songs.
One of the most widespread Jewish subjects on recordings was cantorial music. Gershon *Sirota was the first cantor
to record liturgicals commercially. He was widely criticized
because recordings were played in cabarets and on the Sabbath. Then Zavel *Kwartin recorded and other cantors followed in a golden cantorial age. In the 1920s such favorites
as Mordecai *Hershman, David *Roitman, and Berele *Chagy
were presented on discs and cylinders. Cantor Josef (Yossele)
*Rosenblatt put 82 different liturgical selections on 10 labels.
Since World War II revival of interest in European-style cantorials has resulted in re-pressings and reissues of old liturgical
performances, as well as recordings of modern cantors such
as Moshe *Koussevitzsky and Leib *Glantz, and the cantorial
records of such prominent concert and opera artists as Jan
*Peerce and Richard Tucker. In the U.S. congregations have
honored their own cantor with a recording issue of his performances. In the 1960s recordings of the devotional music
of h asidic groups, such as the Lubavitcher, Modzhitzer, and
Gerer, on their own labels or Jewish companies, added to the
number of Jewish liturgical recordings.
Theatricals
Edison cylinders early captured such voices as the Yiddish artist Madame Regina Prager (18741949) and the Jewish entertainer Sophie *Tucker. Among the Jewish performances early
in this century on single-side small discs were a folk melody
Min ha-Mez ar and a popular ditty Kum Yisrulik, Kum Aheym.
Shalom Aleichem read his works for cylinders, and the comic
monologuist, Ikey Eisenstein, was a great favorite on discs. Especially in the U.S. dance music recordings sold well, particularly of Jewish wedding freylekhs, shers, kazatskis, and horas.
By the end of World War I every recording company had a
roster of all types of Jewish performers. With the rise of radio
in the 1920s, records dropped in sales. Jewish records especially lost their audiences with the changing tastes of the U.S.
Jewish public for Anglicized entertainment and with the appearance of Jewish stars on the general stage, in radio, and
talking pictures. Some recordings include Yiddish theatrical
personalities of the era between the two world wars, such as
Joseph Rumshinsky (18811956), Aaron Lebedeff (18731960),
Ludwig Satz (18911944), Moishe Oysher (19071958), and Menasha Skulnick (18921970). The aftermath of the Holocaust
in Europe and the establishment of the State of Israel stimulated wider interest for popular performances of Yiddish and
Hebrew folk music. Prominent among recorders of this postwar Jewish expression have been the actor-singer Theodore
Bikel, the h asidic performer Shlomo Carlebach, the Israel
entertainer Shoshana Damari, and the Yiddish actress Molly
Picon. With the rise of the youth market in the 1960s, such
phenomena as folk-rock liturgicals and rock-ballads in Hebrew with electronic instrumentation have appeared in the
U.S. and Israel.
At the turn of the century, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the
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redemption
music and cantorials are included in its roster. Benedict
Stambler (19031967) formed Collectors Record Guild and
began in 1955 to re-press for commercial sale many of the old
Jewish recordings from his large personal collection. He also
produced new h asidic recordings. In 1971 the Stambler collection of recorded Jewish music, comprising 4,000 different
selections, was donated to the Rogers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, housed in the New York Public
Library at Lincoln Center. This collection, recorded on approximately 150 labels and starting with materials from 1902,
is available for study on the library premises. Among the leading Israel recording companies were Hed Arz i, for light Israel
entertainers and folk ensembles; Ha-Taklit, with folk music
presentations; Israeli Music Foundation, for serious compositions as well as folk dances; and CBS-Israel, which produced
light popular, classical, musical and drama, educational material, and small disc specials for children. All went over to
compact disks in the 1990s.
See also *Music: Archives and Important Collections of
Jewish Music.
Bibliography: R. Gelatt, Fabulous Phonograph: From Edison to Stereo (19662); S. Rosenblatt, Yossele Rosenblatt (1954); Catalogs
of: Folkways, Banner, Tikva, Menorah, Greater Recording, Collectors
Record Guild, CBS, Hed Arz i, Ha-Taklit; Schwann Record and Tape
Guide (1971 ); Alliance Isralite Universelle, Service Technique pour
lEducation, Catalogs (1961; 1969).
[Irene Heskes]
the event of her being dependent on this estate for her livelihood (cf. Ruth 4:4ff.). In any event, he redeems a clansman
who has been reduced to slavery by poverty (Lev. 25:47ff.),
and avenges his blood when it has been shed (cf., e.g., Num.
35:1719). Whether he actually was duty bound to perform
these acts was contested by early rabbinic authorities (cf. Kid.
21a), but it seems likely that he was expected to do so, unless
there was a good reason to the contrary (cf. Ruth 4:6).
When applied to divine activity, a slight shift occurs in
the use of both these terms. Thus, pdh takes on the general
meaning of deliver and does not involve the notion of the
payment of an equivalent. God is, after all, the Lord of the universe and everything belongs to Him. Indeed the only place
in Scripture when the possibility of such an exchange is even
suggested is obviously rhetorical and pdh is not used (cf. Isa.
43:34). Gods purpose is not to retain the right of possession,
but to liberate people, both individuals and groups, from their
woes (cf. II Sam. 4:9; I Kings 1:29), including bondage (e.g.,
Deut. 7:8; 13:6), oppression (e.g., Isa. 1:27; Ps. 119:134), and
death (e.g., Hos. 13:14; Ps. 49:16). In the Torah, the Deuteronomist uses pdh to characterize Gods acts at the time of the
Exodus as redemptive (e.g., Deut. 9:26; 15:15; 21:8; 24:18). This
usage is extended by later writers to describe Israels eschatological redemption as well (cf., e.g., Isa. 1:27; 35:10; Jer. 31:11)
and even, on one occasion, its deliverance from its sins (Ps.
130:8). Though gl, like pdh, loses its strictly juridical connotation when describing divine activity, and takes on the meaning of deliver pure and simple (cf., e.g., Gen. 48:16), it still
does retain some of its original overtones even when referred
to God. Thus, Proverbs (23:1011) speaks of God as the goel
of (the next of kin, duty bound to protect) orphans, and Job
similarly believes Him to be the goel of the persecuted (19:25;
cf. 19:2122). In the same spirit the Psalmist calls Him the father of orphans, defender of widows (68:6). What better way,
then, for the prophet to reassure his people that God has a
special reason to redeem them, for He is their goel (Isa. 41:14;
43:14; 44:6, 24; 47:4; 48:17, etc.) and an intimate relationship
exists between Him and them (41:89; 43:10, 20; 44:12; 45:4;
54:10; 55:3). It must be no accident also that the prophet uses
pdh only twice (50:2; 51:11) and in both instances it appears in
earlier expressions that concern the Exodus. For, though the
two terms were used interchangeably when separated from
their life context, the poet was aware of their broader connotations and exploited them to create a more receptive mood for
his message. Possibly, too, he wanted to distinguish between
the earlier redemption from Egypt and the later one to come,
by using a term for the latter that had only infrequently been
associated with the Exodus (e.g., Ex. 6:6; 15:13).
While the king is described as a deliverer of the poor in
a royal Psalm (72:4, 14), and Ezekiel prophesies that David
will be established as the shepherd of Gods flock (34:23), the
national hope for redemption was centered on God. Only
He not the messianic king or other divine being was the
Redeemer. And though some biblical passages stipulated that
His deliverance is conditional upon repentance, many sim-
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redemption
ply state that He Himself would take the initiative because
of His boundless love (e.g., Isa. 54:8) and passionate concern
for justice (cf., e.g., Isa. 59:1520). An end would come to all
pain and suffering, and Israel would be restored to its land to
live in safety, protected by an everlasting covenant and the
Divine Presence (Jer. 32:3744; cf. Ezek. 11:1721). Israels Redeemer would then be manifest through His great acts of redemption and the redeemed of the Lord give thanks to him
(Ps. 107:12).
[Donald Daniel Leslie]
were therefore only temporary redemptions, the final redemption will be accomplished by God Himself and will be eternal
(Mid. Ps. to 31:2).
A quasi-transcendental and mystical element was introduced into the concept of redemption with the notion that it
served the needs of the Most High, since wherever [Israel]
was exiled the Divine Presence was exiled with them (Sif.
Num. 161; Meg. 29a). God therefore, so to speak, redeems
Himself with the redemption (Mekh. Bo 14). There are contradictory statements and inconsistent popular aggadic descriptions about the redemption. At one extreme is found
the view that even proselytes will not be accepted in the time
of the Messiah (Yev. 24b) a saying that is probably to be explained by the unfortunate personal experience of its author.
At the other are the many descriptions of the redemption of
Israel bringing with it the redemption of the world (Song R.
2:2, no. 3); the gentiles will become proselytes and all will call
on the name of the Lord (cf. Tosef., Ber. 7:2); God himself will
bring all of them beneath the wings of the Divine Presence
(Tanh . B., Gen. 108).
[David Flusser]
In the Talmud
While the Bible uses both padah and gaal for redemption,
the Talmud applies padah to ransom (see *Ransom) and gaal
to redemption. The sages know nothing of a miraculous redemption of the soul by external means. There is no failing in
man, whether collectively or as an individual, which requires
special divine intervention and which cannot be remedied,
with the guidance of the Torah, by man himself. As a result,
the term geullah is applied almost exclusively to national redemption, and became a synonym for national freedom. This
idea of national freedom from subjection to other states is the
main element in the yearnings of the people for the redemption of Israel, and it became even more pronounced during
the period of Roman domination. Redemption is dependent
upon repentance and good deeds (Shab. 118b; Yoma 86b; BB
10b; Sanh. 97b), and all attempts to calculate the exact date of
the redemption by means of transcendental or cosmic factors
were opposed, at times even sharply, even though in all eras
such calculators for understandable psychological reasons
were never wanting (Sanh. 97b). Despite the prominence of
the image of the Messiah as a redeemer, his role in the process of redemption is no different from those of Moses and
the other redeemers in the past; he is merely an instrument
in the hands of God. The view is also found that in contrast
to past redemptions that were effected by human agency and
Medieval Philosophy
As in the biblical and talmudic systems that preceded them,
the medieval philosophers generally regarded mans finite condition as the primary state from which he required redemption. The state of finiteness was not the result of human action or sin, but a cosmic circumstance ultimately due to the
nature of creation. The creation of the universe is attributed
ultimately by almost all medieval Jewish philosophers to the
goodness and grace of God, yet despite the divine goodness,
man was so formed that he is finite, a state in which he is subject to despair and death, spiritual and physical annihilation.
Open thus to annihilation, man stands in need of redemption. Owing to the divine goodness, redemption is available
to him, but he must participate in the redemptive process. If
he adheres to true beliefs and performs right actions, he is accounted righteous and worthy of redemption, otherwise he is
a sinner and condemned either to eternal torment or physical
annihilation. Hence sin does not produce the unsaved state, as
does original sin, for example, in the Christian view; sin rather
serves to prevent the redemption of man from the spiritual or
physical consequences of his finite condition.
Despite broad agreement among the medieval Jewish
philosophers on the general understanding of redemption,
significant differences appear among them in their various individual soteriologies. Two major approaches, which may be
termed traditional supernaturalism and philosophic naturalism, can be distinguished. The former retains the basic features
of talmudic soteriology, while the latter is strongly influenced
by Aristotelian and Neoplatonic concepts. Saadiah *Gaon
(Book of Beliefs and Opinions), whose view is representative
of traditional supernaturalism, states the position this way.
God created the world out of his goodness. Man, though created finite, is the ultimate purpose of creation. God intended
from the beginning that man should attain redemption from
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his finite condition. To enable man to merit such redemption, God revealed to him His will through Moses at Sinai.
Thus man could come to know the divine commandments
and by obedience to them earn salvation. Although the Jews
are the chosen of God, salvation is attained by the righteous
of all peoples. There are two major stages of redemption, both
of which will arise miraculously: the Messianic Age and the
world to come. In the Messianic Age the Jewish people will
be restored to the Land of Israel and the first of two resurrections will occur, that of the righteous Jews. When the Messianic Age ends, the world to come will emerge, then all the
dead will be resurrected and final judgment rendered. All who
ever lived will now be infinite in time, the righteous enjoying
eternal reward and the wicked eternal punishment. Included
among those who subscribe to the view of traditional supernaturalism are Judah *Halevi (Kuzari), H asdai *Crescas (Or
Adonai), and Joseph *Albo (Sefer ha-Ikkarim).
*Maimonides (Guide of the Perplexed) is the foremost exponent of a philosophic, naturalistic soteriology among the
medieval Jews. In Maimonides view, the creation of the world
is also the result of Gods goodness, but the universe was not
created for the sake of man nor is he the direct creation of the
Godhead. The universe comes from God through a successive
series of emanations in the course of which the world of man
(sublunar world) and man himself are created out of matter.
All that is formed of matter is necessarily finite. Hence matter
is the principle of human finity, and redemption is attained,
therefore, by man overcoming his material nature. This is accomplished naturally, by the actualization of the hylic intellect
to an acquired intellect through metaphysical and scientific
studies. The acquired intellect enables man to gain ascendancy
over his material desires during the life of his body, and at the
time of death gives him immortality, since the acquired intellect exists separate from the body and is unaffected by its
states or finity. Among those who subscribe to such a view of
redemption are Solomon ibn *Gabirol (Mekor H ayyim), Abraham ibn *Ezra, and Levi b. *Gershom (Milh amot Adonai). The
Christian notion that mankind requires redemption owing to
the guilt of original sin, which is incurred by every person as
a consequence of Adams disobedience in Eden, is completely
foreign to the medieval Jewish thinkers. Judah Halevi manifests the spirit of the Jewish position when he presents Adam
as a paradigm of religious excellence whose spiritual genius
was ultimately inherited by the Jews, the chosen people.
In the Kabbalah
The kabbalists make no additions to the historic aspects of
the doctrine of redemption as developed in rabbinic tradition. Their original contribution to this concept is bound up
with its inner hidden aspect. As in all things, there is an inner aspect or mystery in the course of redemption, which
is intimated and expressed in a symbolic manner. The basic
tenet of their outlook is derived from the verse On that day
the Lord shall be One and his Name One (Zech. 14:9), which
153
[Alvin J. Reines]
redemption
restored and achieve the perfection for which it was destined
from the beginning. Redemption is here defined as the manifestation of that state in which the breaking of the vessels is
completely mended. Every other manifestation of redemption serves only as symbol of this fundamental meaning.
An important problem in the doctrine of redemption
arose regarding the role of the Jew in bringing it about. There
were two contradictory opinions on this point.
(1) Essentially, redemption will come miraculously, and
flesh and blood creatures shall have no part in bringing it about:
this is the opinion of the majority of the Spanish kabbalists.
(2) Redemption is no more than the external manifestation of the inner state of tikkun (restitution) which depends
on the deeds of Israel and a realization of the way of life which
the Kabbalah preaches. The fact of tikkun is not something
which depends on a miracle, but rather on human action.
According to the first view, the Messiahs coming will not
bear any essential relationship to mens deeds; according to
the second view, his coming is conditional upon the accomplishment of the task of Israel in the tikkun of the world.
According to this latter view, there is a human and historical preparation for redemption and the Messiah will come
automatically if this preparation is completed. This belief is
widespread among the disciples of Isaac *Luria, and it follows
logically from the basic assumptions of Lurianic Kabbalah.
Only after the triumph of these ideas had brought about the
deep historical crisis of Shabbateanism did the H asidic doctrine appear, which distinguished between general redemption (of the people of Israel; redemption in its literal meaning) and individual redemption (the mystical redemption
of the soul, which has no messianic connotation). This distinction is intended to limit human initiative to the realm of
individual redemption and make general redemption once
again dependent solely on the power of God. This distinction
removed the dangerous and utopian sting contained in the
Lurianic view of redemption.
Modern Jewish Thought
In modern Jewish thought redemption has been viewed as
referring to the eventual triumph of good over evil, to the
striving of individuals to self-fulfillment, to the achievement
of social reforms, and also in terms of the reestablishment of
a sovereign Jewish state. Hermann *Cohen, for example, regarded redemption as mans conquering his impulse to sin.
The idea of God is that which ensures the eternal existence of
mankind as a whole in order that His program for the future
ethical world can become real. The individual who commits
sin feels that he has strayed from the rest of mankind and detracted from the common goal, and that he must be redeemed
back to humanity. God then becomes the indicator of individual mans triumph over sin (cf. Der Begriff der Religion im
System der Philosophie (1915), 64). This conception of God the
Redeemer is an aid to the individual in helping him to repent.
The individual who contemplates this relationship with God
may be led to improve his character.
154
[Gershom Scholem]
reder, bernard
of isolation death, and its concomitant fear. This love also
awakens the response of love in man, and the binding together
of man and God in love is the first step toward redemption
of the world for the love spreads and is applied to other men.
This first redemption applies to man. Rosenzweig also held
that the world had a special spiritual relationship to God and
that it, too, could be redeemed. In the second stage God acts
to unite man and the world. When this is achieved God, too,
is redeemed. For God is not only the redeemer but also the
redeemed. In this redemption God redeems the world by the
means of man and redeems man by the means of the world.
He also redeems Himself (Kokhav ha-Geulllah (1970), 267).
For then true unity is created God-man-world. Eternity enters into being and death is pushed off and the living become
immortals in eternal praise of redemption (ibid., 280).
Mordecai *Kaplan uses the term salvation instead of redemption. He links redemption with the concept of the other
world and asserts that until modern times the Jewish concept
of salvation was other-worldly. Kaplan maintains that it is impossible in modern times to continue this belief and that we
must see salvation in terms of this world. Furthermore Kaplan
speaks of God as the power that makes for salvation, i.e., an
inherent force in the universe which enables man to achieve
salvation. He points out that salvation must have both a personal and social significance. In its personal aspect it represents the faith in the possibility of achieving an integrated
personality (The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion
(1937), 53). Social salvation is the natural concomitant of personal salvation for we cannot think of ourselves except in relation to something not ourselves (ibid.) Social salvation is
the pursuit of common ends in a manner which shall afford
to each the maximum opportunity for creative self-expression
(ibid. 54). Salvation must be conceived mainly as an objective
of human action, not as a psychic compensation for human suffering (ibid.) Salvation means deliverance from those evils,
external and internal, which prevent man from realizing his
maximum potentialities. It is deliverance from frustration
(Questions Jews Ask (1956), 126).
Joseph B. *Soloveichik, the modern Orthodox thinker,
describes redemption in terms of faith and performance of
mitzvot, but also includes the idea that the human capability
of renewal and self-transformation manifests itself especially
in times of human distress. Being redeemed is a mode of existence, not an attribute. Even a hermit can live a redeemed
life (i.e., as a mode of existence, redemption is an individual
thing and not dependent upon society. The Lonely Man of
Faith in: Tradition, vol. 7, no. 2, Summer 1965). Furthermore
redemption is a function of mans control over himself. A redeemed life is ipso facto a disciplined life (ibid.). As opposed
to dignity which is mans triumph over nature and the feeling
of success, redemption is when man is overpowered by the
creator of nature, and it is discovered in the depth of crisis
and failure (ibid., 2324).
Zionist thought represents another aspect of modern
Jewish thought about redemption. To the extent that Zionism
was considered a messianic movement dealing with the redemption of the Jewish people, its theorists talked in terms of
redemption. A. *Hertzberg characterizes Zionist thought by
saying that classical Judaism saw redemption as a confrontation between the Jew and God, but Zionism in its most revolutionary expression is between the Jew and the nations of
the earth (The Zionist Idea (1959), 18). Religious Zionist thinkers saw redemption as at least beginning in temporal terms
with the return of the Jews to Erez Israel and the building of
the land. Rabbi Y. *Alkalai writes Redemption must come
slowly. The land must, by degrees, be built up and prepared
(ibid., 105). Some religious Zionists such as A.I. *Kook added
another dimension to this idea: The hope for the return to
the Holy Land is the continuing source of the distinctive nature of Judaism. The hope for the redemption is the force that
sustains Judaism in the Diaspora; the Judaism of Erez Israel
is the very redemption (ibid., 420). Redemption in Kooks
thought thus becomes not only a physical reality by the return
to Erez Israel, but a metaphysical underpinning for Jewry everywhere. Even nonreligious Zionist thinkers, while not necessarily using the term redemption, spoke in messianic terms
or expressed themselves by concepts traditionally connected
with redemption. J. *Klatzkin for example states Zionism pins
its hopes, in one sense, on the general advance of civilization
and its national faith is also a faith in man in general faith
in the power of the good and the beautiful (ibid., 327). Here
the element of the triumph over evil and the advance of social good, topics connected with redemption, are assumed as
an integral part of the Zionist hope.
155
[Michael J. Graetz]
Bibliography: G.B. Gray, Numbers (ICC, 1903), 4701; S.R.
Driver, Exodus (1911), 4344, 109; J. Pederson, in: ZAW, 49 (1931), 175;
J.J. Stamm, Erloesen und Vergeben im Alten Testament (1940), 746;
M. Burrows, in: JBL, 59 (1940), 44554; N.H. Tur-Sinai, Ha-Lashon
ve-ha-Sefer, 2 (1950), 290; L. Koehler, Theologie des Alten Testaments
(19533), 225ff.; A.R. Johnson, in: VT Supplement, 1 (1953), 6677; T.
and D. Thomson, in: VT, 18 (1968), 9899. IN KABBALAH: I. Tishby,
Torat ha-Ra ve-ha-Kelippah be-Kabbalat ha-ARI (1942), 11343; G.
Scholem, Rayon ha-Geullah ba-Kabbalah (1946); Scholem, Mysticism, index.
red heifer
only at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting (Lev. 17:5), the red
heifer was to be slaughtered outside the camp (Num. 19:3). Not
slaughtered in the camp are likewise the scapegoat (Lev. 16:10),
the calf whose neck is broken (Deut. 21:4), and the birds used
in the purification of the recovered leper (Lev. 14:7). The red
heifer was more like an ordinary sacrifice than these, however,
in that some of its blood was sprinkled seven times toward
the front of the Tent of Meeting (Num. 19:4). In the other two
rites there was no sprinkling of blood at the sanctuary. The red
heifer ritual resembled the purification of the recovered leper
in that cedar wood, crimson stuff, and hyssop were used in the
preparation of the purificatory substances in both rites. While
it was the blood of a bird that was mixed with these in the purification of the leper, these were combined with the ashes of
the red heifer in the purification of persons and objects defiled by a corpse. Like the bull used in the induction of Aaron
and his sons (Ex. 29:14; Lev. 8:17), the bull for the sin offering
of the anointed priest (Lev. 4:11), and the goat and the bull for
the sin offering of the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:27), the red
heifer was burned outside the camp along with its flesh and
dung. In the red heifer ritual the greater part of the blood as
well was burned outside the camp (Num. 19:5). In all of these
rituals the performance of certain acts outside the camp clearly
indicates a degree of ritual impurity that somehow threatens
the holiness of the sanctuary itself. If the scapegoat which assumed Israels impurities had to be removed from the camp,
and if the birds which revived the leper from his temporary
symbolic death (cf. Ned. 64b) had to be subjected to the appropriate ritual outside the camp, it is logical that the ritual
purification of those in contact with death itself, the source of
the highest degree of ritual impurity (cf. Kel. 1:4), should be
performed outside the camp. In the books of Numbers and
Deuteronomy the Israelite community is often pictured as an
armed camp. Wherever the camp is located Gods Presence is
found. The area outside the camp is the sphere of uncleanness
to which lepers, gonorrheal persons, and those defiled by contact with the dead are sent (Num. 5:2), as are men who have
had nocturnal emissions (Deut. 23:11 [10]). Excrement likewise
was to be buried outside the camp (Deut. 23:14 [13]). The stoning to death of the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath
also took place outside the camp (Num. 15:35). The Book of
Leviticus (Lev. 14:45) speaks of the domain of the unclean as
outside the town rather than as outside the camp but there
is no practical difference, since the camp of the wilderness period actually represents the towns of the settled period.
The law of the red heifer addressed to Moses and Aaron
(Num. 19:1) prescribes that the slaughtering and burning of
the animal be carried out by Eleazar (19:4), Aarons heir apparent (after the death of his two older brothers; Lev. 10:13,
12). Some modern commentators suggest that Eleazar was
given the role so as not to defile Aaron the high priest. The
ashes were gathered by a ritually clean man (Num. 19:9) and
placed outside the camp in a ritually pure place (cf. Lev. 6:4).
The gatherer of the ashes could evidently be a layman as could
also the slaughterer of a freewill offering (Lev. 1:5). Both the
156
ers art was that of musicians, such as the one depicted in the
bronze sculpture The Trumpeter (1955). He settled in New York
in 1943, where he enjoyed great success: he won a Guggenheim fellowship and exhibited at the Whitney Museum and
the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1949). In 1954, Reder studied sculpture in Rome and Florence; two years later, he had a
solo exhibition at Galleria darte Moderno lIndiano. Reder attained American citizenship in 1948. The artist worked in both
bronze and stone. For instance, the bronze sculpture The Conquerer, a work depicting a military figure astride a tiny horse
balanced on a circular object, suggests to the viewer both the
pompousness and precarious nature of leadership. As his career progressed, Reder moved from realism to a rhythmic abstraction, as expressed in the stone sculptures Centaurs Head
and The Fantastic Bird. One of Reders better-known sculptures is the bronze Aaron with Tabernacle (1959), now in the
Israel Museum in Jerusalem. This large-scale sculpture combines biblical history, Jewish folklore, and references to mysticism and magic in a magisterial figure which seems rooted and
blossoming like a tree. Reder was a recipient of a Ford Foundation Grant in 1960, and a year later the Whitney Museum
presented a solo exhibition of his work. In 1969, the State of
Israel gave Denmark a sculpture entitled Wounded Woman.
Made by Reder, it is sited behind the Museum of Jewish Resistance, as a symbol of gratitude for Denmarks efforts on behalf
of persecuted Jews during WWII. Reders prints and sculptures
have a wide range of subject matter, including figures, both
human and fantastic, and subjects with Jewish themes, often
infused with what many critics refer to as a baroque, Rabelaisian spirit. He also worked as an illustrator, fashioning woodcuts for such publications as Yiddish Proverbs by Hanan J. Ayalti (1949). His work is in the collections of the Art Institute
of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, the Hofstra Museum, the
Jewish Museum, New York, the National Gallery of Art, and
the Whitney Museum.
Bibliography: A. Kampf, Jewish Experience in the Art of the
Twentieth Century (1984); C. Roth, Jewish Art: An Illustrated History,
revised edition by Bezalel Narkiss (1971).
[Nancy Buchwald (2nd ed.)]
red heifer
priest and the gatherer became unclean until evening, as did
a person who carried the carcass of an animal from a species
that is forbidden for food and as did a person who ate or carried the carcass of a permissible animal that was not properly
slaughtered (Lev. 11:28, 39).
The ashes of the red heifer were combined with spring
water (Heb. mayim h ayyim) in a vessel (Num. 19:17) to produce a mixture called water of lustration (Heb. me niddah).
The mixture was applied by dipping into it and sprinkling
(19:18) on the third and seventh days after defilement (19:19).
This defilement was acquired by touching a corpse, a grave,
or a human bone, or by being under the same roof with any
of these. That the priest, the gatherer of the ashes, the sprinkler (19:21), and the one who touched the water of lustration
(19:22) became unclean until evening has been explained both
as uncleanness attached to the handling of sacred objects and
as contamination by association. The second explanation
means that the red heifer caused uncleanness because of its
association with death. The first explanation finds its analogy in the defiling of the hands by sacred scrolls (Yad. 34),
while the latter has no analogue. In addition, the red heifer
has not yet come into contact with the dead during the time
of its preparation. Furthermore, the assumption that the red
heifer defiles because of its association with human death ignores the distinction between the seven days of uncleanness
consequent on contact with the dead (Num. 19:14) and the
shorter period noted for the priest, the gatherer of the ashes,
the lustrator, and the one who touched the water of lustration
according to the law of the red heifer.
Baumgarten elaborates on the first explanation by showing that normality results from equilibrium. On the one hand,
the dead are the most potent source of defilement. On the
other hand, the ashes of the heifer with their ability to reverse that defilement are equally potent. As a result, those
who come into contact with the ashes, which are especially
holy, have subverted the equilibrium required for normality
and are therefore impure. The apparent paradox as to how the
red heifer purifies the defiled and defiles the pure is no paradox. Too much sanctity is dangerous and leads to impurity.
The same conception underlies Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkais
explanation (Yad. 4:56) that sacred Scripture defiles the hands
because of their precious character. The ancient of sanctity
though, conveys a lesser impurity than corpse contagion. The
uncleanness of the red heifer is only until evening, but it affects the priest, the gatherer, the lustrator, whoever touches
the water of lustration, and indeed the man who is purified by
it from the more severe defilement. Thus, after his purification
from the latter by the application of water of lustration, he,
like the lustrator, must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and
remain unclean until evening (Num. 19:19b).
The burning of the red heifer with its blood, the crimson
that was combined with it, and the red color of the animal itself may allude to the power of blood to overcome the power
of death which threatens both the sanctity and the existence
of the Israelite camp (cf. Ex. 12:2223). While blood is mostly
a source of purity, innocent blood that has been shed is a pollutant. In such a case, the red of the heifer might be seen as
symbolic of the sin (cf. lsa. 1:18) that caused the death, which
is banished from the camp.
157
In the Talmud
The entire tractate *Parah is devoted to the laws of the red
heifer. The accepted opinion in talmudic law is that a cow
which has been mounted by a bull may not be used for the
ritual (Par. 2:4). The Mishnah specifies that the cow be at least
three or four years old; younger than three is termed calf
(Heb. eglah) rather than cow (Par. 1:1). Furthermore, R. Meir
asserts that theoretically the animal may be aged. In practice,
he explains, a younger one is more likely to fulfill the other
biblical specifications (Par. 1:1). Since the red heifer is called
a sin offering (H attat; Num. 19:9), the rabbis applied to it the
laws appertaining to this offering. The mixture of the heifers
ashes with water is called consecrated water. Some of the rites
connected with the red heifer were instituted by the Pharisees
in order to refute the view of the Sadducees. The Sadducees
claimed that only those who were in a state of complete ritual purity were entitled to burn the heifer. According to the
Pharisees, however, even a tevul yom (an unclean person who
has already undergone ritual immersion but still has to wait
until sunset to be declared clean; see *Tevul Yom) is qualified
to burn it. As a result, the priest who was assigned to burn the
heifer was deliberately rendered unclean and afterward immersed himself (Par. 3:78). This procedure was not carried
out without opposition. One tradition tells about a Sadducean
high priest who attempted to burn the red heifer according to
the ritual of his faction and was prevented by *Johanan b. Zakkai, who told him to immerse himself. The priest answered
rudely, and the story continues that as a punishment the Sadducee died three days later (Tosef., Par. 3:8). In reference to
another law, R. Yose recommended being less strict, saying,
Do not give the Sadducees an opportunity to cavil at us (Par.
3:3; cf. Tosef., Par. 3:3). According to the Mishnah, only the
high priests could be qualified (Par. 4:1; cf. Yoma 42b). Some
talmudic authorities (Yoma 42b; Sif. Num. 123) insist that the
assistant to the high priest be in charge; others suggest that it
may be any priest.
According to R. Meir in all of Jewish history only seven
heifers were burned, but according to the rabbis there were
nine (Par. 3:5), and the tenth and last will be prepared by the
Messiah (Yad, Parah Adummah 3:4). If two hairs of the animal were not red, it was invalid. As a result, the red heifer
was rare and costly, and several stories are told in the Talmud
about the exorbitant price demanded for it (TJ, Peah 1:1, 15c;
Kid. 31a). Although it was impossible to prepare the ashes of
the red heifer after the destruction of the Temple, its use did
not cease with the destruction, since there was still a supply
of the ashes. As late as the amoraic period, those who had become ritually unclean through contact with the dead still used
to cleanse themselves with it (see Nid. 6b, Y. Gilat, Mishnato
redl, fritz
shel R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus (1968), 252; Neusner (1987), 146ff.;
and Sussmann, 30616).
Even after it ceased entirely, however, the rabbis still
regarded its regulations as of importance in teaching a profound lesson. With its contradictory regulations rendering
the unclean clean and the clean unclean, it was regarded as a
classic example of a h ukkah (i.e., a statute for which no rational explanation can be adduced, but which must be observed
because it is divinely commanded). It is one of the laws about
which the evil inclination and the gentile nations deride the
Jews and weaken their religious loyalties (Num. R. 19:56).
Even Solomon, the wisest of men, was baffled by it (Eccles. R.
7:23 no. 4). Similarly, although an aggadah relates that Rabban
Joh anan b. Zakkai once replied to a gentile that the sprinkling
of the holy water of the heifers ashes can be compared to exorcising a demon from a person (Num. R. 19:8), it goes on to
tell that he nevertheless told his students that he was merely
putting him off with a straw, and that in truth the law of the
red heifer should be understood as a h ukkah which must not
be questioned (ibid.). It is even stated that the reason was not
revealed to Moses himself (Eccles. R. 8:1 no. 5). Several homiletical interpretations of the red heifer are given, one being
that it was to atone for the sin of the golden calf, so that the
mother the red heifer should purify the defilement caused
by her offspring, the golden calf (PR 14:65a and see the whole
chapter). Nevertheless, the rabbis of the talmudic period never
really solved these problems (Urbach, see bibl.). The portion
of Parah constitutes the reading of the third of the four special *Sabbaths, and one of the reasons given is that an unclean
person could not celebrate the paschal sacrifices without first
being purified by the consecrated water of the red heifer.
158
[Arie Strikovsky]
Bibliography: G.B. Gray, Numbers (ICC, 1903), 24156;
N.H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (1967), 2704. Add. Bibliography: J. Milgrom, JPS Torah Commentary Numbers (1990), 43843;
S.D. Sperling, in: ABD I, 76163; D. Wright, in: ABD III, 11516; G. Anderson, in: ABD V, 870-86; A. Baumgarten, in: VT 43 (1993), 44251;
B. Levine, Numbers 120 (AB; 1993), 45779; J. Jaech, A Socio-Political Study of the Role of the Biblical Red Heifer in Tannaitic and
Amoraic Literature (unpublished rabbinic thesis, Hebrew Union
College, 2003). IN THE TALMUD: E.E. Urbach, H azal; Pirkei Emunot veDeot (1969), 333; S.H. Kook, in: Sinai, 30 (1952), 2934. Add.
Bibliography: J. Sussman, Babylonian Sugiyot to the Orders of
Zeraim and Tohorot (Heb., Ph.D. diss., 1969), 30616; J. Neusner,
A History of the Mishnaic Laws of Purities, vol. 910 (197477); idem,
From Mishnah to Scripture (1984), 5966; idem, The Mishnah Before
70 (1987), 14368; idem, The Philosophical Mishnah, 3 (1989), 6374;
idem, Purity in Rabbinic Judaism (1994), 15769.
red sea
to the ways mentally ill persons are treated by psychiatrists.
Redlich also wrote Hitler: Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet
(1998), in which he attempts to determine whether Hitlers actions were the result of physical and mental illnesses. It is novel
in that it may well be the first book in which these questions
were examined by a practicing psychiatrist.
[Louis Miller / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
REDLICH, HANS FERDINAND (19031968), musicologist. Born in Vienna, Redlich conducted opera in Berlin and
Mainz, and after 1931 devoted himself to research and writing.
In 1939 he settled in Britain, where he lectured at Cambridge
University from 1942 and at Edinburgh University from 1955.
He was an authority on Monteverdi and edited some of his
works. His writings include Gustav Mahler (1919), Claudio
Monteverdi (1949; Eng., 1952), Bruckner and Mahler (1955), and
Alban Berg (1957). He composed a concerto grosso (1927) and
Hoelderlin Trilogy for tenor and orchestra (1946).
REDLICH, JOSEPH (18691936), Austrian constitutional
lawyer and politician. Born in Goeding, Moravia, Redlich
was acknowledged as an outstanding authority on Austrian
and British parliamentary procedure. He was made assistant
professor at the University of Vienna in 1905 and full professor in 1908. Redlich was active in politics and, from 1906 to
1918, was a Liberal member of the Moravian Landtag (provincial legislature) and the Austrian Reichstrat. His support
for the Western Allies before World War I barred him from
the Austrian government until 1918 when shortly before the
fall of the empire he was made minister of finance in the last
Hapsburg government. Redlich was an authority on American legal education on which he had written a study in 1905.
He was invited to lecture in the United States at the Institute of Politics at Williamstown, Massachusetts, and at Harvard. In 1929 he was appointed professor of comparative
law at the latter university but in 1931 was recalled to Austria to become minister of finance for a second time during
the Austrian financial crisis. Redlich retained this post until
the advent of the Dolfuss regime in 1934. He was baptized
in 1903.
Redlichs many works include The Procedure of the House
of Commons (3 vols., 1908); The Common Law and the Case
Method in American University Law Schools (1914); and Das
Wesen der oesterreichischen Kommunalverfassung (1910) as
well as a number of important books on Austrian political
history, such as Das oesterreichische Staats- und Reichsproblem (1920) and Oesterreichische Regierung und Verwaltung
im Weltkriege (1925). He also wrote a history of English local
government, Englische Lokalverwaltung (1901; trans. by F.W.
Hirst, Local Government in England, 1903; vol. 1, republished
1958) in which he traced the growth of democratic institutions
in English local government.
Bibliography: J. Redlich and F.W. Hirst, History of Local
Government in England (19582), introd. by B. Keith-Lucas, 715.
[Josef J. Lador-Lederer]
RED SEA (Heb. , yam suf; lit. Sea of Reeds). The Hebrew term yam suf denotes, in some biblical references and
in most later sources, the sea known as the Red Sea (as in
Gr. ; Lat. Sinus Arabicus, Mare Rubrum;
Ar. Bah r or al-Bah r al-Ah mar). The Red Sea is a long narrow strip of water separating the Arabian Peninsula from the
northeastern corner of Africa (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia) and
forming the northwestern arm of the Indian Ocean to which
it is connected by the Bb al-Mandib Straits (whose narrowest
159
red sea
point is 21 mi. (33 km.) wide). In the northern part of the Red
Sea are the Gulf of Elath (Aqaba) and the Gulf of Suez which
enclose the Sinai Peninsula. With the opening of the Suez Canal, the Red Sea was connected with the Mediterranean. Its
total area is 176,061.6 sq. mi. (456,000 sq. km.) and its length
about 1,240 mi. (2,000 km., excluding the gulfs in the north).
For most of its length it is 124155 mi. (200250 km.) wide
and about 223 mi. (360 km.) at its widest point, near Massawa.
Its mean depth measures approximately 1,640 ft. (500 m.);
about 70 of its area is more than 656 ft. (200 m.) deep and
its maximum depth, 7,741 ft. (2,360 m.), is northeast of Port
Sudan. The Red Sea is the warmest and most saline of all open
seas. The temperature of the surface water reaches 3033 C
(8691 F) in JulySeptember (near the shores it rises to 36 C
(97 F) and drops to 2327 C (7381 F) in December-February. The average salinity near the surface is 4041 which increases to 43 on the northern side, in the gulfs of Elath and
Suez. Because of the wasteland nature of the area, the shores
of the Red Sea are sparsely settled. Its port sites are few and
for the most part small; the principal ones are Joba, Suez, Port
Sudan, and Hudida.
Bible in the third century B.C.E. This identification was adopted by Josephus and the Christian pilgrims and is still accepted by some scholars. They place the crossing of the Red
Sea in the vicinity of Suez and point out the high tides in the
Red Sea (up to 6 ft.), but they fail to explain how an east
wind could have driven the waters back at this point (Ex.
14:21). Most of the scholars who accept the southern route
of the Exodus maintain that the Red Sea was crossed at the
Great Bitter Lake, but here too an east wind could lower the
water level by only a few inches at the utmost. This theory,
furthermore, is unable to account for the places Pi-Hahiroth,
Migdol, and Baal-Zephon which the Israelites passed. The
majority opinion today identifies the Red Sea of the Exodus
with one of the lagoons on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Some locate it at Bah r Manzala (Gardiner, Loewenstamm) or
the Sirbonic Lake (Jarvis, Mazar, Noth) and identify Pi-Hahiroth with Tell al-Khayr, Migdol with Pelusium, and BaalZephon with the sanctuary of Zeus Cassius on the isthmus
dividing the lake from the sea, the former being occasionally
inundated by waves from the latter when an east wind is blowing (cf. also *Exodus).
History
In the Bible the Red Sea, apart from its problematical appearance in the route of the Exodus (see below), is clearly identified
in the description of the borders of the land promised to Israel
(Ex. 23:31) and in other passages describing the maritime activities of Solomon (I Kings 9:26) and later kings. In antiquity
the two gulfs at its northern tip served as important navigation routes. The Gulf of Clysma (Suez) was used by the rulers
of Egypt as the shortest route to the Mediterranean above the
Isthmus of Suez. It was connected via the Bitter Lakes with
the Nile and the Mediterranean by a canal which already existed in the days of Necoh and which was repaired by Darius I, the Ptolemies, and the Romans. The Gulf of Elath was a
vital outlet to the south for the kings of Israel and Judah and
their Phoenician allies. David acquired access to the sea and
this was maintained by his successors until the division of the
kingdom; it was later regained by Jehoshaphat and Uzziah. Still
later the Nabateans used it for their maritime trade and overland transport to Petra and Gaza. In the Hellenistic period the
discovery of the monsoon wind systems revived direct trade
with India via the Red Sea; this trade continued throughout
the Roman period. During the Byzantine period the Red Sea
was the only trade route to the East open to the empire, which
explains the tenacity with which the Byzantines fought for its
control against the Jewish kings of H imyar. From the seventh
century onward the Arabs dominated the Red Sea, except for
a brief period during which Elath was held by the crusaders.
The discovery of the sea route to India and Turkish domination put an end to international trade on the Red Sea; it was
revived with the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869.
In the Aggadah
While the Israelites were threatened by the Egyptians closing
in on them and driving them toward the sea, the angels wanted
to sing a song of praise, but God did not permit them to do
so, saying: My sons are in distress and you want to praise
Me? (Tanh . Ex. 60; Ex. R. 23:7; the version quoted in Meg.
10b, The work of My hands are about to drown in the sea,
also referred originally to the Israelites, not the Egyptians).
Even after the sea was parted and Israel had crossed it safely,
God again told the angels to wait, for He desired to hear first
the song sung by Israel (Tanh ibid.; Ex. R. ibid.). When Moses
raised the rod over the sea and commanded it to be parted,
the sea refused at first to obey the orders of a human being; it
only submitted when it saw the Divine Name engraved on the
rod, or according to another version when God Himself
rebuked it (Mekh. Be-Shallah 4; Ginsburger, Fragmententhargum, Ex. 14:29). In spite of the miracle, the people were at first
afraid to enter the receding waters, until *Nah shon of the tribe
of Judah descended first; but another version relates that all
were eager to obey the Divine command, competing among
themselves until eventually the tribe of Benjamin succeeded
in being the first to enter the sea (Mekh. ibid. 5; Sot. 36bff.).
When the Egyptians had drowned, the sea tossed their bodies
to the shore, but the earth, too, refused to receive them until
God swore an oath not to punish it for receiving the corpses
(Mekh. Shirata 9; Pseudo-Jon.; Ex. 15:12). According to another version the sea refused to give up the corpses and only
agreed to do so when God promised to compensate it in the
days of Sisera (Pes. 118b). Gods decision that the Egyptians
should not be swallowed up by the sea was either in order to
give the Israelites the satisfaction of seeing their former masters lying dead at their feet (Mekh. Be-Shallah 6) or because
160
reed
in spite of all they deserved burial in the ground (Mekh. Shirata 9; Pd RE 39).
[Joseph Heinemann]
Bibliography: Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 209ff.; Servin, in: Bulletin de lInstitut dEgypte, 31 (1949), 315ff.; C.S. Jarvis, Yesterday and
Today in Sinai (1931), 158ff.; Gardiner, Onomastica, 2 (1947), 201ff.;
EM, s.v. (incl bibl.); M. Harel, Masei Sinai (1968). In the Aggadah:
Ginzberg, Legends, 3 (19473), 1436; 5 (19475), 412; J. Heinemann,
in: Bar-Ilan Sefer ha-Shanah, 78 (1970), 8084.
RE, HARTVIG PHILIP (17781859), manufacturer, merchant, and religious reformer. He was born and brought up
in Fredericia (Denmark), where in his young days, he tried
to introduce religious reform but was unsuccessful. In 1810 he
moved to Aarhus, establishing there a business empire and became known as King Re. In Aarhus he also founded a syna-
161
reed, lou
Bibliography: Loew, Flora, 1 (1928), 66285; H.N. and
A.L. Moldenke, Plants of the Bible (1952), index; J. Feliks, Olam haZ omeah ha-Mikrai (19682), 28893. Add. Bibliography: Feliks,
Ha-Z omeah , 146.
[Jehuda Feliks]
REED, LOU (Lewis Allen; 1942 ), U.S. guitarist, songwriter, founder of the influential art rock band The Velvet
Underground; often referred to as the Godfather of Punk.
Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Freeport, New
York, Reed played guitar in several high school bands. He attended Syracuse University, but dropped out after two years
and moved to New York City, where he became a songwriter
for Pickwick records. There, Reed met John Cale, with whom
he formed The Primitives, a band which evolved to become
The Velvet Underground in 1964. Later managed by Andy
Warhol, The Velvet Underground was considered groundbreaking for their lyrical tales of urban decay, heroin addiction, and social realism, as well as for their droning sound
and experiments in noise. Although the band was never a
commercial success, The Velvet Underground is considered
one of the most influential rock bands of all time. Reed left
the band in 1970, and after spending a short musical hiatus
working for his fathers Long Island accounting firm, he released an eponymous solo album that was mostly rehashed
Velvet Underground tunes. It wasnt until Reed recruited
David Bowie and Mick Ronson to produce his 1972 album
Transformer that Reed achieved widespread success: a Top20 hit in the U.S., and a Top-Ten hit in the U.K. for Walk
on the Wild Side, a tribute song to the transsexuals, misfits, and hustlers at Andy Warhols Factory. Reed followed
Transformer with Berlin, which though artistically impressive, failed to make a mark commercially. Reed, who adopted a public persona of an androgynous junkie, followed
Berlin with Rock and Roll Animal and Sally Cant Dance,
both albums aimed at commercial success, and then in 1975,
Metal Machine Music, a double album of pure guitar feedback. As Reed wrestled with drug and alcohol problems,
his releases, while prolific, remained inconsistent. On 1976s
Rock and Roll Heart, Reed delivered an album of pure guitar pop, only to follow up with raw punk on 1978s Street
Hassle. The 1980s saw a sober, drug-free, and more focused
Reed releasing critically acclaimed albums such as 1983s
The Blue Mask and 1989s New York, a love letter and sharp
criticism of the state of his adored city. After a 25-year estrangement, Reed reunited with John Cale in 1990 and released Songs for Drella, a musical biography and tribute to
Andy Warhol. The Velvet Underground temporarily reunited
in 1993. Reed and his bandmates from The Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1996.
for the Los Angeles Angels in the Pacific Coast League, for
whom he played briefly in 1920 and 1924. Reese had changed
his given name from Solomon, and no one knew that he was
Jewish. Reese was invited to play in a celebrity exhibition
game in Los Angeles against a team with songwriter Harry
Ruby pitching and Ike Danning brother of N.Y. Giants star
Harry as the catcher. Clowning around, the battery mates
opted to forgo the traditional hand signals and instead call
out their pitches in Yiddish, certain that nobody on the other
team would understand. Reese got four hits in the game, and
afterward Danning said, I didnt know you were so good,
to which Reese replied, You also didnt know that my name
was Hymie Solomon. Reese played fulltime with the PCLs
Oakland Oaks from 1924 to 1928, when he was sold to the
New York Yankees. Reese, who made his Major League debut on April 19, 1930, played second base for the Yankees in
1930 and 1931 when he was the roommate of Babe Ruth
on the road and then with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1932,
finishing with a .278 batting average in 742 at bats. Reese returned to the Pacific Coast League, finishing a 14-year minor
league career hitting .289 in 1,673 games, and setting the
PCL record for most put-outs by a second baseman (4,771)
as well as most assists (5,119). Reese served as a coach with
four minor league teams and managed two others, and then
joined the California Angels in 1972, where he remained as
scout and coach until he died. Reese was known for his ability to hit fungos, and for being known as the nicest guy in
baseball indeed, two pitchers he worked with named their
sons Reese.
[Elli Wohlgelernter (2nd ed.)]
REESE, MICHAEL (18151878), U.S. realtor and philanthropist. Reese, whose place of birth is unknown, made his fortune
as a realtor during the California gold rush, but lived alone
in miserly frugality. Reeses estate was worth ten million dollars at the time of his death and he was the second-largest
real-estate owner in San Francisco. He bequeathed $30,000
to his nephews in Chicago for use in a charitable cause. They,
in turn, donated the money toward the rebuilding of a Jewish hospital destroyed in the Chicago fire, with the stipulation that it be called the Michael Reese Hospital. Reese also
left portions of his estate to the University of California and
to various Jewish charities.
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reformation
REFORMATION. Like most revolutions the Reformation
within the Christian Church in 16t-century Europe combined
ultraconservative trends with a drive for change. In his attitude
toward the Jews, Martin *Luther moved from a conscious attempt at a form of reconciliation, through a missionary effort,
to a most extreme, abusive outlook aimed at putting an end
to their very existence in Christian states. His more benevolent approach finds expression in his Das Jesus Christus eyn
geborner Jude sey (1523), while his Von den Jueden und jren
Luegen (1543) exemplifies his most vehement attitude. This
vacillation between extremes was typical of Luthers personal
approach to many problems (e.g., toward the peasant revolt
and toward toleration in general); more than that, however, it
was also an expression of, on the one hand, the reform movements feeling that their revolutionary return to a pure biblical Christianity would make a greater appeal to the Jews the
earlier missionary attempts having failed because they were
made in the name of corrupt Christianity and, on the other,
the deeply ingrained fear and hatred of the Jews which characterized most of the Reformation leaders. As their mission
to the Jews failed too, they felt deeply insulted; the deep layers
of their baleful image of the Jew came to the fore in Luthers
scurrilous attacks. His work is described by Joseph b. Gershon
of *Rosheim as such a boorish and inhuman book, containing curses and vilification hurled at us, hapless Jews, such as
by the will of God can truly never be found in our beliefs and
Judaism generally (ZGJD, 5 (1892), 331). Of the legal and social measures vis--vis the Jews proposed by Luther toward
the end of his life, Joseph b. Gershom said that the like never
has been contended by any scholar, that we Jews ought to be
treated with violence and great tyranny, that none was bound
to honor any obligation toward us (ibid., 332).
Less abuse and violence but a similar mixture of innovation and hatred marked the attitude to the Jews of John
*Calvin in his Ad quaestiones et obiecta Judaei cuiusdam
Responsio (Opera quae supersunt omnia, 9 (1900), 65374),
of Martin *Bucer in many of his writings and public appearances, and especially in the Ratschlag ob die Christliche
Oberkait gebueren muege, dass sye die Juden undter den Christen zu wonen gedulden, und wa sye zu gedulden welche gestalt
und mass of 1539 (in his Deutsche Schriften, 7 (1964), 31994),
and of many of their followers and imitators. Exceptions to
the rule were Wolfgang Fabricius *Capito of Strasbourg and
the Bavarian Andreas *Osiander, who dared to give the lie to
one of the basic elements of popular hatred of the Jews, the
blood *libel, in: Ob es war vn-glaublich sey dass die Juden der
Christen kinder heymlich erwuergen, und jr blut gebrauchen,
ein treffenlich schrifft, auff eines yeden urteyl gestelt. Wer menschen blut vergeusst, des blut sol auch vergossen werde (written
in 1529; published in 1893). Here is an eloquent and well-reasoned treatise against this appalling accusation.
For the Jews, the Reformation brought humiliation and
suffering and an additional burden because of Catholic Counter-Reformation claims that they were responsible for its Judaizing tendencies. There is also the impression that, at a far
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reformation
tion Europe, Jews and Judaic ways came to be considered respectable and exemplary. Gradually this appreciation of the
Jewish past developed into an appreciation of the Jews of the
day, as abundantly shown by the paintings of *Rembrandt and
a great deal of literary and social evidence.
Yet the main importance of the Reformation for Jewish
history lies more in what it failed to achieve than in its direct
attitudes and achievements. No less fervently than the pope,
its leaders wanted to have one Christian, all-embracing, orthodox Church. In the clash between the various strands of
the Reformation and between all of them and the Catholic
Counter-Reformation, this concept of an all-inclusive orthodoxy had perforce gradually to be abandoned. Through the
fire and blood of the wars of religion (at least up to 1648), toleration reluctantly dawned in European culture. The centuries-old reality of a fixed religious, legal, and social attitude
toward the Jews vanished; many established attitudes were
now reexamined. Toleration embraced only very reluctantly
the notion of including a non-Christian, let alone a Jew, within
its permissive outlook. An anonymous Jew began to urge this
change in Luthers lifetime. To the demand for apostasy he
advised that the Jew reply with a polite refusal based on historical continuity and loyalty. Jews will not listen: now, in
our [the Jewish] old age, after we have suffered the servitude
to the kingdoms and the hand of our enemies God forbid
that we should relinquish what our fathers left to us, a tradition in our hands, with proof, more than the other nations of
the world. This refusal is addressed to the very few men of
reason who ply their words mildly (published from Ms. by
H.H. Ben-Sasson, in HTR, 59 (1966), 388). Yet by implication,
and through forces inherent in the very logic of its birth, toleration had to relate to the Jews. This move was first made
only by small splinter groups like some Puritan sectarians in
the Netherlands and England. But the attitude of the eminent
lawyer and theologian Hugo *Grotius in his memorandum of
1616 (as member of a committee of two appointed by the municipality of Amsterdam to regulate the status of the newly admitted Jews) shows the considerable change in the thought of
the Calvinist Netherlands. He assumes the right of the Jews to
basic equality, while advocating many specific legal disabilities; thus, much of medieval practice was to remain without
the medieval frame of mind. Oliver Cromwells readmission of
Jews into England was intended to be on a similar basis; in the
end popular opposition resulted in factual readmission without explicit legal formulation. The pro-Jewish trend continued
both in England and the Netherlands, widening to embrace
more and more sectors of the population. By 1697 the city of
London had demanded that Jews be admitted as members of
the London Stock Exchange. The writings of men like John
*Toland and Roger Williams give an explicit edge to the reform attitude of toleration toward Jews, providing a weapon
for its advocates. Thus the fluid situation following on the Reformation offered the chance of a change (both for better and
worse) in the status and image of the Jews in Europe.
As noted, Jewish reaction to the Reformation was re-
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reform judaism
taken the opportunity to avenge their forced conversion: For
since throughout Christendom Christians have forced Jews to
change their religion, it seems to be divine retribution that the
Jews should strike back with the weapons that were put into
their hands; to punish those who compelled them to change
their faith, and as a judgment upon the new faith, the Jews
break out of the circle of Christian unity, and by such actions
seek to reenter the road to their faith, which they abandoned
so long ago (Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel, trans.
by M.A. Cohen (1965), 193). Another Jewish chronicler, Joseph *ha-Kohen born in Avignon but living and writing in
Italy wholeheartedly supported the Reformation camp and
described events and personalities consistently from this point
of view. To him Luther was the sage among the Christians; the
Council of Trent failed because the Lutherans did not come
and, left to themselves, the Catholics could only do foolish
things. His sympathy goes out to the Reformation fighters
of southern France in particular. He describes their plight in
a way that shows that he made use of their information and
sources. The death of the heads of the population of a Protestant city in the province is described as true kiddush ha-Shem:
the leaders of the populace they [the Catholic forces] took
along with them, torturing them and burning them alive
But they [the Reformation martyrs] exclaimed: This indeed
is the day we have hoped for our souls shall return to God
while our bodily clods return to dust (Divrei ha-Yamim (Sabbioneta, 1554), pt. 2, fol. 289v.). Joseph ha-Kohen was happy
to witness and describe the sack of Rome in 1527, but when a
Protestant church in Metz was destroyed by the Catholics and
some of the people killed, he commented that the Catholics
had polluted the land with blood (in H.H. Ben-Sasson, op.
cit., 284). Perceiving the hope of toleration emerging from
the wars of religion, he felt that the essential factor to emerge
from a peace pact between reformers and Catholics in France
was that each man could worship his God according to his
wish without fear. So all the people were exceedingly pleased
(ibid.). This is quite in the spirit of the middle-of-the-road
party in France.
With sectarian existence under Catholic rule in Bohemia and Moravia, Hungary, and Poland-Lithuania, ties between Protestants and Jews became closer, for there was a
growing similarity between their modes of existence. In the
1530s there were complaints in Poland that Jews exploited the
Reformation disquiet for proselytizing. Much more clear are
the contacts both through disputations and through direct
influence between anti-trinitarians and Jews, as, e.g., in Poland between Isaac b. Abraham of *Troki and Szymon *Budny,
and between Marcin Czechowic and Jacob of *Belyce. In the
thought of Judah Loew b. *Bezalel of Prague and his circle,
there is much evidence of contacts with sectarians. Judah
Loews plea against censorship on books antedating *Miltons Areopagitica by about 50 years (Judah Loews plea was
printed in 1598) has the marks of sectarian pleading for tolerance. Yet his brother *H ayyim felt constrained to warn the
Jews that when they slacken in their regard for the Torah
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
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reform judaism
as a coherent and cohesive modern Jewish religious stream
or denomination.
Usually viewed in contrast with Orthodoxy, Reform Judaism was the first of the modern responses to the emancipation of the Jews, a political process that occurred over an
extended period. Because of its stress on autonomy both of
the individual and of the congregation Reform Judaism has
manifested itself differently in various countries. Nevertheless, Reform communities throughout the world share certain
characteristics. Reform Jews believe that religious change is
legitimate and that Judaism has changed over the centuries as
society has changed. While in the past this evolutionary process was subconscious and organic, in the modern world it
has become deliberate. The guiding principal of the contemporary Reform movement is that it can adapt Jewish religious
beliefs and practices to the needs of the Jewish people from
generation to generation.
The first Reformers long identified as German Jews
but, in fact, Jews from many European countries were seeking a middle course between halakhic Judaism, which they
wanted to break away from, and conversion to Christianity, which they wanted to avoid. Looking for a way to remain
Jewish while adapting to the prevailing social customs, they
hoped that by introducing modern aesthetics and strict decorum, they could make worship services more attractive to
the many central European Jews who were drifting away from
traditional Judaism but had not become Christians. Most of
the early reforms focused on minor cosmetic changes: They
abbreviated the liturgy and added a sermon in the vernacular,
a mixed male and female choir accompanied by an organ, and
German along with Hebrew prayers. From the point of view
of Jewish law, reading some additional prayers in German was
a relatively minor divergence. But for the congregants eager
to create a synagogue service that would look respectable to
their neighbors and at the same time feel authentic to themselves, such a change carried great import.
By the early 1840s, a trained Reform rabbinic leadership
had emerged in central Europe. Abraham Geiger, called to the
Breslau Jewish community in 1839, developed into the most
distinguished intellectual defender of Reform Judaism in 19tcentury Europe. Reform rabbinical conferences in Brunswick
in 1844, Frankfurt in 1845, and Breslau in 1846 gave rabbis an
opportunity to clarify their beliefs and the practices that could
follow from them. A debate over the use of Hebrew in the services led Zacharias *Frankel to walk out of the 1845 conference,
a moment many see as the beginning of the historical school,
which advocated positive-historical Judaism. Frankel accepted
the evolutionary character of the Jewish religion but insisted
that the positive dimensions of Jewish tradition needed to
be preserved. This perspective later evolved into Conservative Judaism. Although most of the rabbis at these conferences were much less traditional than Frankel, they taught in
the established Jewish community, the Einheitsgemeinde, and
therefore had to remain sensitive to and conversant with traditional rituals and observances.
A number of radical Reform rabbis, in particular Samuel Holdheim, made strong anti-traditional statements that
shocked many of the more traditionally inclined. Geiger himself has been quoted as seeming to repudiate the circumcision
rite as a barbaric act. Yet the practice of most German Reform rabbis remained far more traditional than their rhetoric. They worked to remain a part of Kelal Israel, the totality
of the Jewish people, and did not fully accept the radical Reform groups in Berlin and Frankfurt.
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reform judaism
Jewish immigrants settled throughout the United States.
As they established businesses and built homes, local Jews began to put more effort into building a community. They consecrated cemeteries and held High Holy Day services, usually
in a private home or a hotel meeting room. Eventually, they
erected synagogue buildings and, if the community was large
enough, engaged a religious leader with training in religious
matters in the old country who could read the Hebrew prayers
and perform the required rituals. For the congregations in Fort
Wayne, Indiana, or Lexington, Kentucky, this was sufficient.
As the immigrants gradually acculturated, they wanted their
synagogue practice to reflect American norms. They wanted
to use English as well as Hebrew in the services and to create
an atmosphere to which they could bring Christian neighbors,
who would come away impressed with the propriety and nobility of the ritual. Thus they moved their congregations toward
Reform, not out of an intellectually based theological commitment, but as a practical response to daily life in the United
States. Most of the functionaries went along with that trend.
They were not theologically motivated but rather saw the practical benefits of adapting religious practices to the American
patterns of living and enabling Jews to remain Jewish.
But ideologically motivated reformers also existed. One
group of liberal religious intellectuals in Baltimore formed
a verein in 1842, a small religious group that met to discuss
theology and conduct services based on that theology, the
Har Sinai Verein. In 1845 a similar group founded EmanuEl in New York City, which developed into the largest and
most prestigious Reform congregation in the country. These
groups, dedicated to Reform Judaism in ideological terms, differed from the vast majority of congregations in the United
States, whose members were more concerned with the realities of everyday life in America than with the intricacies of
Judaic theological debate.
Isaac Mayer Wise and the Development of the American
Reform Movement
As more congregations developed in the antebellum period,
the need for strong rabbinic leadership grew. Not all congregations felt this need; many treasured their independence
and many local lay leaders enjoyed dominating communal affairs. Despite the difficulties, rabbis carved out a leadership
niche for themselves. Numerous immigrant teachers and ritual functionaries were interested in serving in the rabbinate
and, in some cases, in assuming leadership roles on a regional
or national level. One of the best known was Isaac *Leeser
of Philadelphia. A traditionalist minister who published an
influential newspaper, The Occident, Leeser also promoted
many other intellectual, social, and educational projects. But
it was Isaac Mayer *Wise who had the charisma and determination to develop into a national Jewish religious leader
and to actively work to build American Jewish institutions
and organizations.
Isaac Mayer Wise arrived from Bohemia in 1846, and although he was advised to become a peddler, Rabbi Max Lilien-
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reform judaism
did not give up on the idea. He was further encouraged when
Henry Adler of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, offered a $10,000 gift
toward the establishment of an American rabbinical college.
With the UAHCs establishment in 1873, Wise saw a new opportunity to build a successful school. That same year, the University of Cincinnati was founded, presenting the possibility
for rabbinical students to attend the university simultaneously
and graduate from rabbinical school with a university degree
as well. At the UAHC annual meeting in July 1874, congregational representatives voted unanimously for such a college
to be established, with Wise as president. In 1875 the Hebrew
Union College was founded. Wise served as president until his
death in 1900. A number of distinguished Reform rabbis followed him in this role: Kaufmann *Kohler (19031921), Julian
*Morgenstern (19211947), Nelson *Glueck (19471971), Alfred
*Gottschalk (19711996), Sheldon *Zimmerman (19962000),
and David *Ellenson (2001 ). Since its founding, the college
has educated the professionals who would assume leadership
roles in the congregations, as well as many of the women who
would marry future rabbis.
A long period of tension and conflict between the theologically oriented radical Reformers in the East and the more
moderate Reformers in the Midwest had created a great deal
of bitterness between the two groups as they attempted to influence the direction of American Judaism. Because of this
divisiveness, Wise waited until HUC had graduated a sufficient number of rabbis and only then moved forward with the
establishment of a permanent rabbinical association. David
Philipson, an early HUC graduate and rabbi at Congregation
Bene Israel in Cincinnati, helped Wise issue a call to rabbis
planning to attend the 1889 UAHC conference to meet separately to establish their own organization. The rabbis created
the Central Conference of American Rabbis, then elected Wise
president by unanimous vote; he continued to serve until his
death 11 years later.
By 1890 90 rabbis had affiliated with the CCAR, which
dealt with rabbinical issues, including controversial religious
questions. Membership was open to any rabbi who was serving or had served a synagogue as spiritual leader. After the first
year, membership would be open to those from several categories, not only those with ordination from HUC, but also a
wide variety of religious functionaries. As time went on, more
and more members were HUC graduates. Today the CCAR has
a membership of more than 1,800.
Despite his successful leadership, Wise was considered
an uneducated and unworthy colleague by some of the German Reform rabbis who arrived in the 1850s and 1860s with
doctorates from prestigious central European universities. Primary among them was David *Einhorn, who immigrated to
the United States in 1855. Einhorn wrote a number of scathing
attacks on Wise for abrogating Reform theology and turning
what he saw as a consistent and principled approach to modern Judaism into a jumble of incoherent beliefs. The issue debated by Wise and Einhorn has remained a relevant theme
throughout the history of the Reform movement. Is it more
important to be theologically unswerving, or to respond effectively to changing societal trends? Most of the time, the movement has favored pragmatism over theological consistency.
Wise represented a pragmatic approach to American Judaism. He was primarily an institution builder who attempted
to use ideology as a tool for compromise and consensus. Wise
succeeded as an organizational leader in building an entire
American religious movement from scratch, under very difficult circumstances.
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reform judaism
Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our
days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual
elevation.
Reform Judaism has historically emphasized what it interpreted as the central message of the prophets: the need to fight
for social justice. The Reformers believed deeply in working
with their Christian neighbors to help make the world a place
of justice and peace, and this belief was a central part of the
religious worldview. The platform emphasized the prophetic
mandate to work tirelessly for the rights of the downtrodden,
and the term prophetic Judaism described the Reform vision of following the dictates of the prophets to create a just
society on earth. Coupled with the emphasis on its interpretation of prophetic Judaism, the early Reformers in particular
spoke frequently about the mission of Israel, which presented
the idea that the prophets of the Bible served as advocates of
ethical monotheism. Ethical monotheism combined the Jewish belief in one God with rational thought and modern innovations in scientific knowledge.
The mission of Israel was to stand as an example of the
highest standards of ethics and morals and to help bring the
world to an awareness of and commitment to ethical monotheism.
American Jews who embraced Reform were greatly influenced by the popular belief in the sovereign self. They
started with their own religious feelings and tried to place
their personal understanding of what we would today call
spirituality in a Judaic context. When Emil G. Hirsch of
Chicago Sinai Congregation in 1925 entitled one of his books
My Religion, he was making a statement about the source of
his religious inspiration. Still, the Reformers understood that
American Judaism could not stand solely on the basis of personal inspiration but needed a connection to Jewish history
through a religious concept not nationalistic in orientation,
but pure and holy.
They believed that the prophets stressed universalism
rather than particularism, and therefore the Reformers felt
justified in likewise stressing the universal over the particular.
At the same time, the concept of the mission of Israel justified the continued existence of the Jewish people by arguing
that their ongoing survival as a religious group was essential
if the Jews were to bring their universalistic message of ethical monotheism to the world. David Einhorn used a version
of this argument to oppose intermarriage with non-Jews,
since the small Jewish race [a term acceptable at that time]
needed to preserve itself as a separate entity to fulfill their religious mission on earth. Taken to its extreme, the mission of
Israel concept helped Reform leaders present Judaism as the
ultimate expression of ethical monotheism.
As the purest form of monotheistic religion, Judaism was
therefore the strongest theological argument for ethical behavior. As such, it deserved to be taken seriously as a way of
thought and a way of life by all individuals committed to finding a true understanding of God and Gods place in the world.
This allowed Reform leaders such as Wise to declare that JudaENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
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rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and the subsequent
murder of six million Jews. In the aftermath of that tragedy,
the Reform movement veered away from its universalistic triumphalism toward a more ethnically based cultural identity.
But the breakdown of this optimism did not mean the end of
either Reform Judaism or the Reform movement. Congregations continued to attract new adherents as sociological patterns shifted. Many Jews found that the Reform temple met
their need for a nominal religious identification, while allowing them to join the stew in the American melting pot.
From 1881 until 1920, the Reform movement grew slowly
relative to the increase in the American Jewish population,
with 99 congregations consisting of 9,800 members in 1900
and 200 congregations with 23,000 in 1920 while the American Jewish population increased 14-fold. The Reform movement went from being the single most important voice of the
Jewish American community to being a small minority. Although the elite nature of many Reform Jews meant they retained a high profile, they were swamped by the eastern European organizations and ideologies.
The eastern European mass immigrations increased the
American Jewish population from 250,000 in 1880 to 1 million
by 1900 and 3.5 million by 1920. The bulk of the immigrants
came from Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Romania,
and other regions where there had not been full emancipation. Since most of the native population in their home countries had viewed these Jews as an alien presence, they came
to America from an insular Jewish background. As a consequence, few joined the Reform movement. The immigrants
did not like the Reform service, which they found lacking in
traditional Jewish elements. Many Reform Jews maintained
a haughty attitude toward the newcomers, preferring not to
remember that their own parents or grandparents had arrived
in the United States one or two generations earlier under similar circumstances. Indeed, a mythology developed that had
the German Jews descended from aristocrats. Historically
inaccurate, it reflected a widely held perception.
Nevertheless, over the course of time increasing numbers
of eastern Europeans joined Reform congregations. Under
their influence, the Reform movement inched back toward
a more traditional approach to Jewish thought and practice,
hastened by world events. By the 1920s and especially the
1930s, with the worldwide rise of antisemitism, this direction
became clear. Even though the 1885 Declaration of Principles
had argued that Jews should remain together solely as a religious group to fulfill their mission of bringing ethical monotheism to the world, the rise in antisemitism threatened Jewish physical survival, a concern that far outweighed theology
or ideology. Policies that had seemed levelheaded just a few
decades earlier now appeared nave and foolhardy. As a result,
the CCAR adopted the Columbus Platform in 1937, officially
named The Guiding Principles of Reform Judaism. This new
platform embraced Jewish peoplehood and leaned toward
support of political Zionism. The culmination of a revolutionary shift in the ideology of the American Reform movement,
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the rank-and-file. A tremendous amount of private infighting remained largely hidden from public view. Maurice N.
*Eisendrath, who became UAHC executive director in 1943
and president in 1946, moved the national headquarters from
Cincinnati to New York and thus geographically separate
from Hebrew Union College where he constructed an entire
building for the organization on Fifth Avenue across the street
from Central Park and next to Congregation Emanu-El. He
called the new headquarters the House of Living Judaism,
and it remained the operating center of the Reform movement until it was sold under the presidency of Eric H. Yoffie
in 1998. Unlike the Conservative Movement, where the titular leadership of the movement is the chancellor of the Jewish
Theological Seminary, the president of the Union is the titular
and actual head of the Reform Movement.
Nelson Glueck, a world-famous archeologist who had
appeared on the cover of Time, became president of HUC in
1947. While many viewed him as more interested in his archaeological pursuits than in his administrative responsibilities, his fame brought a great deal of attention to the movement. He oversaw the 1950 merger of HUC with JIR, and under
his leadership HUC-JIR established a third U.S. branch in Los
Angeles in 1954 and a fourth campus in Jerusalem in 1963. Although this growth may have owed more to the burgeoning
of the American Jewish community than to Glueck, the perception grew that the Reform movement had competent and
visionary leadership.
The leaders could project this image of a strong, unified
movement partly because of the number of pressing causes
that could galvanize members of Reform congregations. In
the 1960s many Reform Jews became involved in the U.S. civil
rights struggle as well as in the movement opposing the war
in Vietnam. The Six-Day War of 1967 dramatically increased
American Jews emotional connection and commitment to
the State of Israel. As they worried about its ability to survive
in the face of Arab promises to destroy the country during
the tense three weeks preceding the war, many came to realize how important the State of Israel had become to them.
This fear resurfaced in 1973 when Israels physical survival
was in doubt during the early stages of the Yom Kippur War.
The cumulative effect was to increase dramatically the Zionist
fervor of most American Jews, a sea change felt throughout
the movement.
Interest in liturgical issues also increased. Many began to
feel that The Union Prayer Book, used in Reform congregations
since the 1890s, had become outdated; new prayers would better express how people felt in response to the volatile 1960s.
Joseph Glaser, executive vice president of the CCAR, initiated
a campaign in 1971 to write and publish new forms of liturgy.
A thick blue prayer book, The Gates of Prayer, replaced The
Union Prayer Book in 1975 to a mixed response great excitement at the numerous options offered, along with horror at
the drastic changes. This publication was joined in 1978 by a
completely reworked High Holy Day prayer book, The Gates
of Repentance. Both new prayer books contained a great deal
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1978, he issued a public call to the Reform movement to reach
out to the non-Jewish spouses in interfaith marriages. Even
more surprising, he urged making the Jewish religion available
to unchurched gentiles. This controversial call to proselytize
those with no connections of blood or marriage to the Jewish community appeared to be a dramatic departure from two
thousand years of Jewish religious policy against proselytization. His critics argued that such a move would encourage certain Christian groups to launch opposing campaigns against
the Jewish community, using Schindlers call as an excuse for
proselytizing unaffiliated Jews. Despite the attention that this
suggestion created, little proselytizing of unchurched gentiles
has occurred in the succeeding years, whereas many outreach
programs to interfaith couples have been developed.
During the Schindler years the Reform movement adopted the patrilineal descent resolution, which stated that the
child of one Jewish partner is under the presumption of Jewish descent. While the documents vague wording led to some
difficulties, the patrilineal descent policy insured that if ones
father was Jewish and ones mother was not, one would still
be regarded as Jewish, provided that one was raised as a Jew.
This requirement of raising a child as a Jew was more stringent
than halakhah. This would supplement rather than replace the
traditional matrilineal descent policy, which established that
the children of a Jewish mother would be Jewish regardless of
their fathers faith or even how they were raised.
Also during Schindlers presidency, the Reform movement allowed women to assume a more central role in the
synagogue, a direct consequence of the feminist movement
that influenced every aspect of American life. As American
women in the 1960s and 1970s took on a far greater role in
religious life than those of previous generations, the Reform
movement responded quickly and actively to the changing
sex-role expectations. Increasing numbers of congregations
allowed women to assume responsibility for all aspects of religious and communal life, even the rabbinate. In 1972, Sally
J. Priesand became the first woman ordained a Reform rabbi
at HUC-JIR, a revolutionary breakthrough. Since 1972, hundreds of women have enrolled in HUC. As the changes in the
Reform movement paralleled social changes, its character as
an American religious denomination made it popular with an
increasingly Americanized Jewish community.
Contemporary Trends
Reform practice today, especially in the synagogue itself, is
characterized by the partial restoration of a number of formerly abrogated rites and rituals. Ritual items eliminated by
the Classical Reformers, such as the yarmulke, tallit, and even
tefillin, have been brought back. But because of the concept
of religious autonomy, individual congregations cannot and
do not require congregants to wear any of these traditional
prayer items. Rather, they are offered to those who find them
religiously meaningful or who prefer to wear them as an expression of traditionalist nostalgia. This generates some incongruous and perhaps amusing situations. For example, it is not
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REJECTION OF JEWISH LAW. Traditional Judaism had focused on the observance of the mitzvot, the commandments
given by God and incumbent on every adult Jew. The Reformers argued that if the Sages developed specific laws as
a response to historical conditions, then halakhah could be
changed or even abrogated. The Reform movement thus
viewed halakhah, Jewish law, as no longer obligatory.
Yet there was never complete agreement over how to relate to ritual observance. By the middle of 19t century, a wide
spectrum of opinion existed on the issue. The historical school,
which developed into the Conservative movement, argued
that although halakhah might develop over time, it nevertheless remained binding. The historical school developed innovative religious approaches as well. The main difference a
significant one is that the historical school attempted to show
that halakhah evolved in order to justify ritual change on the
basis of contemporary needs. The Conservative movement
viewed itself as faithful to the halakhic process.
But Reform thinkers understood the historical changes
within Judaism as far more radical. According to a Reform understanding of the history of Judaism, the religion has evolved
in a revolutionary fashion at several key points in its history.
These changes were not simply adaptations of a minor nature,
but dramatic developments that marked huge jumps in both
belief and practice. Reform theologians believed that generations in different time periods fashioned a Judaism that suited
their contemporary religious sensibilities.
But if Jewish law was not obligatory, then what was the
purpose of Judaism? Many 19t-century rationalists believed
that human beings possessed an autonomous sense of ethics and morals.
The rationalist philosophers argued that religion imposed an externally derived legal system on individuals that
prevented them from exercising their autonomous will. Such
reasoning could lead one to conclude that the essence of Judaism is ethics rather than law. That explains why so much
of the early Reform literature stressed abstract ethical lessons
and avoided describing ritual acts. Religious law, the Reformists believed, was inferior to ethics; Judaisms challenge was to
develop along Kantian lines. Revelation became a bit tricky,
because one needed autonomy to choose the ethical path. If
God made all the decisions and issued all the commands, then
the individual would not have autonomous choice. Therefore,
Reform thinkers developed the notion of man and God as
partners in an unfolding process of continuing revelation.
The rejection of halakhah as a legal system meant that
every individual practice had to be justified on its own merits,
which produced widespread inconsistencies and contradictions. For example, the halakhah requires all Jews to fast not
only on Yom Kippur, but also on Tisha be-Av, a fast day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples
and other catastrophic events, and four additional minor fast
days. But if halakhah no longer bound Reform Jews, then they
no longer had to abstain from eating even on the holiest fast
day of the year. Most pulpit rabbis seem to have chosen to ig-
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Reformers emphasized the prophetic ideals of justice and
righteousness, arguing that these universalistic values formed
the essence of Judaism. The 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, which
differentiated moral and ritual laws and became the principle
of faith for Classical Reform Judaism, stressed that most of
the ancient laws were not to be observed.
Classical Reform was not only a system of beliefs, but
also an aesthetic approach to religious practice. Although as
immigrant Jews Americanized, they wanted their synagogues
to reflect American norms, even in Europe many had seen the
Orthodox way of worship as disruptive and undignified.
Many of the central European Jews not only believed
that houses of worship should be places of propriety but also
wanted their synagogue worship to reflect American norms
and standards; they borrowed structural and stylistic features
from local Protestant churches, copying their architecture,
seating arraignments, musical styles, and so forth. Reform
Jews also made a number of ritual changes solely on the basis
of what they considered the most dignified approach. A Classical Reform aesthetic slowly developed into a compulsory
system of ritual that replaced the halakhic system.
THE QUESTION OF THEOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES. The question of whether the movement has theological boundaries was
tested in the early 1990s when Congregation Beth Adam of
Cincinnati applied to join the URJ. Its founder, Robert Barr,
had graduated from HUC-JIR; many if not most of its congregants came from Reform backgrounds, including three current
or former members of the HUC-JIR Board of Governors. An
adherent of Sherwin T. Wines Humanistic Judaism, Barr had
founded Beth Adam in 1981. Arguing that it was possible to
follow Judaism without believing in God and certainly without a traditional conception of God, Wine had established
the small movement in 1963, along with the first Humanistic
Jewish congregation, the Birmingham Temple, in Michigan.
Beth Adam had grown unhappy with the organization, in particular, as Barr explained, because the group had begun ordaining its own leaders. After about 10 years of belonging to
no national organization Barr and the congregation felt the
need to be in closer touch with the issues and concerns of the
wider Jewish community. The board of Beth Adam decided
to apply to join the URJ.
URJ president Alexander Schindler encouraged Beth Adams application but took no public stand on what the Union
should do, stating at the 1991 URJ biennial only that the controversy would generate a boon to our community by opening
a debate on what a Reform congregation must accept, if anything. The debate centered on the congregations exclusion of
God from its liturgy. Neither the Shema nor the kaddish was
recited, the groups literature explained, because prayers which
presume a God who intervenes or manipulates the affairs of
this world would be inconsistent with its religious message.
While some supported Beth Adams application, the response was largely negative and even hostile, and in 1990 a
majority of the CCAR Responsa Committee voted against accepting the group. Chairperson W. Gunther Plaut wrote that
its elision of God means the congregation does not admit of
Covenant or commandments; while the Reform movement
can accept individuals who may be agnostic or even atheist, it
cannot accept congregations whose declared principals contradict the religious beliefs of Reform Judaism. Three rabbis
on the Responsa Committee disagreed with the majority view,
arguing that to accept Beth Adam into the URJ would not necessarily imply that the Reform movement accepts its theological views. The debate continued through the early 1990s.
In June the URJ Board of Trustees spent an entire day
deliberating the matter in Washington, DC. At the end of its
deliberations, the board voted 115 to 13 with four abstentions
to reject the application.
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The Beth Adam decision meant that while congregations
still had the right to adopt the prayer book of their choice or
write one of their own, there were theological limits on what
could legitimately be regarded as Reform liturgy. The vote also
reaffirmed that the drive for inclusion did not obligate the Reform movement to accept every group from every background
espousing every ideology.
THE MOVE TOWARDS RETRADITIONALIZATION. Rabbi Eric
H. Yoffie, a Reform rabbi and the president of the URJ, is leading the restructuring and revitalization of the Reform movement. When Yoffie took office the Reform movement had to
either make dramatic changes or watch its fortunes fade rapidly. Large numbers in the movement have been receptive to
his proposals. New approaches to study, worship, and ritual
practice are being implemented.
Yoffie then outlined a plan to reform Reform. I propose,
therefore, that at this biennial assembly we proclaim a new Reform revolution. Like the original Reform revolution, it will be
rooted in the conviction that Judaism is a tradition of rebellion,
revival, and redefinition; and like the original too, this new initiative will make synagogue worship our Movements foremost
concern. Yoffie urged that this worship revolution be built
on a partnership among rabbis, cantors, and lay people.
The URJ leadership has prepared a series of initiatives
that taken together constitute a Reform revolution. Many
insiders are very hopeful that the coming years will see radical changes that excite Reform Jews and get them involved in
concrete religious activities. To bring the synagogue back as
a central Jewish institution, Reformers are developing programs that appeal to a much broader range of individuals
and client groups.
Much of the success of this effort relies upon how deeply
it can touch peoples emotions. In his Orlando address Yoffie
asked, What will be the single most important key to the success or failure of our revolution? And then he answered his
own question: Music. Ritual music is a deeply sensual experience that touches people in a way that words cannot. Music converts the ordinary into the miraculous, and individuals
into a community of prayer. And music enables overly-intellectual Jews to rest their minds and open their hearts.
The new programming has occurred not only within
the movement itself, but also in related efforts such as the
Synagogue 2000 transformation project led by Rabbis Ron
Wolfson and Lawrence Hoffman. As Wolfson put it, What
defines great, spiritual davening experiences is music, music,
music. Some cutting-edge congregations like Bnai Jeshurun
in Manhattan and Temple Sinai in Los Angeles have become
nationally known for implementing vibrant music programs
that draw hundreds to their Friday night and Saturday morning services. That neither congregation is affiliated with the
Reform movement may not be a coincidence. A vibrant musical experience requires the congregants to actively participate,
to sing the songs with passion as well as confidence, and most
Reform Jews do not know the words well enough to sing along.
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NFTYs own summer programs in Israel have proved
remarkably popular, although registration dropped off precipitously as a consequence of the renewed tensions between
Palestinians and Israelis. Eric Yoffie set off a controversy
when he cancelled Reform youth trips to Israel at the height
of the violence, arguing that it was not fair to use other peoples children to make political points. In any case, the movement quickly reestablished its Zionist credentials. New trips
were publicized, but it remains difficult to recruit teenagers
willing to go or parents willing to allow their children to go.
At its height, the summer program sent more than a dozen
groups for six-week trips that incorporated touring, educational programs, and leadership training. The Israel trips were
inspirational because they immersed the participant not only
in the NFTY experience 24 hours a day, but also in the Israeli
context. Most participants came back transformed, although
it remains unclear how much of that transformation endured. But rabbis and educators feel convinced that a trip to
Israel is one of the most significant experiences a family can
give teenagers. An entirely different style of informal education is available at the Reform movements summer camps,
where generations of youngsters have had some of their most
positive Jewish experiences. These regional camps provide a
joyous, invigorating and uplifting few weeks of total immersion in Judaism, with memories powerful enough to last the
entire year.
The camps combine a rich Jewish atmosphere, positive
development experiences, and a natural setting. As Lee Bycel
explained in a temple bulletin: No matter how much we do
here at Fairmount Temple, it is hard to convey the depth and
feeling of Judaism in just a few hours each week. At a Jewish
summer camp, our young people are immersed in a total Jewish environment. Shabbat is a natural part of the week, which
emerges from all they have learned and experienced during
camp. For many years, I have spent time in our movements
summer camps. I love watching the faces on our young people as they gather for Shabbat eager, joyful, immersed in
the moment, understanding of the beauty of Shabbat, truly a
sight to be seen.
Further, Jewish summer camps can play an important
role in building self-esteem. It is important for our young
people to be in a healthy and safe environment, away from
parents, where they can learn more about themselves and
their own abilities and skills. They gain a lot by having to be
responsible for themselves and it is amazing what they can
manage to do without our help. Finally, hiking, sleeping out
under the stars, having the time to see the beauty around them
without a car or movies, or video games teaches some of the
most important lessons in life.
The first URJ camp in North America, was Olin-SangRuby Union Institute (OSRUI) in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
When OSRUI began, the music consisted largely of folk songs
and, later, of civil rights movement chants considered to have
religious significance in that they embodied Reform principles. The folk music was slowly supplemented by traditional
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Adults throughout the Jewish community are finding their
way back to serious textual study. Kenneth Cohen, a founding executive of the software giant Oracle, became involved
in Lehrhaus, a Berkeley, California, adult education program
named after Freies JdischesLehrhaus (Free Jewish study center), the pioneer program developed by Martin Buber, Franz
Rosenzweig, and a number of other German Jewish intellectuals in Frankfurt during the interwar period. Featured
in 1998 in a widely distributed report from the Jewish telegraphic agency, Cohen spoke of his motivation for studying:
Its just inevitable that you say to yourself, What do I want
to pass on to this kid [his child] other than my stock certificates? I had to have a higher goal. He found that doing and
receiving Jewish education is a remarkable, rewarding thing.
Its passing on not the latest hot computer chip, which will be
obsolete next year, but taking the accumulated knowledge of
humankind and perpetuating that, passing it on to new generations and pass it on [further].
In almost every major city today, nondenominational
independent institutions offer intensive Jewish adult education. The Florence Melton Adult Mini-School Program offers
a two-year, 120-hour course of study to several groups of students at a time in 34 cities. Most students in all of these programs are middle-aged baby boomers searching for meaning.
Its an awakening, says Paul Flexner of the Jewish Education
Services of North America. Many had stopped their Jewish education immediately after their bar or bat mitzvah two, three,
or four decades earlier. They now feel an acute awareness of
how much they have missed and how much they dont know.
Many feel their textual illiteracy prevents them from passing
on to their children a meaningful Judaism that goes beyond
superficial ethnic foods and accents.
Along with the URJ, individual synagogues are developing new approaches to attract the many congregants who do
not attend Jewish study sessions. When Congregation Beth
Am in Los Altos Hills, California, hired Josh Zweiback in 1998
as adult educator, he took the first full-time position in a Reform congregation in the United States intended to develop
new frontiers of education in synagogue life, according to
Richard Block, the congregations senior rabbi. Funded by the
Koret Foundation of San Francisco, Zweiback interpreted his
mandate as spanning a very broad spectrum, from Torah study
to all sorts of experiences including praying and giving Tzedakah. He pointed out that distinctions between mind and
body were not made in classical times: living Torah and learning Torah went hand in hand. Zweiback has tried a number
of interesting ideas. On the congregations Tikkun Olam Day,
he distributed a tape about the role of social action in Judaism
that included mock interviews with famous Jews throughout
history, a number of Hebrew concepts relating to the subject,
and the senior rabbi teaching a blessing that should be recited
before performing a mitzvah.
Among new paradigms being explored are family education, where the entire family adults and children study
and experience Judaism together, and an intensive immersion
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rumor that HUC-JIR deliberately admits fewer women than
men to avoid the feminization of the rabbinate. Some older
male rabbis have grumbled that the rabbinate is becoming a
womans profession and, like grammar-school teaching and
nursing, will decline in professional status and in salary range.
They cite studies suggesting that when women enter certain
professions in large numbers, those fields undergo profound
and from their perspective negative changes.
Many women rabbis complain that their career path has
been blocked. In Sylvia Barack Fishmans terminology, they
had to break through Jewish ceilings. Only a handful have
been appointed as senior rabbis of large congregations in recent years. Paula Reimers, a rabbi in Arizona, said in 1992:
Its the same old story. Everyone is in favor of women rabbis until it comes time to hire one. A congregation would
rather take an incompetent man than a woman. Women are
picked last. Such complaints, frequent in the early years, seem
to have diminished, if not disappeared. Although a shortage
of rabbis may explain the change in part, an increasing willingness to accept women in the rabbinate is apparent. Many
congregations have had positive experiences with women rabbis; many boards may have found that female rabbis are more
likely to deliver the type of service their congregation needs.
In the face of this pragmatic reality, any residual resistance
quickly melts away. Women cantors in the Reform movement have had an easier path in the years since Barbara Ostfield Horowitz was invested in 1975 as the first female cantor.
An almost continuous shortage of ordained Reform cantors
has guaranteed enough pulpits for all graduates of the School
of Sacred Music at HUC-JIR in New York. Furthermore, it is
easier for many of the old-fashioned congregants to accept a
woman cantor than a woman rabbi, perhaps because cantors
are perceived as subordinate to the rabbi. The fine voices of
many of the women may also have dissipated potential opposition, as congregants discovered the new cantors leading of
the service to be a pleasant experience.
An increasing number of congregations simply take the
equality of men and women for granted.
Laura Geller, the senior rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills since 1994, believes that she exemplifies a feminine
approach to the rabbinate. My style is one of shared leadership I would argue thats a feminine model of leadership.
Our congregation is not a hierarchy, but a series of concentric
circles. One of my very clear goals is to empower lay people
to mentor young people, lead services, teach, and really take
responsibility for their own Jewish life. Credited with shattering the stained-glass ceiling by becoming the first female
senior rabbi at a major metropolitan synagogue, Geller has
been followed by senior rabbis Marcia Zimmerman at Temple
Israel in Minneapolis and Amy Schwartzman at Temple Rodeph Sholom in Falls Church, Virginia. Geller wonders: Are
there so few of us in senior rabbi positions because were not
choosing them, or because were not given a shot at it? The
answer is a bit of both.
I have come to discover, through my involvement over
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THE ISSUE OF HOMOSEXUALITY. The issue of *homosexuality cuts to the heart of how the Reform movement deals with
the conflicting demands of tradition and modernity. Here is a
case where the tradition could not be clearer homosexuality
was prohibited in the strongest terms. Yet liberal American
Jews felt they had to find a way to reconcile this condemnation
with their contemporary values. How the Reform rabbinate
handled this sensitive question is worth a close look.
The CCAR first dealt with the issue of homosexuality in
the mid-1970s and soon after was supporting human rights as
well as civil liberties for gays and lesbians. Most Reform rabbis took liberal positions across the board and so were quick
to embrace what many saw as another liberal social cause.
One issue that concerned still closeted gay and lesbian rabbis
was the impact on their career trajectory should they declare
themselves publicly. HUC-JIR did not officially admit openly
gay students, and the CCAR did not guarantee to support gay
rabbis looking for congregational employment. In 1986, Margaret Moers Wenig and Margaret Holub proposed a CCAR
resolution that recommended a nondiscriminatory admissions policy for HUC-JIR and a nondiscriminatory placement
policy for the Rabbinical Placement Commission (RPC). The
motion was not voted on but referred to the newly created Ad
Hoc Committee on Homosexuality and the Rabbinate chaired
by Selig Salkowitz.
The 17-member committee eight congregational rabbis and representatives of HUC-JIR, UAHC, and the RPC met
regularly for study and deliberation for more than four years.
They talked often with leaders of other Jewish denominations
as well as with the Progressive movement in Israel. Consulting with Reform leaders in Israel was particularly important
because any American resolution favoring gay rights would
be used as a political weapon by the Orthodox in Israel, who
opposed religious pluralism in the Jewish State. Israeli Reform
rabbis told the Americans that any such resolution would
make their already difficult position even more so, but this
information had little impact.
In the belief that gays and lesbians were entitled to equal
religious as well as civil rights, many Reform rabbis felt it was
important to push ahead. Whereas the Orthodox saw homosexuals as violating an explicit commandment of the Torah,
most Reformers saw them as people who needed and wanted
the same spiritual sustenance available to heterosexuals. Alexander Schindler, well known for confronting controversial
issues head-on, gave a public address in November 1989 adding his voice to those already supporting gay rights. If those
who have studied these matters are correct, one half million
of our fellow Jews, no less than one hundred thousand Reform
Jews, are gay. They are our fellow congregants, our friends
reform judaism
and committee members and, yes, our leaders both professional and lay.
In June of that year at a CCAR meeting in Seattle, there
was a debate on a widely publicized report issued by the
CCARs Ad Hoc Committee on Homosexuality and the Rabbinate. As a part of the educational process, the committee invited four Reform rabbis to prepare and submit papers on the
topic of Homosexuality, the Rabbinate, and Liberal Judaism.
Despite the appearance of an active debate, it was clear that the
movement as a whole would support greater rights for gays
and lesbians. It was less clear exactly what the CCAR would
decide concerning some of the technical questions.
In 1990 the committee issued a report noting that the
Bible uses the harshest terms to condemn male homosexual
behavior, referring to it repeatedly as a toevah, an abomination. The Talmud and Codes reinforce the position that any
male or female homosexual activity was strictly prohibited.
Nevertheless, the committee rejected this position as untenable and stated that all Jews are religiously equal, regardless
of their sexual orientation. While the committee recognized
that, in the Jewish tradition, heterosexual monogamous procreative marriage is the ideal, there are other human relationships which possess ethical and spiritual value, and there are
some people for whom heterosexual, monogamous, procreative marriage is not a viable option or possibility. Thus the
committee took the position that a homosexual relationship
could possess spiritual value for those who could not form a
heterosexual union.
One of the most pressing questions was how HUC-JIR
should deal with gay and lesbian applicants to the rabbinical
program, for although the two are separate organizations, it
was expected that all rabbinic graduates of HUC-JIR would become Reform rabbis and join the CCAR. Gary Zola, HUC-JIRs
national dean of admissions, showed the committee a written
policy statement issued by HUC-JIR president Alfred Gottschalk on February 8, 1990. Gottschalk wrote, The College
will consider any qualified candidate in terms of an applicants
overall suitability for the rabbinate, his/her qualifications to
serve the Jewish community effectively, and to find personal
fulfillment within the rabbinate. The HUC-JIR Deans Council felt that sexual orientation should not be a consideration
in a candidates decision to apply for admission; I underline,
however, that this does not commit us to the acceptance or
rejection of any single student. Each applicant is judged as an
individual on the basis of his total profile.
THE CONTEMPORARY REALITY. In the early 21st century,
Reform Judaism is a pluralistic American religious denomination. No one could possibly argue that one must accept a
specific set of theological principles in order to be a Reform
Jew in good standing. Yet the movement is thriving. New congregations are joining the URJ and existing ones are increasing their membership. This popularity has little to do with Reforms specific theological formulations. Rather, the flexibility
that has emerged from its theological pluralism has allowed
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the 1999 Pittsburgh Platform. But in spite of arguments over
its substance among the Classical Reformers and the neo-Reformers, the movement has continued to grow, further proof
that Reform thrives because of, not despite, its pluralism.
Problems Facing the Reform Movement in Israel
With such a diverse population expressing such a multiplicity of views and practicing religion in so many different ways,
one might expect the Reform movement to find a ready niche
in Israeli religious life. This has not proven to be the case.
Since Israels rabbinate controls all issues of personal status,
non-Orthodox rabbis in that country are not able to perform
legally binding marriage ceremonies, divorces, or even most
burials. Reform and Conservative conversions are accepted by
the Jewish Agency, thus allowing such individuals to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return. Such converts, however, will not be recognized as Jews by the chief rabbinate and
may therefore have problems once they settle in the country.
Complex and multifaceted problems face the Reform
movement in Israel. The early Jewish settlers came from countries that lacked the pluralistic religious environment that
would have allowed alternative forms of religious expression to
develop. The settlers arrived in a Palestine ruled by the Turks,
who likewise did not encourage Western liberal cultural or intellectual developments. The early Zionist pioneers included
few Western immigrants, and most of those who did settle in
Israel adapted themselves to the prevailing social and religious
norms. While Maurice Eisendrath had argued in favor of the
creation of an Israeli Reform movement as early as 1953, not
until the late 1960s did the World Union for Progressive Judaism develop an Israeli movement, and not until 1968 did the
group hold a biennial conference in that country.
Over the past three decades, the World Union has devoted much effort to building up the Israel Movement for
Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), which was incorporated under
Israeli law in 1971. The Israeli leaders chose to refer to themselves as the movement for Yahadut Mitkademet, Progressive
Judaism, avoiding the use of the term reform. By doing so
they hoped to minimize the negative associations that many
Israelis have of the American Reform movement. Particularly
damaging was a video replayed on Israeli TV a number of years
ago of an American Reform rabbi and a priest co-officiating
at a wedding ceremony, a sight many Israelis, including many
secularists, found shocking and offensive. The 2000 Greensboro, North Carolina, CCAR resolution sanctioning samesex unions has attracted a great deal of attention and criticism. Israeli Orthodox leaders, including politicians, argue
that the Reform movement has encouraged assimilation and
has proven itself a destructive force. Periodically, well-known
Israeli Orthodox rabbis have attacked Reform Judaism and
its adherents, sometimes in the vilest of terms. Nevertheless,
Israeli-born Reform leaders such as Uri Regev, founder of the
Israel Religious Action Center and now executive director of
the WUPJ, have become well-known personalities interviewed
frequently by TV news crews. Regev has made a great deal of
progress in pushing for greater rights through the court system. Each time he has petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court,
news media interviewed him on the importance of his petition and his understanding of why it was necessary to change
the religious status quo, further positive publicity for the Progressive movement.
Many non-Orthodox Israelis have been positively impressed. A few years ago, a number of leading Israeli writers
and intellectuals called on the Israeli public to join the Reform movement to protest the Orthodox monopoly on lifecycle ceremonies. The Orthodox in turn renewed their attacks
on the Reform movement. Orthodox spokesmen continued
to lambaste Reform Judaism, and unknown individuals suspected to be from the ultra-Orthodox community vandalized
buildings associated with Reform institutions.
But Orthodox hostility, only one facet of the problem,
could work in the Progressive movements favor, since many
secular Israelis harbor resentment toward what they see as the
religious coercion of the Orthodox. But the coalition agreements between the Labor and Likud Parties and one or more
Orthodox parties have insured that the status quo is maintained in religious matters. As a consequence, an Orthodox
rabbi must certify weddings between Jews, for example, although a few sympathetic Orthodox rabbis have signed for a
Reform or Conservative rabbi who is the actual officiant. But
the Orthodox rabbinate has worked vigorously to clamp down
on those who helped circumvent the system. Most Jews who
marry in a Reform ceremony in Israel then go to Cyprus to
receive a civil marriage license, as the Israeli Ministry of Interior will accept any marriage certificate issued by an official
government. Thus, the Israeli government recognizes a marriage certificate signed by a Cypriot judge but not one signed
by an Israeli Reform rabbi.
There have been some encouraging developments.
As part of a series of public relations campaigns, the IMPJ
launched a $350,000 media blitz right before the High Holy
Days of 1999, to encourage Israelis to attend a Progressive or
Masorti (Conservative) synagogue. Billboards, posters on
buses, and newspaper supplements featured the slogan, There
is more than one way to be Jewish. The accompanying radio
campaign became immersed in controversy after the government-owned Israeli state radio tried to cancel the advertisements, claiming the wording would offend Orthodox Jews.
The Supreme Court issued a show-cause order, and the campaign was allowed to proceed after IMPJ and Masorti leaders
agreed to change the slogan on the radio to, This is our way
you just have to choose. The IMPJ reported that an estimated
20,000 Israelis filled 27 synagogues and additional facilities
rented for the High Holy Days. Many congregations doubled
the number of attendees from just a year earlier. The IMPJ received many phone inquiries about membership and even a
few requests for information on how to form congregations.
In March 2000, the IMPJ worked together with Israels
Masorti movement to promote non-Orthodox marriage ceremonies. The campaign ran full-page advertisements in the
181
reform judaism
weekend editions of the major Israeli newspapers and four
hundred radio ads featuring couples who had been married
in either Progressive or Masorti ceremonies. The ads emphasized the egalitarian nature of the non-Orthodox wedding
ceremony, as well as the lack of the intrusive questions Orthodox rabbis usually ask. The campaign also stated clearly that
under current Israeli law, the couple would need to marry a
second time in a civil ceremony abroad for their marriage to
be recognized by the Interior Ministry.
The IMPJ is also continuing efforts to reach Russianspeaking immigrants. In February 2000, Michael Brodsky
and a number of other Russian speakers published their first
edition of the revised Rodnik (The source). Originally geared
toward Jews in the Former Soviet Union (FSU), the magazine
had shifted its focus to the emerging local movements. Now
the editors refocused it on issues of interest to Israeli immigrants from the FSU. Brodsky, previously spokesperson for
the Yisrael ba-Aliyah political party, now serves as the IMPJs
liaison with Russian-language media outlets. The IMPJ is also
working with a number of Russian-language groups in Haifa,
Nahariyyah, Netanyah, and Raanannah. In August 2000, a
congregation for immigrants from the FSU was founded in
Ashdod. The group began meeting for havdalah services on
Saturday nights and expanded to Friday night services led by
HUC rabbinical students from the Jerusalem campus. The IMPJ
hired a paraprofessional community organizer for the group
and has hired similar community workers for the other Russian-language groups in Israel.
The IMPJ has recently formed a number of new congregations. Yozma in Modiin, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem,
already has established four kindergarten classes as well as a
first grade. Sulam Yaakov was established in Zichron Yaakov,
between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Gusti Yehoshua-Braverman, the
director of community development for the Israeli Progressive movement, states: We must establish new congregations.
However, we must also rejuvenate those that already exist but
are struggling because they lack a rabbi or are in the periphery. Some long-standing congregations have expanded their
programming, including Ah vat Yisrael in Rishon le-Zion near
Tel Aviv, which has also recently hired a community coordinator. The congregation has a growing Jewish study group that
regularly brings in well-known guest lecturers and was recently
given a city-owned building for its exclusive use. The structure
is a former kindergarten in a quiet leafy neighborhood in the
city. According to congregational chairperson Shai Eitan, it
will need to be extensively renovated but offers tremendous
potential. In Nahariyyah, Emet Veshalom offers a lecture and
field trip program for about 150 new immigrants. The IMPJ also
caters to those with special needs. The movement offers special
Shabbat activities for the residents of Kishor, a community of
about 70 people with learning, functioning, and adaptive disabilities a candle-lighting ceremony, kiddush, Kabbalat Shabbat, and other religious programming three times a month.
Joint activities with the IMPJ-affiliated Harhalutz and the IMPJs
Young Adult Leadership Forum are also undertaken.
182
The Reform movement has built an impressive complex on King David Street in Jerusalem; it includes the Israeli
campus of Hebrew Union College and Mercaz Shimshon, the
WUPJs cultural center, which opened in October 2000. Designed by world-famous architect Moshe Safdie, the $15 million facility was built adjacent to Beit Shmuel, WUPJ headquarters. Both centers offer panoramic views of Jaffa Gate, Davids
Citadel, and the walls of the Old City.
While the movement faced a great deal of resistance, land
has been designated for Progressive congregational building
projects in a number of municipalities. Affluent families in
the area are enthusiastic about holding their sons bar mitzvah ceremonies in the beautiful new Beit Daniel in North Tel
Aviv. At services, the families seem to adjust without any problem to the mixed seating and the use of Ha-Avodah she-Balev
(The service of the heart), the Israeli Progressive prayer book.
There are now approximately 30 Progressive congregations in
the country. Those with their own buildings and full-time rabbis have tended to attract a clientele looking for bar mitzvah
celebrations, High Holy Day services, and so forth.
The Reform movement has poured effort and money into
building up the Progressive presence in the State of Israel, yet
the fear remains that the government would move quickly to
pass new laws to bypass any legal gains achieved through future rulings by the High Court of Justice, the Israeli supreme
court. Shas and other ultra-Orthodox political parties have
already indicated their intention to do just that, if the need
should arise. Until the movement can achieve official recognition and equal legal status with the Orthodox, it will remain a small, struggling, barely tolerated denomination on
the fringes of Israeli life. The marginalization of the Israeli
Progressive movement threatens to undermine the legitimacy
of the Reform movement in the United States and throughout the world.
Bibliography: J.L. Blau (ed.), Reform Judaism: a Historical
Perspective (1973); E.B. Borowitz, Choices in Modern Jewish Thought:
a Partisan Guide (1983); idem, Liberal Judaism (1984); idem, Reform
Judaism Today (1983); E.B. Borowitz (ed.), Reform Jewish Ethics and
the Halakhah: an Experiment in Decision Making (1994); S.B. Freehof,
Reform Responsa (1960); idem, Recent Reform Responsa (1963); Reform Jewish Practice and its Rabbinic Background (1963); Current Reform Responsa (1969); A. Hirt-Manheimer (ed.),The Jewish Condition:
Essays on Contemporary Judaism Honoring Alexander M. Schindler.
(1995); L.A. Hoffman, The Journey Home: Discovering the Deep Spiritual Wisdom of the Jewish Tradition (2002); W. Jacob and M. Zemer
(eds.), Progressive Halakha: Essence and Application (1991); D.E. Kaplan, American Reform Judaism: An Introduction (2003); D.E. Kaplan
Contemporary Debates in American Reform Judaism (2001); idem,
Platforms and Prayer Books (2002); idem, American Reform Judaism:
An Introduction (2003); M.N. Kertzer, What is a Jew? (1993); T. Lenn,
Rabbi and Synagogue in Reform Judaism (1972); M.A. Meyer, Jewish
Identity in the Modern World (1990); idem, Response to Modernity: A
History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (1988); K.M. Olitzky, L.J.
Sussman, and M.H. Stern, Reform Judaism in America: a Biographical
Dictionary and Sourcebook (1993); J. Petuchowski, Prayerbook Reform
in Europe (1968); D. Philipson, Reform Movement in Judaism (19673);
W.G. Plaut, Rise of Reform Judaism (1963); idem, Growth of Reform
refugees (19331949)
Judaism (1965); C. Seligmann, Geschichte der juedischen Reformbewegung (1922); A. Silverstein, Alternatives to Assimilation (1994); E.M.
Lily Umansky, Lily Montagu and the Advancement of Liberal Judaism:
From Vision to Vocation (1983); A. Vorspan and D. Saperstein, Tough
Choices: Jewish Perspectives on Social Justice (1992); M. Washofsky,
Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice (2001); M.
Wiener, Juedische Religion im Zeitalter der Emanzipation (1933).
[Dana Evan Kaplan (2nd ed.)]
183
refugees (19331949)
carrying affluent Jewish refugees. With nowhere to go, they
were forced to return to Europe.
When the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939,
some Polish Jews faced a critical decision. History had taught
them that refuge was in the West. During World War I, the
Germans had been relatively benign during occupation. Did
one go west or east to the land of Czar and of the pogroms,
a land from which Jews had been fleeing for decades? Those
who went against the grain of history and of collective wisdom
suffered but were not killed. It is estimated that about half a
million Jews left for the Soviet Union in the wake of the German advance. Many of these people were later engulfed by the
German conquest of the Soviet-held territories, as were their
counterparts, Jews who had left for France and Denmark, Belgium and Holland and other West European countries.
Neutral countries were reluctant to be overrun by Jews.
Switzerland received 21,500 but thousands more were turned
away. And in the fall of 1938, the Swiss Foreign Ministry requested that the Germans stamp Jewish passports with the
letter J so that non-Jewish Germans could enter Switzerland
freely. Spain received some Jews. Those who made it over the
Pyrenees were not turned back; they were sent on to Portugal, from where many managed to leave for the United States.
Some German allies, notably Italy and Hungary, received some
Jews. Sweden provided a sanctuary for Scandinavian Jews fleeing Denmark, but that was in 1943 when it was understood
that Germany would lose the war.
Clandestine passage to Palestine remained an option but
the sinking of a stricken ship, the Struma, just outside Turkish waters in 1941 by a Soviet submarine, killing all but one of
its passengers, underscored the difficulties of such dangerous
routes. The Emergency Rescue Committee had a program for
the cultural elite of Central Europe, but that was of little use
to others. Among the great figures who fled were Jean Arp,
Andre Breton, Marc *Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Max *Ernst,
Jacques *Lipshitz, Andre Masson, and Henri Matisse. Eminent musicians included George *Szell and Bruno *Walter.
Many established writers came to the United States, among
them Franz *Werfel, the novelist whose work, Forty Days At
Musa Dagh, conveyed the tragedy of the Armenians and was
invoked by Jewish resistance fighters in Bialystok and Warsaw.
Lion *Feuchtwanger and Max *Brod, the friend and biographer of Franz *Kafka, were forced to flee. Feuchtwanger came
to the United States and Brod reached Palestine. Sigmund
*Freud dispatched his disciples around the globe before he
left Vienna for London.
The Jewish refugee movement during the 12 years of Nazi
rule (193345) differed in its structure from the usual population migrations, including Jewish migrations in previous generations. Among the German-Jewish immigrants to Palestine
in the years 193337, practically all of whom were refugees,
52.2 were males and 47 females (0.8 were not recorded).
The Jewish immigration to the U.S. in 193943, all of whom
were refugees, showed a ratio of 46.3 males as against 53.7
females. The percentage of women refugees was much higher
184
refugees (19331949)
created by the Assembly of the League of Nations, in October
1933, called the High Commissioner for Refugees (Jewish and
Other) coming from Germany (see below). The intergovernmental *Evian Conference convened by President Roosevelt
in July 1938, in which 32 governments and representatives of
39 private organizations, among them 21 Jewish bodies, participated, set up a permanent Intergovernmental Committee
for Refugees with headquarters in London. In February 1939 it
merged with the office of the High Commissioner for German
Refugees, but it hardly fulfilled the aims for which it was established. Apart from a few unsuccessful attempts at negotiations
with the German authorities, very little was done before and
during the war to help the refugees and deportees. The failure was due to the general atmosphere of helplessness during
those years and a lack of real understanding for the tragedy
of the refugees. Even later, when the German policy of the total extermination of European Jewry was known all over the
world, the *Bermuda Conference of Great Britain and the U.S.
in April 1943 proved completely fruitless. Its task was to manage a domestic problem, not to solve a refugee problem. Only
in January 1944, an election year, after facing enormous pressure from his Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr.
did President Roosevelt establish the War Refugee Board and
open a temporary asylum in the United States.
A great deal more was accomplished by private, especially Jewish, relief agencies, which tried to mobilize public
opinion, find countries willing to admit refugees, and rescue
victims in the occupied territories. But even the accomplishments of bodies like the *Jewish Agency for Palestine, the
American Jewish *Joint Distribution Committee, the *World
Jewish Congress, and the Rescue Committee (Vaad Haz z alah)
of Orthodox Jewry were also pitifully small compared with
the proportions of the disaster. In 1944, under considerable
pressure of public opinion, the U.S. government established a
special agency, the *War Refugee Board, which succeeded in
saving small groups of Jews from German-occupied countries.
The only intergovernmental body whose activities proved of
some significance was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (*UNRRA), set up by 44 Allied countries
in November 1943. UNRRA took care of the *Displaced Persons
after the end of the war in the countries of their temporary
residence as well as aiding them to return to their countries of
origin. However, all attempts to induce UNRRA to extend the
scope of its activities to include resettlement of non-repatriable Displaced Persons as, e.g., the overwhelming majority
of the Jews among them who refused to go back to Poland,
the U.S.S.R., Hungary, etc. failed. In this field much more
was done in the following years by the International Refugee
Organization (IRO), established in 1946 (see below).
185
refugees (19331949)
[Shalom Adler-Rudel]
United States
Palestine
England
France
Belgium
Holland
Switzerland
Spain
Other European countries
Argentina
Brazil
Uruguay
Bolivia
Chile
Other Latin American countries
China
South Africa
Australia
Canada
Other countries
Total
Number admitted
(thousands)
Percent
190
120
65
55
30
35
16
12
70
50
25
7
12
14
20
25
8
9
8
40
811
23.5
14.8
8.1
6.8
3.7
4.3
1.9
1.4
8.8
6.2
3.1
0.8
1.4
1.7
2.4
3.1
1.0
1.1
1.0
4.9
100.0
United States
Palestine
Great Britain
France
Argentina
Brazil
South Africa
Italy
Other European countries
Other South American countries
Far Eastern countries
Other
Total
1
63,000
55,000
40,000
30,000
25,000
13,000
5,500
5,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
8,000
304,500
Estimated gures.
186
regem-melech
Bibliography: A. Tartakower and K.R. Grossmann, Jewish
Refugee (1944); J.H. Simpson, The Refugee Problem (1939); Z. Warhaftig, Uprooted: Jewish Refugees and Displaced Persons After Liberation (1946); M. Wischnitzer, To Dwell in Safety (1948); J. Vernant,
The Refugee in the Post-War World (1951); E.M. Kulischer, The Displacement of Population in Europe (1943); E. Dekel, Bi-Netivei haBerih ah, 2 vols. (1958); Bauer, in: Yalkut Moreshet, 2, no. 4 (1965),
93117; P. Frings, Das internationale Fluechtlingsproblem 19191950
(1952). INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE ORGANIZATION (IRO): L.W.
Holborn, International Refugee Organization (1956), incl. bibl. HIGH
COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES FROM GERMANY: A.D. Morse,
While Six Million Died (1968), index; J.G. Macdonald, Letter of Resignation (1935); J.H. Simpson, Refugee Problem (1939), 21418. Add.
Bibliography: D. Wyman, Paper Walls: America and the Refugee
Crisis 19381941 (1968), idem, The Abandonment of the Jews (1985);
M. Marrus, The Unwanted: European Refugees in the Twentieth Century (1985).
187
regensburg
REGENSBURG (Ratisbon), city in Bavaria, Germany. Its
Jewish quarter was the oldest in Germany (1020). During
the First *Crusade (1096) the whole community was forcibly
converted but a year later was allowed to return to Judaism
by *Henry IV. In 1182 Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, apparently renewing a charter originally granted to the Regensburg
community by Henry IV, stated the principles of his attitude,
as emperor, toward the Jews and added in the preamble: We
concede to our Ratisbon Jews and confirm with our imperial authority their good customs which their ancestors secured through the grace and favor of our predecessors until
our time. The economic clauses of this charter relate to the
functions of Regensburg Jews in trade with Slav countries, detailing that they be allowed to sell gold, silver, and any other
kinds of metals and merchandise of any sort, and also to buy
them, according to their ancient custom (Aronius, Regesten,
no. 314d, pp. 139ff.). Thus at this time Regensburg Jewry was
regarded as a community of traders continuing the traditions
of its founders. When this privilege was renewed by King
Henry in 1230, a further provision stipulated that they might
be brought before judges of their own choosing only. In the
12t and early 13t centuries, Christians also lived in the Jewish quarter and owned homes there. Between 1210 and 1217
a synagogue was built and a plot for a cemetery acquired in
1210. By the end of the 12t century Regensburg had become
a religious and cultural center for German Jewry. Among its
rabbis were *Baruch b. Isaac, *Ephraim b. Isaac, and *Isaac b.
Moses of Vienna (the author of Or Zarua). *Judah b. Samuel
he-H asid made the city the cradle and center of the *H asidei
Ashkenaz. Even in the 15t century, a time of economic decline and trouble, Regensburg attracted such luminaries as
Israel *Bruna. At this time Regensburg yeshivot developed a
pilpul and h illukim style of their own contrasted in the Ashkenazi yeshivot with that of Nuremberg. The economic importance of the community enabled it to weather the *Rindfleisch
(1289), *Deggendorf (1338), and *Black Death persecutions
(1348/49) and to reach new heights of prosperity by offering
asylum to rich refugees. *Moneylending to secular and ecclesiastic princes, in addition to the merchants of the city, was
conducted on a large scale.
In the 14t century the community suffered from heavy
taxes and was hit by the annulments of debts to Jews decreed
by Emperor Wenceslaus II in 1385 and 1390. After the time of
the Black Death the municipalitys aspirations to ownership
of the Jews grew; its fiscal extortions were as severe as those of
the Jews other owners the emperor, the duke of Bavaria,
and the local bishop. Gradually the Jews were forced to rely
mainly on moneylending, and their freedom of movement
was severely curtailed. The general decline and impoverishment of Regensburg, combined with growing social tension
between the upper and lower classes of the citizenry, made
the years 14751519 a period of increased bitterness against
the Jews, a struggle that ended in their total expulsion. The
violent anti-Jewish sermons of Peter *Schwarz (Nigri) resulted
in the confiscation of the property of the whole community
188
reggio emilia
became one of the outstanding instances of Nazi historiography when it was falsified by the Nazi historian Wilhelm Grau
in his Anti-semitismus im spaeten Mittelalter (1934). He used
the sources collected by the Jew Raphael Straus (published
posthumously in 1960), which had been confiscated by the
Gestapo. A new community center was consecrated in 1969.
The Jewish community numbered 117 in 1989 and about 1,000
in 2005. The increase is explained by the immigration of Jews
from the former Soviet Union.
Bibliography: A Freimann, in: Festschrift Martin Philippson
(1916), 7995; U. Stern, in: JJLG, 18 (1927), 36386; 20 (1929), 15779; 22
(1932), 1123; R. Straus, Die Judengemeinde Regensburg im ausgehenden Mittelalter (1932); idem, Regensburg und Augsburg (1939); idem
(ed.), Urkunden und Augsburg (1939); idem (ed.), Urkunden und Aktenstuecke zur Geschichte der Juden in Regensburg 14531738 (1960);
Germ Jud, 1 (1963), 285305; 2 (1968), 67990; B. Altmann, in: PAAJR,
10 (1940), 568; G. Kisch, in: Zeitschrift der Savigny Stiftung fuer
Rechtsgeschichte, 78 (1961), 38993; H.H. Ben-Sasson, Toledot Am Yisrael, 2 (1969), 1857. Add. Bibliography: Germania Judaica, vol.
3, 13501514 (1987), 11781230; K. Hoffmann, Die Verdraengung der
Juden aus oeffentlichen Dienst und selbstaendigen Berufen in Regensburg 1933 1939 (Rechtshistorische Reihe, vol. 110) (1993); S. Wittmer,
Regensburger Juden. Juedisches Leben von 1519 bis 1990 (Regensburger
Studien und Quellen zur Kulturgeschichte, vol. 6) (1996); H. Brekle,
Das Regensburger Ghetto. Fotoimpressionen von den Ausgrabungen
(1997); U. Moosburger and H. Wanner, Schabbat Schalom. Juden in
Regensburg Gesichter einer lebendigen Gemeinde (1998); S. Wittmer, Juedisches Leben in Regensburg. Vom fruehen Mittelalter bis 1519
(2001). CD-ROM: S. Codreanu-Windauer, Das mittelalterliche Judenviertel. Eine multimediale Praesentation zu einem Projekt von europaeischem Rang (Document Neupfarrplatz) (2002).
[Henry Wasserman]
REGGIO DI CALABRIA, city in S. Italy. The first Jewish settlement in Reggio can probably be traced back to the fourth
century, but the earliest documents mentioning its presence
date from 1127. The Jewish colonys main occupations were
dyeing and dealing in wool and silk. On Feb. 17, 1475, the first
dated Hebrew printed book (see *Incunabula), Rashis commentary on the Pentateuch, was issued there by Abraham b.
Garton b. *Isaac. In 149293 many Jewish refugees from Sicily,
Sardinia, and Spain, including the whole Syracuse community,
took refuge in Reggio. After Calabria had passed under Spanish rule, the Jews were banished from the town (July 25, 1511),
leaving the sale of their property to trustees.
Bibliography: Milano, Bibliotheca, index; Span-Bolani,
in: Archivio storico per le provincie napoletane, 6 (1881), 33646; Cotroneo, in: Rivista storica calabrese, 11 (1903), 390418; N. Ferorelli,
Ebrei nell Italia meridionale (1915), passim.
[Ariel Toaff]
REGGIO EMILIA, city in central Italy. The first Jewish settlement of Jewish loan bankers in Reggio Emilia, a fief of the
House of Este, dates from the year 1413. For a long time they
benefited from the favorable attitude of the ducal house to the
Jewish settlements, which sometimes protected them from
the persecutions instigated by Franciscan friars. When the
papacy secured possession of the duchy of Ferrara in 1598,
189
reghin
the duchy of Modena and Reggio was left in the hands of the
House of Este. In the succeeding two centuries the duchy continued to welcome considerable groups of Jews, who engaged
in moneylending and commercial activities. The ghetto was
instituted in Reggio Emilia in 1669 and the Jews were able
to carry on freely their business activities and exercise a variety of entrepreneurial, commercial, and cultural activities,
including the production, manufacture, and trading of silk,
silver, and diamonds. In 165253 the duke of Modena issued
charters inviting foreign Jews to settle, proclaiming them
wealthy people and very likely to introduce traffic and commerce and 60 Sephardi families settled in the duchy, mainly
in Reggio Emilia. The majority of these were former Marranos from Spain who had recently reverted to Judaism, usually in Tuscany, and nine of them had migrated from Amsterdam and Hamburg. They were able to build an autonomous
Portuguese community.
There was a renowned yeshivah in Reggio Emilia with
learned rabbis such as *Benjamin b. Eliezer ha-Kohen Vitale
and Isaiah *Bassano. A Jew of Reggio, Moses Benjamin *Fo,
was book purveyor to the ducal library in Modena, participated in the Comizi of Lion, and worked actively with Moses
Formiggini of Modena for the emancipation of the Italian Jews
in the Napoleonic era, when the French occupation of 1796
temporarily brought the right to live outside the ghetto and
to participate in public. In 18061807 Jacob Israel Carmi was
one of the Italian rabbis who went to Paris for the Assembly
of Notables and the Napoleonic *Sanhedrin; he gave a penetrating account of his experiences in his letters. In this period
a number of Jews began to move to cities affording greater
cultural and economic opportunities and at the beginning of
the 19t century Reggio Emilia had a population of fewer than
800 Jews. During the Holocaust 18 Jews were deported to the
death camps from the province of Reggio Emilia. In the early
21st century few Jews lived in Reggio Emilia and the community was affiliated to the community of Modena; the City Hall
and the Italian State Ministry of Culture completed the restoration of the main synagogue in 2005.
Bibliography: A. Balletti, Gli ebrei e gli Estensi (19302),
passim; idem, Il tempio maggiore israelitico di Reggio nell Emilia
(1908); Roth, Italy, index; Milano, Italia, index; Milano, Bibliotheca,
index; Shulvass, in: Reshumot, 4 (1947), 98130; Servi, in: Corriere israelitico, 5 (186667), 5153. Add. Bibliography: S. Bondoni and
G. Busi, Cultura ebraica in Emilia-Romagna (1987); A. Leoni, La nazione ebraica spagnola e portoghese negli stati estensi (1990).
[Ariel Toaff / Federica Francesconi (2nd ed.)]
190
rehob
REGNER, SIDNEY L. (19031993), U.S. Reform rabbi and
organizational executive. Regner was born in New York City
and received his B.A. from the University of Cincinnati in
1924. In 1927, he was ordained at *Hebrew Union College,
which also awarded him an honorary doctor of divinity degree
in 1954. His career in the congregational rabbinate (192754)
was spent at Temple Oheb Sholom in Reading, Pennsylvania,
where he also served on the executive committees of the Jewish Community Council (193554) and the Central Atlantic
States Region of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare
Funds (194347); on the Governors Committee on Children
and Youth (195354); and as president of the Council of Social
Agencies (194244). Long active in the *Central Conference of
American Rabbis as financial secretary (193952), executive
board member, and chairman of its Committee on Publication
(195254) he became the CCARs first executive vice president when the position was created in 1954. In this capacity, he
represented the Reform movements rabbinical association on
the governing body of the *World Union for Progressive Judaism, the executive committee of the *Synagogue Council of
America, and in meetings with heads of other national Jewish
organizations. He also supervised the CCARs publications, edited the yearbook and served ex-officio on joint commissions
with the *Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Under
his leadership, the CCAR became a recognized professional
association with annual regional kallot (study retreats) in addition to its annual convention. He retired in 1971, becoming
executive vice president emeritus (197193). A lifelong peace
activist, he was elected vice president of the Jewish Peace Fellowship in 1980.
[Bezalel Gordon (2nd ed.)]
191
rehoboam
isted until at least 925 B.C.E., although it is not mentioned in
the Bible.
Bibliography: Y. Aharoni, Hitnah alut Shivtei Yisrael baGalil ha-Elyon (1967), 5152; Aharoni, Land, index; Bergman and
Bransteter, in: BJPES, 8 (1941), 88; Albright, in: BASOR, 83 (1941), 33;
94 (1944), 23.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
192
In the Aggadah
David praised God for having permitted Ammonite and
Moabite women in marriage, since this allowed him (a descendant of Ruth, a Moabite woman) and Rehoboam (the son
of Naamah, an Ammonite woman) to enter into the assembly of Israel (Yev. 77a). The treasures which the Jews removed
from Egypt (Ex. 12:36) were retained, until Shishak, the king
of Egypt, took them away from Rehoboam (Pes. 119a). All the
curses with which David cursed Joab (II Sam. 3:29) were fulfilled in Davids own descendants, Rehoboam being afflicted
with a gonorrheal flux (Sanh. 48b). The rabbis, emphasizing
the message to be derived from Rehoboams failure, declared
that the king is the servant of the people and not their ruler
(Hor. 10ab).
Bibliography: Bright, Hist, 20914; Malamat, in: JNES, 22
(1963), 24753; Evans, in: JNES, 25 (1966), 2739; Tadmor, in: Journal
of World History, 9 (1968), 1217. Add. Bibliography: C. Evans,
in: ABD, 5:66164; N. Naaman, in: L. Handy (ed.),The Age of Solomon (1997), 5761; M. Cogan, I Kings (AB; 2001), 34556; A. Rainey
and R. Notley, The Sacred Bridge (2006), 18589. IN THE AGGADAH:
Ginzberg, Legends, S.V. index.
Bibliography: T.E. Lawrence and C.L. Wooley, The Wilderness of Zin (1915), 117ff.; A. Musil, Arabia Petraea, 2 (1907), 79ff.; T.
Wiegand, Sinai (1920), 5761; N. Glueck, in: AASOR, 1819 (1939), 59;
A. Alt, in: ZDPV, 58 (1935), 30; Press, Erez , S.V. Add. Bibliography: Y. Tsafrir, Excavations at Rehovot-in-the-Negev 1: The Northern
Church (1988; cf. C. Dauphin, in: AJA 95 (1991), 18688); Y. Tsafrir, L.
Di Segni, and J. Green, Tabula Imperii Romani. Iudaea Palaestina.
Maps and Gazetteer (1994), 88, S.V. Betomolachon.
REH OV, TEL (often spelled Reh ob; Arabic: Tell e-arem;
Israel map reference 197.207; UTM Grid 873.594), the largest
mound in the alluvial Beth-Shean Valley, extending over 26
acres (10.4 hectares); its summit at an elevation of 116 m below
sea level. Located between the Jordan River and the Gilboa
ridge and 5 km south of Tel Beth-Shean, the mound dominates the northsouth road through the Jordan Valley. It is
located near plenty of water sources and fertile land. The site
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
193
194
reH ovot
Reh ov, though not mentioned in the Bible, must have
been one of the most important cities in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The specific material culture found in the 10t9t
centuries levels may indicate that much of its population could
have been descendants of the previous Iron Age I Canaanite
inhabitants, though now the city was part of the Israelite geopolitical entity.
The Iron Age IIb
During the Iron Age IIB (c. 830732 B.C.E.) the city was reduced to half its former size and limited to the upper mound.
The city was now surrounded by a 9.5-m-wide mudbrick
wall, probably intended to stand against the Assyrian threat.
Several occupation phases were detected (Stratum III) ending with dramatic destruction, including evidence of people
slaughtered in their houses, most probably during the Assyrian conquest in the year 732 B.C.E.
Two graves with Assyrian pottery, as well as scant occupational remains (Stratum II), are evidence of a short period
of activity after the Assyrian conquest, but the site was soon
abandoned.
The Early Islamic to Medieval Periods
After a gap of about 1,000 years, a small village was founded
on the summit of the mound in the 8t century C.E., and it
survived until the 12t century C.E. Only the edges of this settlement were excavated.
Bibliography: H. Bruins, J. van der Plicht, and A. Mazar,
14C Dates from Tel Reh ov: Iron Age Chronology, Pharaohs, and Hebrew Kings, in: Science, vol. 300, no. 5617:11 (2003), 31518; N. Coldstream and A. Mazar, Greek Pottery from Tel Reh ov and Iron Age
Chronology, in: IEJ 53 (2003), 2948; A. Mazar, The 19971998 Excavations at Tel Reh ov: Preliminary Report, in: IEJ, 49 (1999), 142;
idem, Three TenthNinth Century B.C.E. Inscriptions from Tel
Reh ov, in: C.G. den Hertog, U. Hbner, and S. Mnger (eds.), Saxa
loquentur: Studien zur Archaeologie Palstinas/Israels. Festschrift fr
Volkmar Fritz zum 65. Geburtstag (Alter Orient und Altes Testament
302) (2003), 17184; idem, Greek and Levantine Iron Age Chronology: A Rejoinder, in: IEJ, 54 (2004), 2436; idem, Tel Reh ov:
The Contribution of the Excavations to the Study of the Iron Age
in Northern Israel, in: 2 ICAANE Proceedings Winnona Lake 2004
(2006); A. Mazar, H. Bruins, K. and van der Plicht, Fine Tuning
Iron Age Chronology: Radiocarbon Dates from Tel Reh ov, Israel,
in: Bietak (ed.), The Synchronisation of Civilization in the Eastern
Mediterranean in Second Millennium B.C. in: II: Proceedings of the
SCIEM 2003 EuroConference. Vienna (2006); A. Mazar, The Excavations at Tel Rehov and their Significance for the Study of the Iron
Age in Israel, in: Eretz Israel 27 (2003), 14360 (Heb.); A. Mazar, H.
Bruins, N. Panitz-Cohen, and J. van der Plicht, Ladder of Time at
Tel Rehov: Stratigraphy, Archaeological Context, Pottery and Radiocarbon Dates, in: T. Levy and T. Higham (eds.), Radiocarbon dating
and the Iron Age of the Southern Levant. Proceedings of a Conference
at Yarntom Manor (2005).
[Amihai Mazar (2nd ed.)]
bought from a wealthy Christian Arab owner through the efforts of Yehudah *Goor (Grasovski), Yehoshua *Hankin, and
A. *Eisenberg. The founding group, Menuh ah ve-Nah alah, was
intent on establishing a moshavah independent of Baron Edmond de *Rothschilds aid and tutelage. Reh ovot was then the
only Jewish village to achieve this status. Although the moshavah was based on private initiative and property, the settlers
showed civic spirit and strove toward cooperation. Initially,
they had to overcome many obstacles the Arab neighbors
enmity, agricultural failures due to plant diseases and the like,
and marketing difficulties of their grape and almond produce.
Citriculture was introduced in the first decade of the 20t century and the population increased, particularly after 1906, with
the settlement of immigrants from Yemen in the suburbs, e.g.,
Shaarayim founded in 1912. In 1914 Reh ovot had 955 inhabitants and 2,750 acres (11,000 dunams) of vineyards and almond orchards as well as over 130 acres (530 dunams) of citrus
groves. After the hardships of World War I, Reh ovot entered a
phase of quick expansion. In 1922 the village received municipal council status. In 1932 the Agricultural Research Station
of the Jewish Agency (since statehood under the authority of
the Ministry of Agriculture) was transferred from Tel Aviv to
Reh ovot. In 1934 Chaim Weizmann founded the Sieff Institute
in Reh ovot and built a home in the moshavah in 1936. While
throughout the 1930s and 1940s the citrus crop continued to
constitute the mainstay of Reh ovots economy, industrial enterprises, particularly citrus preserve plants, were opened. In
1949, the Sieff Institute was enlarged and became the *Weizmann Institute. In 1952 the Agricultural Research Station became the Faculty of Agriculture of the *Hebrew University. In
1948 Reh ovot had 9,000 inhabitants and became a city two
years later. The population increased rapidly in the first years
of statehood, reaching 23,000 in 1953. Later, its growth continued at a slower pace with 29,000 inhabitants in 1958 and
36,600 in 1968. Citrus and mixed farming still constituted
an important element in the local economy, and Reh ovot
became one of Israels principal centers for citrus packing,
particularly after the opening of *Ashdod port. Industry was
diversified and included the production of artificial leather
and chemicals, along with additional food-processing plants.
In the late 1960s, a number of scientific enterprises connected
with the Weizmann Institute added yet another element to
the citys economy. The Kaplan Hospital is included in
Reh ovots municipal boundaries. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 83,200, rising to 98,800 in 2002,
on an area of 8.5 sq. mi. (22 sq. km.). A third of the population was religious, 21 had an academic education. The economy continued to be based on packing, food processing, and
chemicals, services, commerce, and the science and research
institutes.
Bibliography: M. Smilansky, Reh ovot Shishim Shenot
H ayyeha (1950); Z. Gluskin, Zikhronot (1946); E.Z. Lewin-Epstein,
Zikhronot (1932); Y. Harari, Bein ha-Keramim (1947). Website:
www.rehovot.muni.il.
[Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
195
rehum
REHUM (Heb. ; probably , an Aramaic hypocoristic of , cf. in *Murashu tablets), a popular name
borne by Jews and Arameans during the Persian period.
Written in the Aramaic script, it has been confused by ancient scribes (cf. Ezra 2:2 with Neh. 7:7) and modern scholars
(Kraeling, The Brooklyn Museum Aramaic Papyri (1953), 10:19,
11:14, 12:34) with the graphically similar Nehum.
(1) One of the 12 leaders joining Zerubbabel in the return
from Babylonia (Ezra 2:2).
(2) As chancellor of the province Samaria or the satrapy
Trans-Euphrates, Rehum and the scribe Shimshai succeeded
in blocking construction of the Jerusalem wall during the
reign of Artaxerxes I (Ezra 4:823).
(3) One of the levites who aided Nehemiah in the reconstruction of the Jerusalem wall (Neh. 3:17).
(4) A lay family name affixed to the agreement to observe
the Torah (Neh. 10:26).
(5) As the name of a priestly family (Neh. 12:3) it may be
a scribal corruption of Harim (cf. Neh. 10:6; 12:15; I Chron.
24:8).
[Bezalel Porten]
196
REICH, LEON (18791929), Zionist leader in eastern Galicia and a leader of Polish Jewry. Born in Lemberg, Reich
joined the Zionist Movement in his youth and founded the
first Zionist students association in Galicia, called Emunah.
By that time he was already known as an able lecturer and
writer. After studying political science in Paris for two years,
Reich returned to Galicia and became head of the Zionist
Movement. He was also active in the political struggle for the
civil rights of the Jews. In 1911 he was a candidate for the Austrian parliament, and, in spite of his failure to be elected, his
influence increased in all Jewish circles. He was the editor of
the Zionist Polish-language weekly Wschd and also edited
a Polish Zionist almanac in 1910. During the political unrest
in Galicia at the end of World War I (1918), he was arrested
by the Polish government, accused of treason, and placed in
a detention camp. He was released, however, on the intervention of West European leaders. He moved to Paris and became
a leading member in the *Comit des Dlgations Juives to
the Versailles Peace Conference, on whose behalf he edited a
book concerning the national rights of East European Jews,
Les Droits nationaux des Juifs en Europe Orientale (1919). Back
in Poland, he was elected a member of the Polish Sejm for the
Lvov district, an office which he retained until his death.
In 1924 Reich was made chairman of the Jewish Club in
the Sejm and Senate (Kolo Zydowskie) In this capacity he and
O. *Thon negotiated an agreement with the Polish government
according to which the Jewish members of the Sejm were to
support the government, provided that certain concessions
be given to the Jews. The agreement (known under its Polish
name *Ugoda) met with wide opposition in the Jewish public
and became void later, when, after a coup, a new regime was
REICH, ROBERT BERNARD (1946 ), U.S. political economist, educator, and government official. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Reich was raised in Westchester County,
N.Y., and educated at Dartmouth College (B.A. 1968), Oxford
(Rhodes Scholar, M.A. 1970), and Yale Law School (J.D. 1973).
He was an intern in the office of Senator Robert F. Kennedy
in 1967, and worked for the presidential campaign of Eugene
McCarthy in 1968. He was an assistant solicitor general in the
Department of Justice, 197476; director of policy planning,
Federal Trade Commission, 197681; and lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government, 198193. Reich was a contributing editor of the New Republic, 198293, and a cofounder of
the journal American Prospect in 1990. An advisor to Democratic presidential candidates Walter Mondale in 1984, Michael
Dukakis in 1988, and John Kerry in 2004, he was secretary of
labor during the first term (199397) of the administration of
President Bill Clinton, a friend Reich had known as a student
at Oxford and Yale. Small in stature, he quipped that he always knew that he was on Clintons short list. Reich was professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University,
19972005. In 2002 he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic
primary for governor of Massachusetts. He became a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University
of California, Berkeley.
From the early 1980s Reich was a prominent public policy entrepreneur, an enthusiastic advocate and popularizer of
economic policy ideas through public appearances, articles,
and books, focusing on jobs, the global economy, and related
issues. He was associated with the tendency known as neoliberalism, which combines a fundamental reliance on markets and free trade to achieve economic growth with a belief
in government regulation and at least minimal social provision. Once an advocate of a comprehensive state industrial
policy that would direct investment to certain industries,
by the time he became secretary of labor he had abandoned
197
Reich, Steve
that approach for one that favored education and retraining
as a way of adapting the American workforce to a changing
global economy whose conditions are determined by essentially unrestrained multinational corporate activities. He did
implement generally liberal policies, however, having to do
with sweatshops, child labor, minimum wages, worker safety,
and pensions, and attempted to get the administration to address seriously the issues of economic insecurity on which it
had been elected, but lost influence as Clinton moved politically to the center/right after the 1994 congressional elections.
Reich argued against any attempt to keep American manufacturing jobs from being outsourced overseas, believing that
such jobs are being lost everywhere because of automation,
and that the benefits of cheaper products will generate more
American jobs in the long run.
Among Reichs books are Minding Americas Business
(1982, with Ira Magaziner); The Resurgent Liberal and Other
Unfashionable Prophecies (1989); Public Management in a
Democratic Society (1990); The Work of Nations: Preparing
Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism (1991); Locked in the
Cabinet (1997); The Future of Success: Working and Living in
the New Economy (2000); and Reason: Why Liberals Will Win
the Battle for America (2004).
[Drew Silver (2nd ed.)]
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reichert, israel
sis of treatment in his paper Concerning genitality from the
standpoint of psychoanalytic prognosis and therapy (1924,
Eng., 1925). Another important contribution was Reichs focus on character and character formation. Previously psychoanalyses dealt mainly with the interpretations of unconscious
material. In his study of character resistances he concentrated
on the whole person, his habits, tensions, and mannerisms.
He went to the U.S. in the 1930s.
He died in prison after he was convicted of fraud. He had
sold orgone boxes which according to Reich attracted orgone, a material found in the air that had therapeutic powers. His books which deal with character are Der triebhafte
Charakter (1925) and Charakteranalyse (1933, Eng., 19452), his
most important work.
Bibliography: Wilhelm Reich Biographical Material (1953);
IESS, 13 (1968), 3968; W. Briehl, in: F. Alexander et al. (eds.), Psychoanalytic Pioneers (1966), 4308, incl. bibl.; C. Rycroft, Reich (1971).
[Miriam Gay]
REICHERT, ISRAEL (18911975), Israeli botanist and agricultural scientist. Born in Ozorkow, Russian Poland, into
a well-to-do Orthodox family, Reichert went to Palestine in
1908 and worked first as a laborer and then as a natural history teacher. He went back to Europe to study biology and
plant pathology, returning to Palestine in 1921 to organize
the plant pathology department at the newly formed Agricultural Experiment Station. In the 29 years he directed the
department, it became a renowned research center in plant
pathology, vegetable storage problems, disease control, mycology, bacteriology, virology, and lichenology. In 1942 Reichert
joined the Hebrew Universitys new School of Agriculture at
Reh ovot as a lecturer. From 1949 to 1959 he was professor of
mycology and plant pathology. In 1938 he was a co-founder of
the Palestine Journal of Botany. In 1955 he received the Israel
Prize for natural sciences.
Reicherts early investigations were on cereal diseases
such as rusts and smuts. He went on to diseases of vegetables
and plantation crops grapevines, citrus fruits, and bananas
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reichinstein, david
and did the earliest pioneering work on the mushrooms of
Erez Israel. He created the Hebrew terminology for his field of
work, and coined the term pathogeography to describe the
application of eco-geographical principles to plant pathology
and to disease control. He was a world authority on the fungi
and lichens of the Near East, which he classified according to
these principles. His main contribution was to bridge the gap
between plant-physiography and plant-geography.
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reichstein, tadeus
Bibliography: A. Bianco, The Reichmanns: Family, Faith,
Fortune, and The Empire of Olympia & York (1997).
[Harold Troper (2nd ed.)]
REICHRANICKI, MARCEL (1920 ), German journalist and literary critic. Born in Wloclawek, Poland, the son of
a merchant, Reich-Ranicki moved with his family to Berlin in
1929, where he was able to finish high school in 1938 but as a
Polish Jew was not permitted to study at the university afterwards. Soon he was arrested and deported to Poland, where he
lived in Warsaw, from 1940 in the ghetto working as translator for the *Judenrat. In 1943 he and his wife hid in the underground, while most of his family was murdered by the Nazis.
After liberation by the Soviet army, he joined the Communist
Party of Poland, working as consul for the Foreign Ministry
and also for the secret service of Poland in London from 1947
to 1949. Resigning from these posts, he returned to Warsaw,
where he was excluded from the party and arrested because
of ideological alienation. This termination of Reich-Ranickis
diplomatic career was also the beginning of his career as a
critic. Working as a publisher and journalist, he mediated between German literature and the Polish reader. He translated
Kafkas Das Schloss and published a history of German literature from 1871 to 1954 (1955) and a book on Anna Seghers
(1957). In 1958, he did not return from a trip to West Germany,
remaining in Frankfurt/Main and from 1959 to 1973 in Hamburg, where he worked supported by his friends Heinrich
Boell and Siegfried Lenz as a critic for several newspapers,
such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, and Die
Zeit. As a participant in Gruppe 47 he soon became the most
famous and influential as well as the most controversial critic
in West Germany. In 1973, he took over the editorship of the
literary section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, retaining
the position until 1988, also editing from 1974 the Frankfurter
Anthologie. His most influential activity as a critic, however,
was to host the television program Das literarische Quartett
(19882001), which was followed by Reich-Ranicki Solo. Beside his many books on major German writers (e.g., Thomas
Mann, Heinrich Heine, Heinrich Boell, Thomas Bernhard), he
also wrote about the auxiliary streams of the German literary
canon, e.g., in his essays Die Ungeliebten Sieben Emigranten
(1968) and Ueber Ruhestoerer. Juden in der deutschen Literatur
(1973, 19892), where he represents Jewish writers as outcasts
and provocateurs, i.e., as critical voices. In 1999 he published
his autobiography Mein Leben (The Author of Himself), which
is not only a powerful account of his life as a Jewish intellectual during and after World War II but is also representative of
Jewish history in 20t-century Europe as well as the intellectual
and literary history of Germany, particularly after 1945.
Bibliography: W. Jens (ed.), Literatur und Kritik; aus Anlass
des 60. Geburtstages von Marcel Reich-Ranicki (1980); J. Jessen (ed.),
Ueber Marcel Reich-Ranicki (1985); V. Hage and M. Schreiber, Marcel
Reich-Ranicki: Ein biographisches Portraet (1997); H. Spiegel (ed.), Welch
ein Leben. Marcel Reich-Ranickis Erinnerungen (2000); P. Demetz: in:
German Literature, Jewish Critiques (2002), 289302.
[Andreas Kilcher (2nd ed.)]
REICHSTEIN, TADEUS (18971996), Swiss organic chemist, endocrinologist, and 1950 Nobel laureate. Reichstein was
born in Wloclawek, Poland, and his family moved to Zurich
in 1908. He became professor of organic chemistry at Zurich
in 1934 and in 1938 joined Basle University as head of the Institute of Pharmacy. In 1933 he succeeded in the synthesis of
ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), the first total synthesis of a vitamin. He worked on other aspects of organic chemistry, and
in 1934 began the isolation of the hormones of the adrenal
cortex. He separated and characterized some 30 different
steroids from adrenal glands, the most outstandingly important being corticosterone, cortisone, and cortisol, which
are among the therapeutics used for sufferers from arthritis.
In 1950 he, together with the Americans E.C. Kendall and P.
Hench, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the
adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects. Reichstein used his Nobel prize money for other research work at
the University of Basle.
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Bibliography: T.N. Levitan, Laureates: Jewish Winners of
the Nobel Prize (1960), 1613; L.G. Stevenson; Nobel Prize Winners in
Medicine and Physiology, 19011950 (1953), 27283; Chimia, 11 (1957),
205; Chemiker Zeitung, 81 (1957), 506.
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reifmann, jacob
Bibliography: S. Esh, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 7 (1968),
138, includes bibliography; R. Hilberg, Destruction of the European
Jews (1961, 1985, 2003), index; K.J. Ball-Kaduri, Vor der Katastrophe:
Juden in Deutschland 19331939 (1967); Fabian, in: Festschrift L.
Baeck (1953), 8593; K.J. Herrmann (ed.) Das dritte Reich und die
deutschjuedischen Organisationen (1969). Add. Bibliography:
O.D. Kulka, The Reichsvereingigung and the Fate of German Jews
1938/19391943. Continuity or Discontinuity? in: A. Paucker (ed.),
The Jews in Nazi Germany 19331943 (1986).
[Yehuda Reshef / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
REIFMANN, JACOB (18181895), scholar and writer. Reifmann, born in the Lagow district of Radom, Poland, was
raised in Apta and subsequently lived in Lublin, Zamosc, and
Szczebrzeszyn. Growing estranged from H asidim, who were
then dominant where he lived, Reifmann turned more to the
Haskalah. His field was criticism of the Bible and the Talmud.
Highly respected in scholarly circles for his erudition and critical mind, Reifmann also caused antagonism, especially because he was outspoken. His life was spent in great poverty,
and he did not receive any official position or recognition. The
conflicts in his attempt to merge his traditional East European
background with modern Western scholarship are apparent
in his writing, and probably also contributed to his difficulties in adjusting to his environment.
Reifmann contributed hundreds of articles to the Hebrew
periodicals of his time, and wrote 17 books. He covered a wide
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reik, H avivah
variety of areas, including Bible, Talmud, rabbinic literature,
Aramaic translations of the Bible, liturgy, Jewish philosophy,
and biography. He corresponded with such leading scholars
of his time as S.J.L. Rapoport, L. Geiger, H. Graetz, M. Steinschneider, and S.D. Luzzatto. His correspondence and some
of his unpublished writings are at the library of the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America.
Among Reifmanns works are Tavnit ha-Bayit (1844) and
Pesher Davar (1845), critical studies on talmudic matters; Toledot Rabbenu Zerah yah ha-Levi (1853), a biography; H ut haMeshullash (1859), on the familiarity of talmudic rabbis with
foreign languages, on the history of fables among the Jews,
and notes to the book *Mivh ar ha-Peninim; Beit ha-Talmud
(vol. 3), on the problems concerning the geonic work, Sheiltot;
Sedeh Aram (1875), on Targum Onkelos; and Or Boker (1879),
on talmudic criticism. Some of his works were published by
M. Herskovics in Hadarom (196469) and by N. Ben-Menahem, Iggeret Bikkoret al Seder ha-Haggadah shel Pesah (1969)
and Iyyunim be-Mishnat Avraham ibn Ezra (1962).
Bibliography: Zeitlin, Bibliotheca, index; Kressel, Leksikon,
2 (1967), 867; Y.A. Klausner, I.L. Peretz ve-Yaakov Reifmann (1969).
REIK, H AVIVAH (Emma; 19141944), one of four *Haganah envoys from Palestine parachuted into Slovakia during
World War II. H avivah Reik was born into a working-class
family in a small Slovak village near *Bansk Bystrica. She
settled in Palestine in 1939, joining the Ha-Shomer ha-Z air
kibbutz Maanit. During the critical days of the war she volunteered to be parachuted into Slovakia. She was to reach
Bratislava and establish contact with the Working Group
(see Gisi *Fleischmann) but arrived too late. In mid-September 1944, she reached Bansk Bystrica, where she assisted the
Jewish remnant that had gathered there. On October 28, when
Bansk Bystrica (the center of the Slovak uprising) fell, she retreated into the mountains along with a group of Jewish fighters. Captured by Germans a week later, she was imprisoned
and executed on November 20, 1944, in Kremnika. Kibbutz
Lahavot H avivah, the Israel freighter H avivah Reik, and the
research and educational center Givat H avivah in Israel were
named in her memory.
Ritual, psychoanalytische Studien (19282; Ritual, Psychoanalytic Studies, 1931). The first paper dealt with couvade, the
primitive custom in which the father of a newborn child lies
in bed, the last two papers with *Kol Nidrei and the shofar. A
series of papers on problems of crime including the compulsion to confess, and Freuds view of capital punishment were
developed in Der unbekannte Moerder (1932; The Unknown
Murderer, 1936), in which he sets forth as a major concept
that unconscious guilt motivates the crime itself and also the
criminals need to be caught and punished. Reik held that an
analysts theoretical assumptions may interfere with treatment
and that the therapeutic relationship should be an unconscious duet between patient and analyst in which surprises
to both parties provide important insights. He wrote about his
new technique in Der Ueberraschte Psychologe (1935; Surprise
and the Psychoanalyst, 1936), and Listening with the Third Ear
(1948). In Aus Leiden Freuden (1940; Masochism in Modern
Man, 1941) Reik stated his theory that masochistic suffering is
basically a search for pleasure and, as in the case of the Christian martyrs, for final victory. He therefore regarded masochism and the associated death instinct as secondary rather than
primary as seen by Freud.
Some of Reiks thought was iconoclastic. In Psychology
of Sex Relations (1945) he rejected the classical psychoanalytic
theory of the libido and some of the sexual concepts that go
with it. Among his more than 50 books are the autobiographical From Thirty Years with Freud (1940), Fragment of a Great
Confession (1949), and The Search Within (1956). His biblical
tetralogy included The Creation of Woman (1960), and in 1962
he published Jewish Wit. In Pagan Rites in Judaism (1964) he
endeavors to show that much of the pagan and prehistoric
survives in the rites of Judaism as professed today.
Bibliography: R. Lindner (ed.), Explorations in Psychoanalysis (1953), essays in his honor (incl. bibl.); J.M. Natterson, in:
F.G. Alexander, et al. (eds.), Psychoanalytic Pioneers (1966), 24964,
incl. bibl.; D.M. Kaplan, in: American Imago, 25 (Spring 1968) 5258;
A. Grinstein, Index of Psychoanalytic Writings, 3 (1958), 162032; 7
(1965), 394041 (bibl. of his works).
[Louis Miller]
REINACH, family of French scholars and politicians. JOSEPH REINACH (18561921), political leader, journalist, and
historian, was born in Paris. He graduated from the University of Paris and became a lawyer, also writing several works
on European politics. Reinachs articles on foreign policy in
the Revue Bleue were noticed by Leon Gambetta, who, when
he became premier in 1881, made Reinach his chef du cabinet.
After Gambettas death, Reinach became political editor of
the Republique Franaise. He was elected to the Chamber of
Deputies in 1889 and reelected in 1893. One of the first to demand a new trial for Captain *Dreyfus, Reinach was subject
to bitter attacks from the anti-Dreyfusards, lost his seat in the
elections of 1898, and was dismissed from the army in which
he was a reserve captain. Following Dreyfus rehabilitation,
Reinach was reinstated and reelected to parliament, where
he served until his retirement in 1914. Reinachs historical
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works include a seven-volume history of the Dreyfus Affair,
Histoire de lAffaire Dreyfus (190111). While campaigning for
the Dreyfus cause, he wrote a history of the case of Raphael
Levy who was executed in 1670 on a ritual murder charge (Raphael Levy, 1898). Reinach published many works on general
history and politics.
Solomon (18581932), archaeologist, philologist, and
historian, was a brother of Joseph. As a member of the Ecole
Franaise dAthnes he took part in several excavations in
Greece. He taught archaeology at the Ecole de Louvre and
from 1886 served as curator of the Musee dAntiquites Nationales at his native St. Germain-en-Laye. In 1893 he was appointed assistant keeper of the Musees Nationales, becoming
keeper in 1902. He was a member of the Institut Franais and
of the Conseil Superieur des Beaux Arts. Reinachs scholarly
work was devoted primarily to French archaeology and Gallic
civilization. He also made numerous contributions to classical and French philology, the history of art, and the history of
religion. His major work in the latter field, Orpheus; histoire
generale des religions (1909, 19262; Eng. 1909, 19302; repr. 1942;
Ger. 1910), is written in the Voltairean tradition of radical rationalism. It classifies Judaism and Christianity as barbaric,
and accepting the conclusions of contemporary Bible criticism, termed many biblical figures as mythical. Reinach has
nothing but disdain for the Talmud and for those backward
Jews who follow its rules. Nevertheless, he took an active part
in Jewish affairs. A confirmed Dreyfusard, like his brothers,
he published a French translation of H.C. Leas History of the
Inquisition (3 vols., 190103) at the height of the Dreyfus Affair as a weapon in the fight against religious intolerance. He
published various articles in the *Revue des Etudes Juives and
served as president of the Societe des Etudes Juives. He was
vice president of the Alliance Isralite Universelle and helped
in the establishment of the *Jewish Colonization Association.
Anti-Zionist in principle, Reinach nevertheless gave assistance
to colonization in Palestine.
Theodore (18601928), younger brother of Joseph and
Solomon, was a scholar and politician. His studies extended
to law, archaeology, mathematics, numismatics, and history of
music and of religion. Reinach was appointed professor at the
Ecole des Hautes Etudes where he taught the history of religions. He was also editor of the Revue des Etudes Grecques. A
member of the Institut de France, Reinach presented a musical interpretation of a Delphic paean and himself played this
resurrection of ancient music. He served in the Chamber of
Deputies of Savoy during 190614. Active in the rather ineffective movement of French Reform Judaism (Union Liberale
Israelite) and a confirmed assimilationist, he strongly opposed Zionism, believing that since the French Revolution
Jews no longer were a nation but only a religious community. He presented these views in his widely read Histoire des
Israelites (1884, 19104). He also wrote a Histoire sommaire de
laffaire Dreyfus (1904, 1924). In the field of Jewish scholarship Reinach was important as a student of Jewish numismatics (Les monnaies juives, 1887) and as the editor of an impor-
205
REINACH, ADOLF (18831917), German philosopher. Reinach, who was born in Mayence, was a student of *Husserl
and taught at Goettingen with him. Through his lectures, articles, and personal discussions he had considerable influence
on Husserl and on the early phenomenologists. Reinachs version of phenomenology was simpler and clearer than Husserls
and more concrete. He stressed the intuiting of the essential
core of phenomena and developed a theory of the phenomenological a priori, a property of states of affairs rather than
of acts of judging. He applied phenomenology to the philosophy of law, and tried to construct an a priori theory of law,
contending that there are essential elements of law that have
an absolute validity, independent of the mind that thinks of
them and of temporal conditions. Reinach tried to explore the
relationships of these elements. He was killed during World
War I. His writings were collected and published by his students in Gesammelte Schriften (1921).
Bibliography: Husserl, in: Kantstudien, 23 (1919); J.M. Oesterreicher, Walls are Crumbling (1952), 99134: H. Spiegelberg, Phenomenological Movement (1960), 195205.
[Richard H. Popkin]
reiner, fritz
ing (1966), Generation (1969), The Spirit of 76 (1990), and
Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). On TV, from 1954 he was a guest
on dozens of programs, from The Dinah Shore Chevy Show,
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and The Carol Burnett Show to Ally McBeal, Life with Bonnie, Ellen, and Boston
Legal. He also appeared many times on television and in a series of record albums (first released in 1960) as straight man
to Mel Brooks in their comedy routine The 2000-Year-Old
Man.
Among his many honors and awards, including 12 Emmys and a Grammy, Reiner won the American Comedy Award
for Lifetime Achievement in 1992; he was inducted into the
Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1999; and in 2000 he was
awarded the Mark Twain Prize for Comedy by the Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts.
Reiner wrote All Kinds of Love (1993), Continue Laughing (1995), The 2000-Year-Old Man in the Year 2000 (with Mel
Brooks, 1997), How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other
Mostly Happy Stories (1999), Tell Me a Scary Story but Not
Too Scary (2003), and My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir (2003).
His son is film director Rob *Reiner.
[Jonathan Licht and Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
206
daism as Polydoxy (19701973). His work on the Institute includes services for Hanukah and Rosh Hashanah as well as a
Passover Haggadah.
Bibliography: K.M. Olitzsky, L.J. Sussman, and M.H. Stern,
Reform Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1993).
[Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
REINES, ALVIN JAY (19262004), scholar of Jewish philosophy. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, his early education was
entirely Orthodox. He graduated from the Rabbi Jacob Joseph
School in Manhattan and the Talmudical Academy of New
York. He then entered Yeshiva University, where he earned
his B.A. in 1947. From YU, he went to New York University
Law School and left before completing his degree. In a rare
move for Orthodox-educated Jews of his generation who
when they left the Orthodox world moved over to the Jewish
Theological Seminary, Reines went to Hebrew Union College
and earned his MHL and ordination in 1952. He received the
Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Fellowship at Harvard where he
earned a Ph.D. in 1958 studying with Harry Austryn Wolfson,
and then joined the faculty of HUC-JIR as a professor of Jewish Philosophy and retired in 2003.
His field of specialization was medieval philosophy, particularly the work of Moses *Maimonides, and he struggled
both to understand Maimonides as a halakhic and philosophical thinker and to deal with revelation as a source of absolute
authority. Rejecting the notion of absolute authority led to
his own original philosophical innovation. He developed the
concept of polydoxy, meaning a religion of many opinions,
in which the notion of absolute knowledge is abandoned and
diversity and individual autonomy is not only respected but
welcomed. This concept has had significant influence on liberal religious thought in the United States and elsewhere as
well as within the Reform movement. He helped create the
Institute for Creative Judaism and chaired its board, which
was formed to develop religious and educational and liturgical material for free Judaism. It has evolved into The Polydox
Institute, which is committed to serving all polydoxians, be
they of Jewish, Christian or other origin, and whether or not
they view themselves as belonging to any historic religious
group, or as being presently affiliated with any organized religious body. His work has thus had influence far beyond the
Jewish community. For religious communities that reject the
existence of infallible knowledge, Reines argued that the only
morally justifiable position was to affirm individual autonomy.
Such communities should be prepared, Reines maintained, to
accommodate diverse and even unconventional beliefs, rituals, and practices.
The Reform Movements Gates of Prayer (1975), included
an edited version of the polydox Sabbath worship service written by Reines. His seminal work is Polydoxy: Explorations in a
Philosophy of Liberal Religion, (1987). Among his other works
are Elements in a Philosophy of Reform Judaism (1968), Maimonides and Abarbanel on Prophecy (1970), and Reform Ju-
207
reinhardt, max
ies, he aroused the anger of some religious fanatics and was
forced to close the school after a few months.
Reines joined the *H ibbat Zion movement from its creation. His attachment to Erez Israel was due principally to the
influence of his father, who stayed in Erez Israel in the 1830s.
Reines cooperated with Samuel *Mohilewer and proposed settlement programs for Erez Israel that combined Torah study
with physical labor. He was among the first rabbis to answer
Theodor Herzls call, and his joining the Zionist movement
served as a great encouragement to Herzl in face of the opposition of most of the East and West European rabbis. He
devoted much energy to propaganda for political Zionism
among rabbis and Orthodox circles. Toward this end he published in 1902 the book Or H adash al Z iyyon (A New Light
on Zion) in which he countered all the claims of those in the
rabbinical circles opposed to Zionism. He participated in the
first Zionist Congresses and was very close to Herzl, but he
opposed the cultural work of the Zionist movement for fear
that it would encroach on the status of religion. In 1902 he
convened a large conference of rabbis and Orthodox people in Vilna and as a result the Religious Zionist movement,
Mizrachi, was formed. Reines was the recognized leader of
the movement and the outstanding personality at its founding convention in Pressburg (Bratislava; 1904). Many Orthodox rabbis, especially from Hungary, protested the convening
of the founding conference and were against Mizrachi altogether. Reines answered them very sharply, sparing not even
the greatest among them. He also founded the first journal of
Mizrachi, entitled Ha-Mizrah (published in 1903 under the editorship of Zeev *Jawitz). His great attachment to Herzl found
expression during the controversy over the *Uganda Scheme,
when he proved to be an enthusiastic supporter of the plan.
Despite all his public activities, Reines continued to
write. Only a small portion of his works were published, and
the rest remain in manuscript (in about 100 volumes). In Lida,
he realized his greatest personal dream the establishment of
a modern yeshivah in which secular studies were taught side
by side with traditional studies, all within the framework of
the meticulous observation of tradition. The yeshivah was
established in 1905 and achieved a distinguished reputation.
Reines developed the educational principles of the yeshivah in
the booklets Kol Yaakov (1908), Mishkenot Yaakov (1910), and
others. Although the Mizrachi movement viewed the yeshivah
as its own project, its maintenance rested on Reines shoulders. While the institution was developing, World War I broke
out and the suffering that it brought affected Reines health.
In the past few years some of his works have come out in new
editions and in facsimile editions.
Bibliography: J.L. Fishman, Zekhor Zot le-Yaakov (1934);
M. Kohen, in: J.L. Fishman (ed.), Sefer ha-Mizrachi (1946), 83101
(2nd pagination); Z.A. Rabiner, Talelei Orot (1955), 718; Y. Raphael,
in: Ba-Mishor, 1 no. 34 (1940), 14; idem, Madrikh Bibliografi le-Sifrut
Z iyyonit Datit (1960), 745; I.J. Reines, Nod shel Demaot, ed. by J.L.
Fishman (1934); L. Jung (ed.), Jewish Leaders (1953), 27393.
[Getzel Kressel]
208
REINHARDT (Goldmann), MAX (18731943), stage producer and director. Reinhardt, a leading force in the theater
during the first part of the 20t century, was born in Baden,
near Vienna. At 17 he became an actor and assistant director at the Salzburg State Theater. Otto *Brahm, director of
the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, noted Reinhardts work and
brought him to the German capital in 1894. After succeeding
Brahm as director of the theater in 1905, Reinhardt sought
to integrate the two main theatrical traditions, the baroque,
which he had learned in Vienna, and the literary and intellectual tradition then dominant in Berlin. Our standard, he
declared, must not be to act a play as it was acted in the days
of its author. How to make a play live in our time, that is decisive for us. Reinhardt offered the public a cosmopolitan repertory revivals of the classics: Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller,
and Molire; and modern playwrights such as Wilde, Synge,
Shaw, Ibsen, Gorki, and Strindberg.
Reinhardts methods were experimental and spectacular. He used massive crowds and a projecting rostrum. For A
Midsummer Nights Dream in 1905 he introduced a revolving
stage; and for Hamlet, which he staged in 1909, he used modern dress. These technical innovations accompanied a revitalized concept of the theater that distinguished Reinhardts productions and deeply influenced European stagecraft. Avoiding
the star system, he was able to use leading performers in either major or minor roles, and he trained actors in his methods at a school which he established at the Deutsches Theater.
Reinhardt created a furore in London with his productions of
the wordless spectacle The Miracle at Olympia (1911) and of
Oedipus Rex at Covent Garden (1912). In 1920 he produced
Jedermann (Everyman) at Salzburg, where until the 1930s it
became an annual event at the festival he founded there.
In 1924 Reinhardt returned briefly to Berlin to present
Shaws Saint Joan with Elisabeth *Bergner and Pirandellos Six
Characters in Search of an Author. When the Nazis came to
power in 1933, Reinhardt was deprived of all connections with
the German state theater. He immigrated to the United States
in the following year and staged A Midsummer Nights Dream
in the Hollywood Bowl, playing to 12,000 people nightly. He
made a film version of the play with the same type of massive
settings that he used in his stage productions. During his last
years Reinhardt ran a school for actors on the West Coast.
Bibliography: G. Adler, Max Reinhardt, sein Leben (1964);
H. Carter, The Theatre of Max Reinhardt (1964); O.M. Sayler (ed.),
Max Reinhardt and His Theatre (1924); H. Braulich, Max Reinhardt,
Theater zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit (1966), W. Haas, Die literarische Welt (1958), index.
[Stewart Kampel]
reinmann, salomon
practice in Los Angeles with the firm OMelveny and Myers
until 1958. He was a partner in the firm Fogel, Julber, Reinhardt, Rothschild, and Feldman from 1959 until 1980, when
he was appointed a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals in the
Ninth Circuit, Los Angeles.
Judge Reinhardt ruled in several controversial cases,
gaining a reputation as a liberal jurist. In Phinpathya v. Immigration and Naturalization Service (1981), he reversed and
remanded the Board of Immigration Appeals denial of an
application for suspension of deportation, concluding that
the Board erred in its finding that the petitioner had failed to
meet the continuous physical presence requirement because
of a three-month visit to Thailand to aid her sick mother. The
Supreme Court reversed the decision, holding that the threemonth visit did not fall within the exceptions to the requirement of continuous presence. In Orhorhaghe v. Immigration
and Naturalization Service (1994), Reinhardt, writing for the
panel, ruled that the Immigration and Naturalization Services
seizure of an alien based solely on a foreign-sounding name
was a violation of the Fourth Amendment that warranted the
suppression of the evidence of illegal status acquired in the
course of the seizure.
Other controversial cases involved the right to die and
restrictions on assault weapons. In Compassion in Dying v.
Washington (1996), Judge Reinhardt, writing for the court,
ruled that a Washington statute that imposed a criminal
penalty on persons assisting in an attempted suicide violated
the Fourth Amendments due process clause. The Supreme
Court reversed the decision in 1997. In Silveira v. Lockyer,
which challenged Californias restrictions on assault weapons, he ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees a collective right to bear arms but does not guarantee an individuals right to do so.
Reinhardt served in numerous professional organizations. He served on the California Advisory Committee to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1962 to 1974, and as its
vice chairman from 1969 to 1974. A member of the American
Bar Association, he was cochairman of the Committee on
Labor Arbitration and Law of Collective Bargaining Agreements from 1967 to 1973. He was a member of the Committee on Legislation of the California Bar Association from 1973
to 1977 and of the Labor Law Section of the Los Angeles Bar
Association from 1974 to 1980. In 1998 Judge Reinhardt received the Champion of Justice Award from the Association
of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
REINMANN, SALOMON (c. 1815c. 1880), traveler. A native of Galicia, he left his home country in the 1840s and traveled to Burma, where he supplied food to the British army.
He amassed a great fortune but soon lost it, and was wounded
when involved in battle, losing one eye and part of his left
hand. Later he wandered around the Orient as a merchant,
then settled in Cochin. Finally he returned to Europe, homeless and without hope, and died in Vienna. While in Austria,
209
reinsdorf, jerry
he was urged by Peretz *Smolenskin to write down the impressions and observations gained during his many years of
travel. His Masot Shelomo be-Erez Hodu, Birman ve-Sinim was
edited and annotated after his death by Wolf *Schur of Warsaw
and appeared in 1884. Though a rather uncritical account of
countries and people, Jews and others, with many inaccuracies, the book is an important source of information on Jewish life in *Bombay (especially on the *Bene Israel), *Cochin,
*Calcutta, *Burma, and other communities.
210
REINSDORF, JERRY (1936 ), U.S. baseball and basketball owner, the third owner in the history of North American
sports to win a championship in two different sports. Born
in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a sewing machine peddler,
Reinsdorf graduated from George Washington University in
Washington, DC, and went on to receive his law degree from
Northwestern University after moving to Chicago in 1957. His
first job was as a tax attorney for the IRS, and then he went
into private tax law practice. He made his fortune in Chicago
real estate, heading up the multi-billion-dollar Balcor Corporation. Reinsdorf headed the partnership that purchased the
Chicago White Sox and Comiskey Park from Bill Veeck for
$19 million on January 29, 1981. He was a member of Major
League Baseballs Executive Council, served as chairman of
baseballs Ownership Committee, and was a member of the
Long Range Planning, Restructuring, Expansion, Equal Opportunity, Strategic Planning, Legislative and Player Relations
committees. Reinsdorf assumed the position of chairman of
the Chicago Bulls on March 13, 1985, when he led the group
that purchased controlling interest in the franchise for $16
million. During his tenure as chairman of the Bulls, the team
captured six World Championships for Chicago (199193,
199698). Reinsdorf was also responsible for the construction
of two new sports facilities in Chicago, Comiskey Park (1991),
now U.S. Cellular Field, and the United Center (1994). Reinsdorf was the 1997 recipient of the Order of Lincoln Award,
and his many contributions to the community have been recognized by such organizations as Keshet, the Interfaith Organizing Project, the American Academy of Achievement, the
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the Trial Lawyers Club of
Chicago. In addition, he is the recipient of the Chicago Park
Districts 1990 Chicagoan of the Year Award, the 1992 PUSH
Bridgebuilder Award, the National Italian-American Friendship Award, Northwestern Universitys Award of Merit, the
U.S. Air Force American Spirit Award and a honorary degree in humane letters from Illinois College. Reinsdorf was
awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1993 and the 1997
Mayors Medal of Honor.
[Elli Wohlgelernter (2nd ed.)]
reisenberg, nadia
Yaakov (Wilhelmsdorf, 1729) is a commentary on the aggadot
in Ein Yaakov of Jacob *Ibn H abib, and on Avot.
Bibliography: A. Cahen, in: REJ, 8 (1884), 2713; Fuenn,
Keneset, 575f.; A. Marx, in: JQR, 8 (1917/18), 271f.; C. Tchernowitz,
Toledot ha-Posekim, 3 (1947), 65, 164, 18790.
[Ephraim Kupfer]
nus, and factory girls, all treated with equal lack of censoriousness. Though Reisen adopts a seemingly distanced, objective voice, the readers sympathy is nonetheless all the more
poignantly evoked. Reisen was immensely popular with the
general reader and his public appearances were attended by
thousands, yet, perhaps on account of his deceptive simplicity,
it was only from the 1930s onwards that he began to receive
due recognition by intellectual critics.
His valuable autobiography, Epizodn fun Mayn Lebn
(Episodes from My Life, 192935) covers events in his varied
life up to his participation in the epoch-making *Czernowitz
Yiddish Language Conference of 1908. Subsequent episodes
were never published in book-form. He was also an indefatigable editor and publisher and brought out many important
anthologies and a dozen or so journals of which most were
fairly ephemeral. He had a deep interest in European literature,
and was eager to disseminate acquaintance with the European
writers in Yiddish translation as to promote Yiddish literature
as an equal within the broader European context.
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon 4 (1929), 34964; Sh. Slutsky,
Avrom Reyzn-Bibliografye (1956, 1960); J. Glatstein, In Tokh Genumen
(1947), 4863, 51444; S. Liptzin, Flowering of Yiddish Literature
(1963), 11822; C. Madison, Yiddish Literature (1968), 197220. Add.
Bibliography: LNYL 8 (1981), 45878; Y. Yeshurin, in: A. Reisen,
Lider, Dertseylungen un Zikhroynes (1966), 30716; idem, Gezamlte
Shriftn, 14 vols. (192833); Sh. Niger, Yidishe Shrayber fun Tsvantsikstn
Yorhundert 1 (1946, 1972), 10741; C. Leviant, in: A. Reisen, The HeartStirring Sermon and Other Stories (1992), xixxiv; D. Kay, Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century (2003), 4512.
[Hugh Denman (2nd ed.)]
211
reiser, paul
cellist Joseph Schuster and violinists William Kroll and Erick Friedman.
In 193940, Reisenberg amazed radio listeners by performing the complete Mozart Piano Concertos in a cycle of
weekly broadcasts, which she called the most rewarding experience of my career, my private year with Mozart. Arthur
Rubinstein said of this series, She played brilliantly and I admired her very greatly.
Reisenberg toured with orchestras, including the New
York Philharmonic under John Barbirolli, and was the first
soloist to play twice in one season with that orchestra, in 1941.
Nadia often played premieres of Russian composers, and frequently included newer compositions on her programs, although she did not like ultra-modern 20t century music.
She also recorded for commercial labels. Reisenbergs last solo
recital was at Carnegie Hall on November 21, 1947, though she
still gave some concerts, such as a benefit for Israeli children
at Carnegie Hall in 1948. In general, after 1950, she focused
on teaching, becoming a beloved, sympathetic instructor with
deep personal interest in all her students.
[Judith S. Pinnolis (2nd ed.)]
the worlds largest retailer-branded beverage supplier. Harvard University developed two case studies focusing on the
companys growth and development during Reismans time as
president. Reisman left Cott and in 1996 founded and became
chief executive officer of Indigo Books, Music and More. The
launch of Indigo was the culmination of a lifelong passion for
books and music. After a merger with Chapters Books, Indigo
became Canadas largest book retailer.
Reisman was recognized for her many contributions to
the Jewish and larger community. In 2005, she was awarded
the Canada Council of Christians and Jews (CCCJ) Human
Relations Award for her contribution to a variety of initiatives
that span social, religious, racial, and ethnic communities. She
served as governor of McGill University and of the Toronto
Stock Exchange, In addition to being the CEO of Indigo Books
she was also an officer of Mount Sinai Hospital and a board
member and adviser to many organizations, including World
Literacy of Canada and Torontos Holy Blossom Temple, where
she and her husband established the Gerald Schwartz/Heather
Reisman Centre for Jewish Learning, which sponsors lectures
and study classes on a wide range of Jewish-interest subjects.
Reisman and her husband were also active in support of the
Liberal Party of Canada. Her husband, Gerald *Schwartz,
served as chair and CEO of Onex Corporation.
[Mindy Avrich-Skapinker (2nd ed.)]
REISS, LIONEL (18941986), U.S. painter, printmaker, watercolorist. Born in Jaroslav, Galicia, a four-year-old Reiss and
his family immigrated to New York in 1898. Reiss attended the
Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist
for newspapers, publishers, and a motion picture company.
Reiss was art director for Paramount Studios and the creator
of the now famous MGM lion. In 1930, Reiss made a decision
to leave New York to travel to Europe, North Africa, and the
Near East, accumulating material for art with Jewish subject
matter, often focusing on Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Reiss
published some of the fruits of his travels in a limited edition
folio titled My Models Were Jews in 1938. In part, this work
attempted to negate Hitlers assertion of a distinctive Jewish
type with images of a wide range of different Jews in varying
milieus, including the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in
Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces. All of his depictions are infused with a great sensitivity to details of dress, hair, facial features, and expression
often suggested with an economy of line which still manages
to retain a powerful descriptive quality. Reiss subject matter
was wide-ranging, from the gritty realism of a group of nearderelicts escaping the heat on a tenement rooftop in New York
Summer Night (c. 1946) to more brilliantly colored images such
as the watercolor and gouache Spring Promenade (c. 1946),
which depicts a bevy of well-dressed New Yorkers parading
through Central Park. Reiss also completed paintings lighter
in hue and spirit which reflect the artists observation of life in
Israel, such as Tel Aviv Balconies, Boy from Safed, and Yeminite
Girl. He published and illustrated New Lights and Old Shad-
212
rejzen, zalman
ows (1954) and A World at Twilight, two books featuring text
by I.B. Singer. He illustrated many other books including the
English edition of H ayyim Nah man *Bialiks poem Hamatmid,
published in 1947, for which he created the etching The Talmud
Student, a somewhat expressionistically rendered depiction of
a reader, his weary but engrossed expression illuminated by
vibrant candlelight. Reiss work has been exhibited at the Art
Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Institute, and the Whitney
Museum. His art has been collected by many institutions, including, among others, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the
Smithsonian Institution, and the Tel Aviv Museum.
Bibliography: L.S. Reiss, My Models Were Jews: a Painters
Pilgrimage to Many Lands: a Selection of One Hundred and SeventyEight Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, and Etchings (1938); O.Z.
Soltes, Fixing the World: Jewish American Painters in the Twentieth
Century (2003).
[Nancy Buchwald (2nd ed.)]
REJZEN (Reyzn), ZALMAN (18871940?), Yiddish lexicographer, literary historian, and editor. Born in Koidanovo,
Minsk province (now Dzerzhinsk, Belorus), Rejzen, together
with his elder brother, the poet and short story writer Abraham *Reisen, prepared the Yiddish textbook Muter-Shprakh
(Mother Language, 1908). That year he also published a
widely used Yiddish grammar, which he expanded to the more
definitive Gramatik fun der Yidisher Shprakh (Grammar of
the Yiddish Language, 1920), thus helping to standardize Yiddish grammar. He also helped to bring greater uniformity to
Yiddish spelling by editing a book on Yiddish orthography
prepared by a group of Yiddish teachers in 1913. But his most
important contributions were in literary history. His Leksikon
fun der Yidisher Literatur un Prese (Lexicon of Yiddish Literature and Press) appeared in a single volume in 1914 under
the editorship of S. *Niger and became the basis for his monumental bibliographic Leksikon fun der Yidisher Literatur, Prese,
un Filologi (Lexicon of Yiddish Literature, Press, and Philol-
213
rekhasim
ogy), published in four volumes in Vilna (192629), where
he had settled in 1915 and assumed a leading role as journalist, editor, scholar, and stimulator of cultural life. When he
became the editor of the Yiddish daily Vilner Tog in 1920, he
fought for Jewish cultural autonomy and fostered new literary
talents. In 1928 he was imprisoned for two months because of
his opposition to the Polish governments attempt to compel
Jews to accept Sunday as their day of rest. He also edited the
linguistic journal Yidishe Filologi and several books, including the handbook for the history of Haskalah literature, Fun
Mendelssohn biz Mendele (From Mendelssohn to Mendele,
1923). With A. Fridkin he coauthored a study on Abraham
*Gottlober and wrote on the life and works of I.L. *Peretz (I.L.
Peretz Zayn Lebn un Zayne Verk, I.L. Peretz His Life and
His Works, 1931). He translated European classics into Yiddish. In 1925 he helped found the *YIVO Institute for Jewish
Research, edited several of its important scholarly publications, and was especially active in its sections on philology and
literature. The posthumous essay collection, Yidishe Literatur
un Yidishe Shprakh (Yiddish Literature and Yiddish Language, 1965) includes a full bibliography. When Soviet troops
occupied Vilna in 1939, he was arrested, and when Vilna was
handed over to the Lithuanian Republic, he was taken to Russia, where he was shot in June 1941. No reason was ever given
for his imprisonment or execution.
Bibliography: M. Ravitch, Mayn Leksikon, 2 (1947), 813; H.
Abramowitch, Farshvundene Geshtaltn (1958), 17181; Ch. Gininger,
in: Zamlbikher, 8 (1952), 18594; J. Glatstein, In Tokh Genumen (1960),
18891. Add. Bibliography: A. Reisen, Epizodn fun Mayn Lebn, 1
(1938), 1768; E. Schulman, Yung Vilne (1946), 812; Sh. Katsherginski,
Tsvishn Hamer un Serp (1949), 1620; LNYL, 8 (1981), 47882.
[Moshe Starkman]
RELAND, ADRIAN (Hadrian; 16761718), Dutch Orientalist and theologian. Reland studied at Utrecht, was appointed
professor of philosophy at Harderwijk in 1699, and professor
of Oriental languages and antiquities at Utrecht in 1701.
He published Antiquitates sacrae veterum Hebraeorum
(1708) and De spoliis templi Hierosolymitani in arcu Titiaco
Romae conspicuis liber singularis (Utrecht, 1716). Relands major work was Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata (2
214
vols., 1714), in which he collected all the knowledge then available on the historical geography of Erez Israel and its ancient
sites, arranging the latter alphabetically. His sources included
not only the writings of classical authors, but also those of the
church historians, the Lives of the Saints, and talmudic literature which he quotes in the original. Reland also recorded
Nabatean and Palmyrene inscriptions, though he was unable
to decipher them. All later Orientalists made use of his monumental compilation which is of value even today.
RELGIS (Sigler), EUGEN (1895 ), Romanian author and
journalist. Born in Jassy, Relgis showed an early inclination
toward humanitarianism and pacifism. He wrote his first
book, Triumful Nefiinei (1913), before embarking on his main
journalistic and literary career. He contributed to leading Romanian periodicals and to the Jewish journals Adam, the official Zionist Siri din lumea evreeasca, Renaterea Noastra.
For a time, he was on the editorial staff of the Zionist periodical Mntuirea. After 1920, he edited Umanitatea and Cugetul
liber (Free Thinking).
During the 1920s, Relgis was mainly concerned with his
idealistic conception of humanitarianism ultimately, the
struggle to improve the human soul. His fundamental work
was Principiile umanitariste (Humanitarian Principles, 1922),
which was translated into 17 languages and made Relgis one
of the best-known figures in the intellectual world between
the world wars. He developed his ideas in Umanitarismul i
internaionala intelectualilor (Humanitarianism and the Intellectuals Internationale, 1922), Umanitarismul i socialismul (Humanitarianism and Socialism, 1925), Umanitarismul
biblic (Biblical Humanitarianism, 1926) and similar works.
Some of his books contained prefaces by such celebrities as
Albert Einstein and Romain Rolland who declared Relgis to
be his most worthy successor. During this period he wrote
Petre Arbore (3 vols., 1924), Glasuri n Surdin (Voices in a
Low Key, 1927), and Prieteniile lui Miron (The Friendships
of Miron, 1934).
In the years immediately preceding World War II Relgis
was active in the Jewish cultural institute attached to the Bucharest Choral Temple. In 1947, he left Romania and settled
in Montevideo, Uruguay, lecturing at universities there and in
Argentina and Brazil. He then republished his main works in
Spanish. His articles on the values of Judaism, which he identified with modern humanitarianism, originally published in
Romania as Esseuri despre judaism (Essays on Judaism, 1936),
appeared in an elaborated form in the volumes Profetas y Poetas (1955) and Testigo de mi tiempo (1961). Another collection
of articles and lectures on Romanian-Jewish subjects, Marturii
de ieri i de azi (Testimonies of Yesterday and Today), was
published in Israel in 1962.
Bibliography: E. Lovinescu, Istoria literaturii romne contemporane, 3 (1927), 2079; G. Clinescu, Istoria literaturii romne
(1941), 851; Quaderni degli amici di Eugen Relgis (1962 ); Homenaje
a Eugen Relgis en su 60. aniversario (1955).
[Dora Litani-Littman andAbraham Feller]
salem). In certain instances his treatment of the themes deviates from the traditional and has led scholars to speculate that
Rembrandt may have derived his novel interpretations from
conversations with rabbinical authorities, who provided him
with details from post-biblical Jewish literature. It has been
shown that Rembrandt and other artists consulted the Antiquities of *Josephus Flavius to enrich their biblical iconography.
In his New Testament depictions the Jews, especially when he
depicts the Pharisees, are sometimes shown as suspicious of
the Christian Miracle.
Rembrandt lived in the Jewish Quarter in Amsterdam
on the Breestraat from 1633 to 1635 and from 1639 to 1658. It
has been suggested that his choice of a home in Amsterdams
Breestraat was motivated by its proximity to the citys growing Jewish community. In actual fact quite a few artists resided
in this quarter. Rembrandt was friendly with two Sephardi
Jews, one of whom was the physician Ephraim Hezekiah
*Bueno (Bonus). The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam owns a
small Rembrandt oil portrait of Ephraim Bueno, a preliminary study for the etching of 1647. In World War II this portrait was bought by the Nazis for Hitlers museum, from
the dealer Mannheimer. Rembrandts other Jewish friend was
*Manasseh ben Israel; Rembrandts etching of him in 1636 is
supposed to have been based on a painted portrait that has
disappeared. It is doubtful, though, whether it is in fact a portrait of Manasseh ben Israel, but, on the other hand, there is
no doubt that Rembrandt and Manasseh knew each other. In
Rembrandts 1635 Balthazars Feast (National Gallery, London), a mysterious hand writes the words: Mene Mene Tekel
Upharsin in Hebrew letters on the wall. Rembrandt may have
consulted Manasseh about the script and in what manner the
writing should be arranged. He wrote the words from top to
bottom, according to an old Jewish tradition, which was later
quoted in Manassehs book De Termino Vitae. For Manassehs
book Piedra Gloriosa, o de la Estatua de Nebuchadnesar (The
Glorious Stone, or Nebuchadnezzars Statue, 1655) Rembrandt
made four etchings, one of which was the David and Goliath.
His plates were not found acceptable on religious rather than
aesthetic grounds, and a new commission was accordingly
given to another artist possibly the Jewish copper engraver
Shalom *Italia.
The painting and the four etchings are based on the book
of Daniel, and are related to messianic ideas common in Holland at that time. Manasseh was, in many respects, a mediator
between Jews and Christians. He, like the philo-Semites, was
fostering millenarian hopes for messianic salvation.
There has been much speculation as to whether Rembrandt and Baruch *Spinoza knew each other. The assertion
that Rembrandt was Spinozas drawing teacher has been rejected. Many scholars have claimed to see a likeness of Spinoza
in paintings by Rembrandt, yet alleged identifications have
remained highly debatable. There is a possibility that the two
may have met at the home of Manasseh ben Israel, who was
one of Spinozas teachers, or at the home of Spinozas Latin
teacher, Dr. Frans van den Emden, where one of Rembrandts
215
remnyi, eduard
pupils was a lodger, or at meetings of Collegiants and Mennonites which the philosopher occasionally attended.
Much of what we think about Rembrandt and the Jews
derives from ideas formulated in the 19t century. E. Kolloff
wrote in 1854 about Rembrandts depictions of the biblical past
as bearing a strong touch of the Judaic. Rembrandts financial
problems, which eventually led to his bankruptcy in 1656, were
believed to be the result of his relations with Jewish patrons,
especially Manasseh ben Israel, who had allegedly influenced
him to spend time and money on kabbalistic ideas.
Evidence of Rembrandts artistic interest in the Jews
he encountered in Amsterdam is provided by his numerous drawings, in pen and bistre, or brown or black chalk,
of bearded old Jews in long coats. His early depictions of
beggars in high hats are not of Jews, but probably based
on J. Callots prints of vagabonds. His etching known as Jews
in the Synagogue (1648) shows nine Jews and not a minyan
(quorum) as has been stated. Nor is it any longer agreed that
the setting is a synagogue, and it has been suggested that the
picture should be titled, A Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. The Jewish Bride (Rijksmuseum; painted after 1665)
may not be a portrait of Jews at all, though one scholar maintains that the sitters are the Jewish poet Miguel de *Barrios,
and his much younger wife, Abigail de Pinna. The title was
given to the painting in 1825, and therefore lacks historical
justification. It is now believed to be a biblical painting, most
probably of Isaac and Rebecca. Already in the 18t century
art collectors cataloguing their collections gave Jewish Romantic names to some of the artists works, as for instance
two etchings, labeled the Great Jewish Bride and the Small
Jewish Bride by Valerius Rover, but which are not what they
are called.
A number of portraits assigned to Rembrandt, including some that may be works by his pupils, are believed to be
of Jews, though the titles alone, often supplied by dealers,
are not sufficient proof. The sole documentary evidence that
Rembrandt found patrons among the well-to-do Sephardim
of Amsterdam is a deposition concerning a disagreement between the artist and a certain Diego dAndrade over a portrait
of a young woman (perhaps Diegos daughter) which the patron had found unsatisfactory. This painting has, very tentatively, been identified as one in a private collection in Toronto. All identifications of portraits of unknown Jews based
on racial features are tentative, though in certain cases the
physiognomy and style of clothing appear to be more persuasive than in others. Jewish sitters have thus been claimed
for as many as 40 oils, but the number is open to challenge. A
painting in Rembrandts inventory of 1656 which is listed as
a Head of Christ, a study from life and related works were
probably painted after a Jewish model. According to S. Schama
some of the types of people dressed in heavy coats and fur
hats (kolpaks) are actually Polish noblemen from Gdansk,
and not Jewish. It is assumed that quite often Jewish beggars,
who were poverty-stricken Ashkenazi refugees from Poland,
served as paid models.
Among Rembrandts most celebrated oils on Old Testament themes in major public collections the following may
be named: Samson and Delilah (1628; Berlin), Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630; Amsterdam);
Saul and David (1631; Frankfurt); Sacrifice of Abraham (1635;
St. Petersburg); Samson Threatening his Father-in-law (1635;
Berlin); Blinding of Samson (1636; Frankfurt); The Angel Leaving the Family of Tobias (1637; Paris); Samsons Wedding Feast
(1638; Dresden); Davids Farewell to Jonathan (1642; St. Petersburg); Bathsheba at her Toilet (1643; New York); Susanna and
the Elders (1647; Berlin); Bathsheba with Davids Letter (1654;
Paris); Joseph Accused by Potiphars Wife (1655; Berlin); Saul
and David (c. 1655; The Hague); Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph (1656; Kassel ); Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (c. 1659;
Berlin); Moses Holding the Tablets of the Law (1659; Berlin).
In this last-mentioned painting the tablets are inscribed in
beautiful Hebrew lettering in accordance with the Amsterdam Sephardi manner.
Rembrandt made numerous drawings and prints of Old
Testament subjects. Often he seeks to analyze the human motives and the psychological turning points of the episodes.
Many are depictions of the stories of Genesis, such as Josephs
Coat Brought to Jacob (1633); Abraham Casting Hagar and Ishmael (1637); Joseph Telling his Dreams (1638); Adam and Eve,
(1638); Abrahams Sacrifice (1655). The story of Tobias also held
his fascination throughout his life. In 1651 he made the print
of The Blindness of Tobit.
In his famous etching The Triumph of Mordecai of c. 1641
Rembrandt shows the Temple of Jerusalem through an arch,
which is an allusion to the building of the Third Temple. The
print is close in conception and composition to the Nightwatch, Rembrandts great masterpiece.
Jewish artists after the Emancipation considered Rembrandt and his Jewish creations as proof of the fact that Jewish art was possible.
216
remnick, david
Hungarian Dances. Remnyi made violin transcriptions of the
piano works of Chopin and Field and wrote a violin concerto.
He died in San Francisco, California, while on tour.
REMEZ (Drabkin), MOSHE DAVID (18861951), labor
leader in the Jewish yishuv and Israeli politician, member of
the First Knesset. Born in Kopys in the Mohilev district in Belorussia, Remez attended a h eder, and then studied at a gymnasium in the town of Yeltz. He was a member of *Poalei Zion in
his youth, and published Hebrew poems in Ha-Shiloah , then
edited by H ayyim Nah man *Bialik. He also served for a while
as a teacher. After studying law in Constantinople, Remez settled in Palestine in 1913, where he worked as an agricultural
laborer for five years in Ben-Shemen, Beer Toviyyah, Karkur,
and Zikhron Yaakov. After World War I, he became one of the
leaders of *Ah dut ha-Avodah, and later of *Mapai, and was a
key figure in the organizational and economic activities of the
*Histadrut. In the years 192129 he headed the Public Works
Office of the Histadrut, which later became *Solel Boneh,
and served as secretary general of the Histadrut in the years
193544. Remez was chairman of the Vaad Leummi from 1944
to 1948 and was one of the Jewish leaders arrested by the British authorities on June 29, 1946 (Black Saturday), spending
several months in the Latrun detention camp. In 1948 he was
appointed minister of transportation in the provisional government, and served in this position also in the first government formed by David *Ben-Gurion. In the second government he was appointed minister of education and culture, but
he passed away in May 1951.
A linguist and writer, Remez introduced several new
words into the Hebrew language, such as ( seniority);
(bulldozer); ( traffic light). The housing complex of Ramat Remez in Haifa was named in his memory.
His only son, Aharon (19191994), served in the British
Royal Air Force from 1942 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1951 was
the first commander of the Israeli Air Force. He was a member
of the Third Knesset. In 1965 he was appointed Israeli ambassador to Great Britain. In the years 197077 he was the head of
the Israel Ports Authority, and in 197781 he served as chairman of the Airport Authority.
of all the countries whither I have driven them and will bring
them back to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. Joel promises, For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there shall be those that escape and among the remnant those
whom the Lord shall call (3:5), and the first half of the verse
is repeated almost literally by Obadiah (v. 17).
It is in Isaiah, however, that the doctrine is found in its
most developed form which greatly affected Israels thoughts
about the future. He gives his son the symbolic name ShearJashub (a remnant shall return, 7:3) and in 10:22 the phrase
is repeated as a statement of fact a remnant shall return, even
the remnant of Jacob. The most detailed description of the
doctrine appears in 6:13. The land shall be utterly destroyed,
the children of Israel will be removed far away, only a tenth
will remain even that tenth shall again be eaten up but
the holy seed shall remain. Isaiahs concept of the remnant
may have included both the faithful minority and those who
would accept Gods message, under the impact of the forthcoming disaster. Paul applied Isaiahs teaching to the Church
(Rom. 9:27).
In the daily prayers there are included the prayers
Guardian of Israel, Guard the Remnant of Israel, and suffer
not Israel to perish.
After World War II the phrase the remnant which survives (sheerit ha-peletah) was applied to the survivors of the
Holocaust.
Bibliography: E. Jenni, in: IDB, 4 (1962), 3233, incl. bibl.
REMNANT OF ISRAEL (Heb. ) , a term denoting the belief that the future of Israel would be assured by
the faithful remnant surviving the calamities that would befall the people as a result of their departing from the way of
God. On the one hand the prophets foretold the forthcoming exile and destruction of Israel, and on the other they held
forth the hope and promise of its survival and eternity. The
doctrine of the Surviving Remnant resolved this contradiction. The doctrine is referred to by most of the prophets. Thus
Micah (2:12) states, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
Jeremiah (23:3) and I will gather the remnant of my flock out
217
218
rene, roy
Among his translations were the entire Mishnah (Nishmat
Kol H ai), *Maimonides Mishneh Torah (Orah ve-Simh ah
Sefer ha-Rambam, for which he received the Zadok Kahn
award in 1961), and Isaac *Alfasis commentary on the Talmud (Sefer ha-Rif ).
Renassia also wrote works on history and belles lettres
and edited the legends of the Talmud (Ben-David, 1923), translating them into Judeo-Arabic. He was the author of commentaries on biblical topics and responsa literature. He edited dictionaries as learning aids for students of Talmud and Arabic,
French, and Hebrew and popularized basic works from the
realm of Jewish philosophy and Kabbalah.
His educational approach was non-elitist seeking to reach
everyone, from the uneducated to the advanced scholar. With
that in mind he translated into the most commonly used dialect and into the derush, which was the sermonic style used
in most synagogues.
Renassias educational philosophy was based on the idea
that one must develop students who become familiar with a
wide range of subjects at an elementary level so that they continue on to specialization in those to which they are attracted.
A direct result of this was that the Ez H ayyim yeshivah which
he headed was home to a large number of students.
He had a unique attitude to modernity, not rejecting it but
applying a selective openness. Renassia knew French very well,
served in the French army, and was well acquainted with the
basics of French culture, even though he absorbed only those elements he considered positive or worthy of being adopted. His
main thrust was on Jewish cultural content which he felt was
necessary for the maintenance of Jewish life in the Diaspora.
Upon Algerias independence in 1962 he emigrated to
Israel and at no time linked his destiny to the French people
or to Jewish bodies loyal to France, such as the Consistoire or
the Alliance, although he did not dissociate or alienate himself from them.
His approach to family, conversion, and observance of
the commandments is rooted in his general attitude towards
modernity. He felt that the solution to the processes of erosion wearing away the Algerian Jewish communities was in
proper Jewish education which should be aimed at emigration
to Israel. He acted tolerantly towards the problems of Jewish
society as he understood but did not condone that it was
going through gradual processes of secularization and abandonment of traditional values.
He favored a streamlined, convenient process of conversion, more so than the other Algerian rabbis, particularly
after World War II. He thought that the phenomenon of conversion after the Holocaust was akin to a miracle and should
be encouraged.
Renassias correspondence with President Izhak BenZvi was crucial to the saving of his works, since he used to
send a dedicated copy of each to the president. If it had not
been for that, it is doubtful whether it would have been possible to collect his writings, which were in threat of being lost
after 1962.
219
reparations, german
South Australia, the son of a Dutch-born Jewish cigar maker,
Rene (the name he adopted from about 1910) became one of
the best-known Australian comedians of his day. He originally
worked as part of a vaudeville duo, Stiffy and Mo, which
toured the Australian theatrical circuit from about 1916 until 1933. Universally known as Mo, he continued on the stage
alone thereafter and became a star on Australian radio in the
1940s and early 1950s in a famous series, MacCackie Mansions.
He also starred in a film, Strike Me Lucky (1934).
Probably the most popular Australian comedian of his
time, Mo spoke in an exaggerated Jewish lisp and was famous for his risqu material which often sailed close to the
wind of Australias strict laws. Many visiting celebrities, including Jack *Benny, said that he was among the best comedians they had ever seen, and urged Mo to try his luck in Hollywood, but he never left Australia. In private life, plagued by
ill health, he was often a sad figure. He wrote an autobiography, Mos Memoirs (1945).
met with the Israel delegation, headed jointly by Giora *Josephthal and Felix Eliezer Shinnar (d. 1985), at The Hague
on March 21, 1952. The delegation of the Claims Conference,
headed by Moses *Leavitt, was in charge of the negotiations
on individual claims for indemnification. Israel reduced her
claim of $1,500,000,000 against the whole of Germany to
$1,000,000,000 against the FRG alone. She reserved her right
to claim the balance from East Germany (German Democratic
Republic), which did not respond. On Sept. 10, 1952, after six
months of negotiations, an agreement between Israel and the
FRG was signed at Luxembourg by Moshe Sharett and Konrad
Adenauer. The agreement was ratified and came into effect on
March 21, 1953, after a delay caused by the Arab states efforts
to prevent ratification.
The FRG undertook to pay an amount of DM3,450,000,000
($845,000,000) in goods, of which DM450,000,000
($110,000,000) was earmarked for allocation by the Claims
Conference. This $845,000,000 was to be paid in annual installments over a period of 14 years (between April 1, 1953, and
March 31, 1966). Thirty percent was to pay for Israels crude
oil purchases in the United Kingdom. With the balance of
70, Israel was to buy ferrous and nonferrous metals, steel,
chemical, industrial, and agricultural products. The agreement was carried out by the FRG both in letter and in spirit.
The reparations agreement was implemented by the government-owned Shilumim Corporation in Tel Aviv Shilumim
refers to recompense for material damage (For the Lord hath
a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the controversy
of Zion (Isa. 34:8)) which accepted orders from prospective buyers under the agreement, and by the Israel Purchasing
Mission in Cologne, to place these orders with the German
suppliers. Goods bought and imported under the agreement
represented 1214 of Israels annual imports and thus made
an important contribution to Israels economy.
In 1988, the German government allocated another $125
million, enabling remaining Holocaust survivors to receive
monthly payments of $290 for the rest of their lives. In February 1990, before its unification with West Germany, East
Germany admitted for the first time that it was also responsible for war crimes committed by the German people during
World War II and agreed to pay reparations.
In 1999, German government and German industry
agreed, in response to the filing of numerous class action lawsuits in American courts, to compensate Jews and non-Jews
specifically for slave and forced labor they performed for German industry during the war. In return for the dismissal of
all such lawsuits and guaranteeing Germany and its industry
legal peace from any such further litigation, the German
government and German industry created a foundation, Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future, with assets of 10
billion German marks (approximately US $5 billion). Slave and
forced laborers still alive at the time of the settlement could apply to receive a lump sum payment of between $2,500$7,500
from the German foundation. Over 140,000 Jewish survivors
in over 25 countries received such payments, and the compen-
220
repentance
sation program to the Jewish survivors was administered by
the Claims Conference. Final payments from the Foundation
were to be made by September 2006.
lates that God will provide a new heart that will overcome
sin and merit eternal forgiveness (31:3233; 32:3940; cf. Deut.
30:6; Ezek. 36:2627).
Bibliography: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Documents Relating to the Agreement between the Government of Israel
and the Federal Republic of Germany, Signed on 10 September 1952 at
Luxembourg (1953); N. Robinson, Ten Years Indemnification (1964);
F.E. Shinnar, Be-Ol Korah u-Regashot bi-Shelih ut ha-Medinah: Yah asei
Yisrael-Germanyah 19511966 (1967); Bank of Israel, Ha-Shillumim
ve-Hashpaatam al ha-Meshek ha-Yisreeli (1965); The Autobiography of Nahum Goldmann (1969), 24982; I. Deutschkron, Bonn and
Jerusalem (1970).
[Felix Eliezer Shinnar / Michael Bazyler (2nd ed.)]
[Jacob Milgrom]
REPENTANCE. Repentance is a prerequisite for divine forgiveness: God will not pardon man unconditionally but waits
for him to repent. In repentance man must experience genuine
remorse for the wrong he has committed and then convert his
penitential energy into concrete acts. Two substages are discernible in the latter process: first, the negative one of ceasing
to do evil (Isa. 33:15; Ps. 15; 24:4), and second, the positive step
of doing good (Isa. 1:17; 58:5ff.; Jer. 7:3; 26:13; Amos 5:1415; Ps.
34:1516; 37:27). The Bible is rich in idioms describing mans
active role in the process of repentance e.g., incline the heart
to the Lord (Josh. 24:23), make oneself a new heart (Ezek.
18:31), circumcise the heart (Jer. 4:4), wash the heart (Jer.
4:14), and break ones fallow ground (Hos. 10:12). However,
all these expressions of mans penitential activity are subsumed
and summarized by one verb which dominates the Bible,
(shwb, to return) which develops ultimately into the rabbinic
concept of teshuvah, repentance. This root combines in itself
both requisites of repentance: to turn from the evil and to turn
to the good. The motion of turning implies that sin is not an
ineradicable stain but a straying from the right path, and that
by the effort of turning, a power God has given to all men, the
sinner can redirect his destiny. That this concept of turning
back (to YHWH) is not a prophetic innovation but goes back
to Israels ancient traditions is clear from Amos, who uses it
without bothering to explain its meaning (Amos 4:611). Neither he nor Isaiah stresses repentance, except in his earliest
prophecy (1:1618 to which the prophet adds 1920 by way
of interpretation and 27), not because they believe it is insignificant, but because in their time the people had sinned to
such an extent, that they had overstepped the limits of divine
forbearance and the gates of repentance were closed (Amos 7;
Isa. 6). For Isaiah, the need to turn back indeed continues to
play a role, but only for the few who will survive Gods purge.
This surviving remnant will itself actively engage in a program
of repentence to qualify for residence in the New Zion (e.g.,
Isa. 10:2023; 17:78; 27:9; 29:18ff.; 30:1826; 31:67; 32:18,
15ff.; 33:56). Indeed, the name of this prophets firstborn was
imprinted with this message: [Only] a remnant will return
(Shear-Jashub; Isa. 7:3).
In the teaching of both Hosea and Jeremiah, on the other
hand, the call to turn back is never abandoned. When Jeremiah despairs of mans capability of self-renewal, he postu-
Rabbinic Views
The rabbis are eloquent in describing the significance of repentance. It is one of the things created before the world itself
(Pes. 54a); it reaches to the very Throne of Glory (Yoma 86a);
it prolongs a mans life and brings on the Redemption (Yoma
86b). God urges Israel to repent and not be ashamed to do so
because a son is not ashamed to return to the father who loves
him (Deut. R. 2:24). God says to Israel: My sons, open for Me
an aperture of repentance as narrow as the eye of a needle, and
I will open for you gates through which wagons and coaches
can pass (Song R. 5:2 no. 2). On public fast-days the elder of
the congregation would declare: Brethren, it is not said of
the men of Nineveh: And God saw their sackcloth and their
fasting but: And God saw their works, that they had turned
from their evil way [Jonah 3:10] (Taan. 2:1).
The rabbis were not unaware of the theological difficulties in the whole concept of repentance. Once the wrong has
been done how can it be put right? The general rabbinic answer is that it is a matter of Divine Grace, as in the following
passage, in which it is incidentally implied, too, that the concept of teshuvah has only reached its full emphasis as a result
of a long development from biblical times: They asked of
wisdom? What is the punishment of the sinner? Wisdom
replied: Evil pursueth sinners [Prov. 13:21]. They asked of
prophecy: What is the punishment of the sinner? Prophecy
replied: The soul that sinneth it shall die [Ezek. 18:4]. Then
they asked of the Holy One, blessed be He: What is the punishment of the sinner? He replied: Let him repent and he
will find atonement (TJ, Mak. 2:7, 31d). The third-century
Palestinian teachers debate whether the repentant sinner is
greater than the wholly righteous man who has not sinned,
R. Johanan holding the opinion that the latter is the greater,
R. Abbahu that the repentant sinner is greater (Ber. 34b). R.
Simeon b. Lakish said, according to one version, that when
the sinner repents his sins are accounted as if he had committed them unintentionally, but, in another version, his sins are
accounted as virtues. The talmudic reconciliation of the two
versions is that one refers to repentance out of fear, the other
to repentance out of love (Yoma 86b). Even a man who has
been wicked all his days who repents at the end of his life is
pardoned for all his sins (Kid. 40b). The ideal, is for man to
spend all his days in repentance. When R. Eliezer said: Repent one day before your death, he explained that since no
man can know when he will die he should spend all his days
in repentance (Shab. 153a).
The Day of *Atonement brings pardon for sin if there is
repentance (Yoma 8:8), but Judah ha-Nasi holds that the Day
of Atonement brings pardon even without repentance except
in cases of very serious sin (Yoma 85b). The Day of Atonement
is ineffective if a man says: I will sin and the Day of Atonement will effect atonement. If a man says: I will sin and re-
221
repentance
pent, and sin again and repent he will be given no chance to
repent (Yoma 8:9). The second-century teacher R. Ishmael is
reported as saying (Yoma 86a): If a man transgressed a positive precept, and repented, he is forgiven right away. If he has
transgressed a negative commandment and repented, then
repentance suspends punishment and the Day of Atonement
procures atonement. If he has committed a sin to be punished
with extirpation (karet), or death at the hands of the court,
and repented, then repentance and the Day of Atonement
suspend the punishment, and suffering cleanses him from the
sin. But if he has been guilty of the profanation of the Name,
then penitence has no power to suspend punishment, nor
the Day of Atonement to procure atonement, nor suffering
to finish it, but all of them together suspend the punishment
and only death finishes it. This scheme contains all the tensions resulting from the different aspects of atonement mentioned in the Bible.
Repentance involves sincere remorse for having committed the sin. The third-century Babylonian teacher, R. Judah,
defined a true penitent as one who twice more encountered
the object which caused his original transgression and he kept
away from it. R. Judah indicated: With the same woman, at
the same time, in the same place (Yoma 86b). The penitent
sinner must confess his sins. According to R. Judah b. Bava a
general confession is insufficient; the details of each sin must
be stated explicitly. But R. Akiva holds that a general confession is enough (Yoma 86b). Public confession of sin was
frowned upon as displaying a lack of shame except when the
transgressions were committed publicly, or, according to others, in the case of offenses against other human beings (Yoma
86b). Confession without repentance is of no avail. The ancient
parable, as old as Ben Sira (34:2526), is recounted of a man
who immerses himself in purifying waters while still holding
in his hand a defiling reptile (Taan. 16a).
The sinner must be given every encouragement to repent.
It is forbidden to say to a penitent: Remember your former
deeds (BM 4:10). If a man stole a beam and built it into his
house, he was freed from the obligation of demolishing the
house and was allowed to pay for his theft in cash, in order
to encourage him to repent (Git. 5:5). It was even said that if
robbers or usurers repent and wish to restore their ill-gotten
gains, the spirit of the sages is displeased with the victims if
they accept the restitution, for this may discourage potential
penitents from relinquishing their evil way of life (BK 94b).
[Louis Jacobs]
[Samuel Rosenblatt]
In Jewish Philosophy
Repentance was a favorite subject in medieval Jewish ethical
and philosophical literature. *Saadiah discusses repentance in
section five of his Emunot ve-Deot. Bah ya ibn *Paquda devotes
the seventh gate of his Duties of the Heart, and *Maimonides, the last section of Sefer ha-Madda, Hilkhot Teshuvah.
to repentance.
Saadiah, Bah ya, and Maimonides agree that the essential
constituents of repentance are regret and remorse for the sin
Post-Medieval Period
The idea of repentance continued to play a central role in the
life of the Jew in the postmedieval period, reinforced as it was
by both the penitential liturgy and the rituals of the High Holidays. External stress, pogroms, and expulsions turned the Jew
in on himself and led him to ask forgiveness of God for the
sins which he assumed were at the root of his suffering. Messianic movements, often largely a consequence of the tribulations which beset Jewish communities, gave further incentive
222
repentance
to renewed religious fervor and re-turning to God. Pietist
movements, such as that of H asidei Ashkenaz, practiced ascetic penitential techniques to scourge the sinful flesh.
Against this background kabbalistic speculation, which
associated repentance not merely with the salvation of the
individual soul but with the cosmic drama of redemption,
gained ground. This doctrine reached its climax in Lurianic
Kabbalah, where repentance was one step, but a most essential one, in the process of tikkun, or rectification. Through repentance, the Jew was able to assist God in the elevation of
the holy sparks entrapped in the shells and thus usher in the
messianic age the work of creation having been completed
and perfected.
The 18t and 19t centuries saw the rise of two important
movements in Eastern European Jewry in which the idea of
repentance played somewhat different theological roles. In
H asidism, where the highly personal and anthropomorphic
relation to the Deity, either on the part of the h asid himself or
at least on that of the z addik, was emphasized, the severity of
the doctrine of repentance was toned down. Confidence in the
loving response of God and His forgiveness helped lessen the
sense of overburdening sin. By contrast the Musar movement,
which may be regarded as the response of the Mitnaggedim to
the challenge that H asidism presented to traditional Judaism,
played up the factor of sin, and thus repentance became the
persistent task of the Jew, day after day, year after year. The
turning inward to scrutinize ones deeds and motives in essence the heart of the Musar movement gave the follower
of this movement an awareness of sin of which the average
Jew or the h asid would be totally oblivious. This process of
self-scrutiny and repentance reached its pinnacle for the follower of the Musar movement in the month of Elul, preceding the High Holidays. This month was wholly given over to
soul-searching, and there are well attested cases of great exponents of the Musar movement who inflicted discomfort and
even suffering on themselves as part of the self-punishment
involved in genuine repentance.
Modern Developments
In the modern period, marked by a drift of Jews away from
traditional forms of religion and belief in God, the idea of
repentance appears in two guises. On the one hand, there is
the traditionalist interpretation which still sees repentance as
something of which the believing, as well as the unbelieving,
Jew is in need. On the other, there is the re-interpretation of
repentance as the way back to God for those who have weak
roots in Judaism, or have at some stage abandoned whatever
roots they had.
The traditionalist interpretation takes its most original
form in the writing of A.I. *Kook who devoted a whole work
to the subject of repentance (Orot ha-Teshuvah, 19705). Kook
weaves together three themes in his concept of repentance: the
kabbalistic idea that repentance is not merely something on
the personal level, but partakes of cosmic proportions; messianic Zionism; the re-turning of the individual to God. By
sinning, man isolates himself from the Deity and disrupts the
potential unity and harmony of all existence. Repentance is
the overcoming of this isolation, and communion with God,
the ideal point of mans striving. In repentance, the harmony
of the world is reestablished, for the repentance of one man
helps to bring the whole world back to God. Israels return to
its ancestral land is seen by Kook as repentance (returning)
on the national level and a further step in the reestablishment
of the unity of the creative process. The repentance of the individual Jew strengthens national repentance and return, for
righteousness is the very soul of Israel.
The importance of Franz *Rosenzweig for the modern
reinterpretation of the idea of repentance is first and foremost
the example of his own life. Rosenzweigs personal experience of finding his way back to Judaism has come to be the
paradigm of the modern baal teshuvah (one who repents).
In 1913, he was on the verge of converting to Christianity, but
while attending a Day of Atonement service in an orthodox
synagogue he changed his mind and ultimately his whole life.
From then on his mode of life and his writings represent the
struggles and ideas of a man on the way back (re-turning)
to Judaism. Rosenzweig gradually took upon himself the yoke
of the mitzvot and tried to find means, mainly educational, to
bring other assimilated Jews to an awareness of the inner fire
of the Jewish star of redemption. Rosenzweigs conception of
repentance turns on his portrayal of existential man facing
God and the dialectical tension between mans anticipation of
the call of God and Gods love which is ultimately at the basis
of such a call. Having been called by God, the man of faith enters into dialogue with Him. The turning to God is not simply
this dialogic openness to Him, it also involves the attempt to
fulfill the mitzvot as far as one can, in the hope and belief that
ones ability to fulfill mitzvot will widen. Rosenzweigs attitude
to those mitzvot he did not keep was not yet, i.e., although
he was at the moment not ready to observe these commandments, he hoped that at some future time he would be.
Unlike Kook, who dealt with the subject of repentance in
relation to Israels return to God and nationhood, Rosenzweig
was concerned with the turning away of the individual from
Western culture, specifically Christianity, back to Judaism.
This feature of his thought, typical of existentialism where biographical experience and philosophy meet, colors his whole
discussion of the subject. Whereas Kook is concerned with
the repentance of the Jew, orthodox or otherwise, Rosenzweig
speaks only to the hyphenated Jew, i.e., one who has been
strongly influenced by non-Jewish cultural values.
In the thought of Martin *Buber the idea of repentance
is essentially the turning of the whole man to God, the Eternal
Thou. Though God is revealed to man in his dialogic relationships to other men and the natural world, these relationships
continually move from the plane of the I-Thou to that of
the I-It. The relationship with God is always, and necessarily, that of I Thou since God is the Eternal Thou who can
never become It. Yet in order to maintain this relationship
with God, a total response is called for from man, a response
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rephaim
which is often only partially forthcoming. Repentance, returning to God, is thus the renewed total response of IThou. The influence of h asidic thought on Buber is apparent
both in the highly personalistic approach to the Deity and in
the idea that turning to God involves a relationship with him
not merely in religiously separated times and places, but even
in the most mundane of situations. Unlike both Kook and
Rosenzweig, Buber is addressing man as man, not qua committed or even uncommitted Jew but qua I. This is true despite his attempt to locate his philosophy within a distinctly
Jewish framework rejecting the Christian framework of an
already achieved redemption.
[Alan Unterman]
REPHAIM (Heb. ) . The Rephaim are known from biblical, Ugaritic, and Phoenician sources. In the Bible two uses
of the term are discernible. The first is as a gentilic (e.g., Gen.
14:5; 15:20; Deut. 2:11) referring to a people distinguished by
their enormous stature. Especially singled out are Og king of
Bashan (Deut. 3:11) and the powerful adversaries of Davids
heroes (II Sam. 21:16, 18, 20). The biblical authors trace their
designation to an apparently human eponym Rapha(h) (e.g.,
II Sam. 21:16, 18, 20; I Chron. 20:8). The Bibles emphasis on
the size and might of the Rephaim is responsible for the Septuagints renderings gigantes and titanes as well as for gabbr
of the Peshitta and gibbaryy of the Targums. The Genesis
Apocryphon (21:28) on the other hand prefers the noncommital rephayy.
In its second use Rephaim designates shades or spirits
and serves as a poetic synonym for metim ( ; Isa. 26:14;
Ps. 88:11). It thus refers to the inhabitants of the netherworld
(Prov. 9:18). This second meaning is also found in Phoenician sources. King Tabnit of Sidon curses any prospective despoiler of his tomb: May there be no resting-place for you
with the Rephaim (H. Donner and W. Roellig, Kanaanische
und aramische Inschriften (KAI, 1962), 13, lines 78; COS II,
182), King Eshmunazar (ibid., 14, line 8; COS II, 183) employs
the same formula in the plural, adding and may they not
224
resen
77 (1965), 8283; J.C. de Moor, in: Ugarit Forschungen, 1 (1969); H.
Mueller, ibid. Add. Bibliography: B. Margulies (Margalit), in:
JBL, 89 (1970), 292304; D. Pardee, in: Ugarit Forschungen, 15 (1983),
12740; K. van der Toorn, CBQ, 52 (1990), 20322; idem, in: BiOr, 48
(1991), 4066; H. Rouillard, DDD, 692700; M. Dietrich and O. Loretz, Wordlist of the Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit (1996);
W. Pitard, in: W. Watson and N. Wyatt (eds.), Handbook of Ugaritic
Studies (1999), 25986.
[S. David Sperling]
REPHIDIM (Heb. , ) , a stopping place of the Israelites on their way from Egypt, situated between the Wilderness of Sin and the Wilderness of Sinai (Ex. 17:1; 19:2; Num.
33:1415). In Rephidim the lack of water caused the people to
find fault with Moses and to challenge his position of leadership. Moses struck a rock at Horeb and water gushed forth.
The place came to be known as Massah and Meribah (Ex.
17:17). In a parallel account (Num. 20) the place where this
occurred is said to be *Kadesh. The defeat of the *Amalekites
which later took place at Rephidim was effected by virtue of
the force mustered by Joshua and Moses who kept his hands
raised during the whole course of the battle. Gods oath to wipe
out Amalek was commemorated by an altar, named YHWH is
my ensign (Heb. ; Ex. 17:816), erected at the spot.
No definite evidence has been forwarded for the exact
site of Rephidim, which depends on the location of Mt. *Sinai.
Most scholars who identify Mt. Sinai with Jebel Musa locate
Rephidim in Wadi Frn, or, according to Abel, at Wadi Rafayd
or Jebel Rafayd, about 22 mi. (36 km.) southeast of el-Arish.
Bibliography: Abel, Gog, 2 (1938), 213; C.H. Cornill, in:
ZAW, 11 (1891), 20ff.; H. Gressmann, Mose und seine Zeit (1913), 150ff.;
C.J. Jarvis, Yesterday and To-Day in Sinai (1933), 1745: S. Lehming,
in: ZAW, 73 (1961), 7177; C.L. Woolley and T.E. Lawrence, in: Annual
of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 3 (191415), 62ff.
RESEN (Heb. ) , according to Genesis 10:12, one of the cities (?) which Nimrod built between Nineveh and Calah, the
latter is the great[er] city. The verse describes the situation of
the cities in the Assyrian triangle (inner Assyria) in the latter
part of the second millennium, when Calah was still a more
important city than Nineveh (cf. the differences of opinion between Rashi and Ibn Ezra). While the traditional interpretation of the verse takes Resen to be the name of a city like Calah
and Nineveh, other interpretations have been advanced.
According to one possibility, Resen is related to the Akkadian stem rsn and is derived from the verb rasnu or resnu,
to wash, to irrigate (?), whence the noun risnu, washing,
cleansing. A second, more fruitful possibility is that Resen
was part of a waterwork (standing between Nineveh and
Calah). This suggestion is advanced by D. Dossin and E.A.
Speiser, who interpreted Resen as a sandhi of the original r
n or the Assyrian r ne (Heb. ) meaning, especially
in Assyrian, source of water, spring. The term exists not only
as a common noun (see Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, 7 (1960),
225
resh
158) but also as an actual place-name, URU (city) Re-e-e-ne
(see D.D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib (1924), 79:91),
near Nineveh, which was a station of the aqueduct to Nineveh
reconstructed by Sennacherib.
Bibliography: Th. Jacobsen and S. Lloyd, Sennacheribs Aqueduct at Jerwan (1935); E.A. Speiser, Genesis (1964), 68; S. Parpola,
Neo-Assyrian Toponyms (1970), 293.
[Pinhas Artzi]
RESH (Heb. ) ;, the twentieth letter of the Hebrew alphabet; its numerical value is 200. The initial form of this letter
in the early Proto-Canaanite and Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions
is a pictograph of a human head . The Greek rho seems to
indicate that the Canaanite name of the letter was rosh, while
resh = head in Aramaic.
In the late Proto-Canaanite script the pictograph developed into a linear form , which was preserved in the Greek
P. Another Archaic Greek variant was the ancestor of the
Latin R.
While the ancient Hebrew script preserved the closed
top of the resh (hence Samaritan ), the Phoenician cursive
opened the circular head at its lower part and the Aramaic
script opened the top of the letter (compare with Aramaic
bet, dalet, and ayin) already in the late eighth century b.c.e.
Later there was a tendency to curve the shoulder and thus
the Jewish resh was developed.
As resh and dalet resemble each other, in some scripts
both were often written in the same way. In Syriac only diaritic marks distinguish between them: = dalet; = resh. In
the Nabatean cursive and, hence, in the Arabic script, the resh
has been assimilated with the zayin. Therefore a diacritic point
above the za ( ) distinguishes it from the ra ( ). See *Alphabet, Hebrew.
[Joseph Naveh]
226
resnick, salomon
suggest. Though a player of genius, in tournament play he
would lose games on the clock because of the long spells of
concentration demanded by his perfectionism. This explains
his failure to win several candidates tournaments, including
the world championship tourney in 1948 in which he was defeated by Mikhail Botvinnik.
Reshevskys published collection of his own games, Reshevskys Best Games of Chess (1960), is usefully annotated. He
also wrote How Chess Games are Won (1962) and The Art of
Positional Play (1978). An Orthodox Jew, Reshevsky always
subordinated his chess life to his religious observances.
[Gerald Abrahams]
reshut, i.e., ruling power (Avot 1:10), or Six things serve man;
over three he has reshut and over three he has no reshut; over
the eye, the ear, and the nose he has no reshut; over the mouth,
the hand, the foot he has reshut (Gen. R. 67:3).
Reshut as Domain
From this stems the concept of reshut ha-yah id to designate
an area over which the individual has authority, i.e., a private domain, in contrast to reshut ha-rabbim, a public domain. The distinction is found mainly in the laws of Sabbath,
with regard to the permissibility of transferring objects from
one domain to another, and in connection with torts. Thus
the Tosefta (Shab. 1:1) states: Four domains are to be distinguished in connection with the Sabbath: the private domain
[reshut hayah id], the public domain [reshut ha-rabbim], the
semipublic domain [karmelit], and the exempted domain [mekom petor] (also Maim. Yad, Shabbat, 14: 1). Similarly, in connection with torts, a differentiation is made between private
and public domains. For instance the owner of an animal is
liable for the damage done by it in the private domain of another. If, however, the damage is done in a public domain, to
which everyone has the right of access, such as an open field
or a marketplace, the owner is liable only if the animal gores or
bites, since it has no right to cause damage to the people in the
locality; but he is exempt from damage caused by the animal
grazing or treading (cf. Maim. Yad, Nizkei Mamon, 1:78).
Reshut in the Sense of an Optional or Voluntary Duty
In the Talmud there is a difference of opinion between R.
Joshua and Rabban Gamaliel as to whether the evening prayer
is optional (reshut) or obligatory (h ovah; Ber. 27b). A similar
distinction is made between an optional war (to enlarge the
borders of Israel) in contrast to an obligatory war, like that
against *Amalek or Joshuas conquest of the land (Sot. 8:7). The
word reshut is also used in medieval liturgical poetry (*piyyut)
for the introductory poem by the cantor who begs permission (reshut) despite his personal unworthiness to represent,
and intercede for, the congregation.
[Abraham Arzi]
Reshut as Authority
The term reshut is used in rabbinic literature in the sense of
power and authority, such as Seek not acquaintance with the
RESNICK, SALOMON (18941946), writer, journalist, lecturer, translator from Yiddish into Spanish, and community
leader. Born in Russia, he immigrated to Argentina in 1902 as
his father, Rabbi Moses Resnick, was hired by the JCA (Jewish Colonization Association) to serve the religious needs of
the agricultural colonies. There, Salomon Resnick became a
Spanish teacher. In 1914, he moved to Buenos Aires, where he
started his literary career in the journal Juventud; in 1917 he
joined the magazine Vida Nuestra publishing essays, articles,
and translations from Yiddish writers. In 1918 he joined the
founders of the daily Yiddish Di Presse as a journalist and editor; and from 1923 to 1933 he established and edited with Leon
Kibrick the Spanish weekly Mundo Israelita, still appearing in
the early 21st century. In 1923 Resnick launched the monthly
Spanish journal Judaica, editing it until his death; this was his
most outstanding project devoted to the promotion of Jewish
227
228
responsa
More than half the total of the known geonic responsa was
written during the last generations of the geonic period, the
most prolific writers being Sherira and his son *Hai. During
this period of 300 years (7501050), responsa literature embraced almost every aspect of Jewish life. Apart from issues of
practical halakhah, they included explanations of verses and
of talmudic themes, theological and ideological discourses,
and various chronographic, medical, and scientific discussions, all written at the request of individuals or communities who desired this knowledge, either for the needs of
the community or for their polemics with the *Karaites and
with their Muslim neighbors. Generally speaking, the queries were assembled by the representatives of the yeshivot
from the various Jewish centers of Spain, the countries of
North Africa, and those surrounding Erez Israel, to as far as
Yemen in the south. These then transmitted them, along with
the monetary donation of the communities for the financing and maintenance of the yeshivot, by way of the ramified
routes of the postal caravan which passed through Egypt on
its way to Babylonia. The representatives, who were usually
outstanding scholars, sifted the queries, improved and corrected their language, and as far as possible refrained from
answering questions to which answers had already been received on a previous occasion. The answers were copied by
the representatives, several copies being preserved in anticipation of similar queries in the future. The yeshivah archives
were often drawn upon by later geonim for their own decisions. That a large part of this material has been preserved in
the Cairo Genizah is due to the fact that Egypt served as the
postal junction of that time.
The yeshivot followed a set procedure for dealing with
queries. In general hundreds of such questions were read and
discussed at the yeshivah during each of the two months of
*kallah in the presence of the full forum of its scholars and
pupils. At the conclusion of the discussion the yeshivah scribe
wrote the decision of the head of the yeshivah at his dictation,
and all the senior members of the yeshivah signed it. Urgent
queries which could not be delayed were discussed and decided by the gaon as soon as they were received. In view of
the fact that the questioners generally sent groups of queries,
sometimes unrelated to one another, the reply of the gaon
usually consisted of many sections. The scant mention of previous geonim and their rulings in the responsa stems from a
desire to give them the character of impersonal finality, representative of the view of the yeshivah as a whole. The geonic
responsa, which in themselves and in their many copies had
begun to pile up by their thousands in the different centers of
the postal route and outside it, were already collected in early
times by various individuals into kovaz im (collections) or
kunteresim (booklets), according to differing criteria: subject matter, the names of the respondents, order of tractates,
etc. As a result, responsa which had comprised a single entity
when written were divided up by the copyists and attached to
different booklets piecemeal. The great number of such secondary booklets and the utter confusion in the names of the
229
responsa
respondents, which they carelessly transcribed as a result of
the arbitrary order prevailing in them and among their copyists, has rendered the problem of determining the authorship
of various responsa one of the most difficult problems in present-day research into geonic responsa. In addition, the habit of
most copyists of omitting those opening lines of the questions
and answers which had no halakhic significance has increased
the problem of identification. Much help is obtained, however,
from the lists of responsa (without the responsa themselves)
prepared by these copyists for themselves and preserved in the
Genizah, in which the opening words of the responsa and the
name of the author are noted.
Responsa of the Rishonim
Responsa literature acquired a different character during the
period of the *rishonim. Their contents became more and
more confined to talmudic halakhah; the responsa became by
degrees more and more detailed and lengthy, and the discussion of the parallel talmudic themes, whether closely or distantly related to the topic, grew correspondingly longer and
all within the context of a definitive dependence upon the rulings of the geonim which had already become part of binding halakhah, almost like the Talmud itself, especially in the
regions of Spain and North Africa. The responsa of the rishonim contain for the first time such expressions of humility as
in my humble opinion, may the Merciful One save us from
the abyss of judgment, and the like, and such admissions as
that the understanding of a certain theme, or the determination of a correct reading, requires further thought. One also
encounters for the first time, in the middle of this period, an
exchange of responsa between rabbis in different countries,
for the purpose of clarifying and reinforcing their rulings and
in order to diminish their responsibility in the event of their
erring (cf. Hor. 3b). This correspondence also had great value
in strengthening the ties between different localities. In contrast to geonic responsa, in which the mention of inter-geonic
disputes is very slight (a factor to a certain extent attributable
to the insistence of the geonim that their questioners were not
to address the same query to more than one yeshivah), the responsa of the rishonim are filled with differences of opinion
another sign of the dwindling authority of the rabbis from the
close of the geonic period.
A substantial number of responsa or remnants thereof
from the period of the rishonim some among the earliest
have already been published. Many of the numerous responsa
of *H anokh b. Moses and *Moses b. H anokh, of the first generation of Spanish rabbis, for instance, have been published
in various collections, especially in the compilation Teshuvot Geonei Mizrah u-Maarav (1888). Some of the responsa of
*Gershom b. Judah, the Light of the Exile, were published by
S. Eidelberg (1955). Similarly most of Rashis extant responsa
and remnants of others were collected by I. Elfenbein (1943).
Other responsa of the early rishonim of France and Germany
were published in the Teshuvot H akhmei Z arefat ve-Loter
(1881). The situation is different with respect to North Africa,
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responsa
Historical Significance of the Responsa
A special importance attaches to responsa as a primary source
for knowledge of the history of the Jews in the various countries. Responsa literature has one advantage over such other
accepted historical sources as chronographies, official documents, biographies, etc., since the evidence it affords is undesigned, without any specific historical purpose or intention.
Moreover, while in general the accepted sources preserve only
important events, the responsa echo the humdrum daily life
of the ordinary person, his folkways, beliefs, dialects, and, of
particular importance, details about the lives of villagers and
townsmen whose identity is completely blurred in the usual
sources. Since the beginning of modern Jewish *historiography the responsa literature has been drawn upon for this purpose. However, it is only during recent decades that monographs have been devoted both to individual collections of
responsa which have been analyzed from the standpoint of
their contents as books, and from the point of view of the
study of a particular subject. Generally speaking, connected
with this research is a study of the biography of the author of
the responsa, and as a result, the history of the rabbinate has
also benefited. The following works are examples: I. Epstein,
The Responsa of Rabbi Solomon ben Adreth of Barcelona as
a Source of the History of Spain (1925); idem, The Responsa of
Rabbi Simon ben Z emah of Duran as a Source of the History of
the Jews of North Africa (1930); A.M. Hershman, Rabbi Isaac
ben Sheshet Perfet and his Times (1943); S. Eidelberg, Jewish
Life in Austria in the XVt century as Reflected in the Legal Writings of Rabbi Israel Isserlein and his contemporaries (1962). This
genre of literature is of additional importance for knowledge
of the history of the halakhah, since in it is reflected the first
reactions of the halakhic authorities of the various ages to new
scientific inventions and discoveries which have increased
considerably during recent centuries. It is no longer possible
to recognize this immediate reaction of the halakhah in the
codes, since the decisions of the respondents underwent many
processes of modification and limitation before being summarized in the classical works of the halakhah. In this field
a great deal of work was done by Isaak *Kahane, who wrote
many monographs on the development of halakhic (but also
historical) topics in the responsa literature throughout the
ages. (See also *Maaseh.)
Boaz Cohens Kunteres ha-Teshuvot (1930), an annotated
bibliography of the rabbinic responsa of the Middle Ages,
which was one of the first attemps to classify and describe
the responsa literature, became a standard reference work.
There was, however, no list of individual responsa scattered
in works devoted to other themes. The publication of Shmuel
Glicks Kuntress ha-Teshuvot he-H adash: Bibliographic Thesaurus of Responsa Literature Published from ca. 1470-2000,
vol. 1: aleph-lamed (2005) is a major contribution toward accessing all types of responsa. In addition to the classic corpus
of responsa, the work includes rare responsa found in other
works focusing on spheres other than responsa. The Kuntress
ha-Teshuvot he-H adash, which has a bibliographical descrip-
231
responsa
tion and their customs, the internal organization of the communities and relationship between them, and social, cultural,
economic, and communal and private life.
Outwardly, this responsa literature was a continuation
of that of the previous centuries arranging the facts, clarifying the problem in all its aspects, and finally coming to the
appropriate conclusion. Internally, however, changes took
place in the content of the responsum. Discussions on matters of faith and belief and on philosophical views decreased,
and were replaced by practical problems. There was also an
increase in questions on the exposition of talmudic topics and
on theoretical problems raised by the commentators, and on
contradictions between halakhic rulings. It is from this century that the responders are referred to as *ah aronim, and
they generally accept as binding the conclusions of the earlier
rishonim. In matters already discussed by the rishonim, the
main discussion was whether the data of the ah aronim accorded with those of the rishonim, since only if there was such
a correspondence was the conclusion of the rishonim binding.
As a result of the examination of cases for this purpose, and
because of the need to seek new solutions not given by the rishonim, the responsa became longer by the addition of novellae
and complicated argumentation which could be followed only
by a scholar, and they lost much of the simplicity and clarity
that characterized the early responsa. The large number of new
centers, the great number of problems, the lack of one central
authority for Jewry as had formerly existed in Erez Israel and
Babylon, the extension of national and international trade,
and the closely guarded principle of not resorting to gentile
courts resulted in a broadening, deepening, and extension of
the responsa literature to such huge dimensions that to date
it numbers no less than some 250,000 responsa.
The list which follows, though it gives only the most outstanding and the most famous authors of responsa in the various centers from the 16t century, nevertheless numbers some
hundreds. In some cases it notes unusual responsa.
The Turn of the 16t Century
COUNTRIES UNDER TURKISH RULE. While the oldest authors of responsa in the 16t century belonged to the previous century, their main responsa activity belongs to the 16t
century. Among them are Elijah *Mizrah i (Reem), rabbi in
Constantinople; Moses b. Isaac *Alashkar, dayyan in Cairo
and then in Jerusalem; Jacob b. Moses Berab II (Ri-Berav;
14751546) in Safed; *Levi b. Jacob b. H abib in Jerusalem;
*David b. Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz) in Egypt; and
Joseph *Caro in Safed.
ITALY. To this generation belong Meir b. Isaac *Katzenellenbogen (Maharam) of Padua and Isaac Joshua b. Emanuel
*Lattes, a contemporary of Joseph Caro, rabbi of Bologna and
Ferrara, whose responsa were published in 1860 in Vienna.
The end of the volume (pp. 139140) gives the text of the authorizations given to two young women in Mantua in 1556 to
practice sheh itah, and states that Jewish women are accustomed to study the laws of sheh itah.
232
responsa
excessive prices charged by the fishmonger (no. 28); Aaron
Samuel b. Israel *Koidonover, rabbi of Brest-Litovsk and
Frankfurt; Jacob b. Aaron *Sasportas of Amsterdam and Hamburg; Z evi Hirsch b. Jacob *Ashkenazi (the H akham Z evi);
Jacob b. Joseph *Reischer of Prague and Metz; Ezekiel b. Abraham Katzenellenbogen (1668?1749; see *Katzenellenbogen
Family) of Koidanov (Dzerzhinsk) and the joint communities of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck and author of the
responsa Keneset Yeh ezkiel (Altona, 1733); and Jonah b. Elijah
*Landsofer of Prague.
ITALY. There were Issachar Baer b. Israel Leiser Parnas Eilenburg of Gorizia; Leone (Judah Aryeh) *Modena; Moses b.
Mordecai *Zacuto of Venice and Mantua; and Samuel b. Abraham *Aboab of Verona and Venice.
EREz ISRAEL, THE BALKANS, AND NORTH AFRICA. Responders included Jehiel b. H ayyim Basan (15501625), author of the responsa Mahari Basan (Constantinople, 1737);
Jacob b. Israel ha-Levi of Salonika and Xanthe; Joseph b.
Moses *Trani (Maharit), Moses b. Nissim Benveniste, and
Abraham b. Solomon *Alegre all in Constantinople; Jacob
b. H ayyim *Alfandari; Joseph b. Saul *Escapa (responsa Ri
Escapa, Frankfurt on the Oder, 1709), H ayyim b. Israel *Benveniste, and Aaron b. Isaac *Lapapa all in Smyrna; Jacob
(Israel) b. Samuel *H agiz, Moses b. Solomon ibn *H abib, and
Abraham b. David *Yiz h aki, Rishon le-Zion and author of
the Zera Avraham (Pt. 1, Constantinople, 1732; Pt. 2, Smyrna,
1733) all in Jerusalem.
EGYPT. There were, all in Cairo, *Mordecai b. Judah ha-Levi;
*Abraham b. Mordecai ha-Levi; and Joseph b. Moses ha-Levi
Nazir (see Moses ha-Levi *Nazir), author of responsa Matteh
Yosef (Pt. 1, Constantinople, 1717; Pt. 2, 1726).
SALONIKA. There were H ayyim *Shabbetai (the MaHaRH aSH),
who wrote responsa on Even ha-Ezer with a Kunteres Agunot (Salonika, 1651) and also responsa Torat H ayyim on the
other three parts of the Shulh an Arukh (ibid., 171322); Daniel *Estrosa; Solomon b. Aaron H ason (16051667), called
the younger to distinguish him from his grandfather of
the same name), who was author of the responsa Beit Shelomo
(Salonika, 1720), and some of whose responsa were published
in the collection Mishpatim Yesharim (ibid., 1732) together
with those of *Samuel b. Ali Gaon; Shabbetai Jonah (Shai
la-Mora, Salonika, 1653); Baruch *Angel; Aaron b. H ayyim
Abraham ha-Kohen *Perah yah; H asdai b. Samuel ha-Kohen
*Perah yah; Elijah b. Judah Covo (d. 1689; see *Covo Family);
H ayyim b. Benjamin *Asael; Solomon b. Joseph *Amarillo;
and Joseph b. Shemaiah Covo (c. 16601721; see *Covo Family).
233
responsa
Especially recognizable in the second half of this century is
the influence of emancipation, which brought about the abolition of the judicial autonomy of the Jews and deprived rabbinic courts of the legal powers they had previously possessed.
As a result, applications to Jewish courts on monetary matters declined, and the responsa on topics belonging to H oshen
Mishpat decreased. Such responsa as do occur on these topics
are due to the fact that some Jews still preferred to bring their
financial disputes to the rabbinical courts, although a number
of responsa deal with hypothetical problems in this branch of
Jewish law, as in other sections. On the other hand there was
an increase in responsa on problems arising from the discoveries of technology and from the Reform and national movements, a number of which will be indicated.
POLAND AND LITHUANIA (UNDER RUSSIA). There were
Menahem Mendel *Schneersohn of Lubavich; Isaac Elhanan
*Spektor of Kovno; Naphtali Z evi Judah *Berlin of Volozhin;
and Samuel *Mohilewer in Bialystok.
GERMANY (INCLUDING MORAVIA, HUNGARY, AND GALICIA). There were Eleazer b. David *Fleckeles of Prague; Mordecai b. Abraham *Banet of Nikolsburg; and Akiva b. Moses
Guens *Eger of Posen. Moses *Sofer of Pressburg wrote responsa which reflect the spirit of the time and the changes that
had occurred in German Jewry, including discussions on the
permissibility of an organ in the synagogue (H M 192); whether
one may sell ones body to assist the study of medicine (YD
326); Jews in a non-Jewish army (Pt. 6, no. 29); whether a rabbi
who preaches heresy should be removed from office (H M 162,
207); the opening of ones business on the Sabbath (OH 195);
and on prayer in the vernacular (H M 192, 193). There were also
Ephraim Zalman *Margolioth of Brody; Judah b. Israel *Aszod
of Semnitz and Sordihel, author of the responsa Yehudah
Yaaleh (Pt. 1, Lemberg, 1873, and Pt. 2, Pressburg, 1880); Jacob
Meshullam b. Mordecai Zeev *Ornstein, rabbi in Zolkiew and
Lemberg, author of responsa Yeshuot Yaakov (Piotrkow, 1906);
Solomon *Kluger of Brody; H ayyim Halberstamm (17931876)
of Zans; Joseph Saul *Nathanson of Lemberg; Isaac Meir b.
Israel Alter (17891866) of Gur (see *Gora Kalwaria); Z evi
Hirsch *Chajes in Kalisz; Abraham Samuel Sofer (see Moses
*Sofer) in Pressburg; Israel (Azriel) *Hildesheimer in Berlin;
Isaac *Schmelkes of Berezhany and Lemberg, whose responsa
discuss whether a telegram may be given to a gentile for dispatch on the Sabbath if it has been written out before the Sabbath (OH 57) and whether electric lamps may be used for the
H anukkah lights (YD 120); Samuel *Ehrenfeld; Abraham Bornstein (18391910) of *Sochaczew, author of the responsa Avnei Nez er on the Shulh an Arukh (OH in 2 pts., Piotrkow, 1912;
YD, Pt. 1, Warsaw, 1913, Pt. 2, Warsaw, 1914; EH, Lodz, 1926);
Isaac Jacob *Reines of Lida; David Z evi *Hoffmann of Berlin;
Mordecai Horowitz (18441910) of Frankfurt; Jacob David
*Willowski (the Ridbaz), rabbi in Russia, Chicago, and Safed
and author of the responsa Ha-Ridbaz (Vilna, 1881); Shalom
Mordecai Schwadron in Berezhany; and Samuel b. Zeev Wolf
Engel (18531935), rabbi of *Radomysl and *Kosice, and au-
234
responsa
rize the rich harvest of responsa literature in the last 70 years,
it must therefore be divided into two periods: until the 1930s,
i.e., when Europe was still the spiritual center of world Jewry;
and after the Holocaust, when it passed to Israel.
EASTERN EUROPE. Responders include David Dov b. Aryeh
Jacob *Meisels (the Radad) of Lask, author of responsa on
the Even ha-Ezer (Piotrkow, 1903) and on the Orah H ayyim
(ibid., 1905); Aryeh Judah Jacob b. David Dov Meisels, rabbi
of Lask, author of H edvat Yaakov (Piotrkow, 1919); Z evi David
Shapira of Dynow, rabbi and H asidic rabbi in Javornik, author of the Z evi la-Z addik (Bilgoraj, 1936); Abraham Menahem b. Meir ha-Levi Steinberg (18471928), of Sniatyn and
Brody, and author of the Mah azeh Avraham (Pt. 1, Brody 1927,
on Orah H ayyim; Pt. 2, New York, 1964), on the four parts
of the Shulh an Arukh; Aryeh Leib *Horowitz of Stanislav;
Meir b. Aaron Judah Arik (18551926) of Jaslowice, Buchach
and Tarnow, the author of the Imrei Yosher (Pt. 1, Munkacz,
1913, and Pt. 2, Cracow, 1925); H ayyim Ozer *Grodzinski of
Vilna; Joseph *Rozin (Rosen), the Rogachower of Dvinsk
(Daugavpils), who in his responsa Z afenat Paneah discusses
a marriage entered into for the sole purpose of obtaining a legal marriage certificate (Pt. 1, no. 5), a synagogue that would
be permitted to exist only if the children went to the Tarbut
school where bare-headed boys and girls studied together
(Pt. 2, no. 15), and whether photographed scrolls of the Torah
are sacred (Pt. 2, no. 26); Judah Leib *Zirelson (18591941)
of Kishinev, who rules that a synagogue reader may not be
removed because his daughter has converted from Judaism
(Az ei ha-Levanon, no. 1); H ayyim Zeev Eleazar Shapiro of
Munkacz; Dov Berish b. Jacob Weidenfeld (18811965) of Trzebin, author of Dovev Meisharim (Pt. 1, Trebin, 1937; reprinted
with Pt. 2, Jerusalem, 1958); Judah Meir b. Jacob Samson Shapiro (18861934) of Lublin, author of Or ha-Meir (Piotrkow,
1926); Jehiel Jacob *Weinberg in Pilwiszki and Berlin, whose
responsa dealing with new problems include the permissibility of the stunning of animals before sheh itah (Pt. 1, nos.
116), the permissibility of hastening the death of the animal
after sheh itah (pt. 1), changing from the Ashkenazi to the Sephardi pronunciation (Pt. 2, no. 5), whether a non-Orthodox
rabbi may be permitted to lecture in an Orthodox synagogue
(no. 13), womens suffrage (52), whether fire-proof glass (pyrex) may be used for both meat and milk dishes (76), lecturing on talmudic topics in a gentile college (92), the law with
regard to a convert to Judaism who cannot be circumcised
because of the condition of his heart (102), transplanting of a
cornea from a dead person (129), and whether the bat mitzvah ceremony may be permitted for girls; and Jacob Avigdor
(18961968) of Drogobych, Borislav, and Mexico, author of
Abbir Yaakov (Piotrkow, 1934).
235
responsa
United States
Among the authors of responsa in the United States may be
mentioned Moses *Feinstein of New York; a survivor of the
concentration camps, Ephraim Oshry (19142003) in his MiMaamakim (New York, 1959) also deals with the problems of
the Holocaust. He discusses the case of the Nazis forcing a
Jew to tear and desecrate a scroll of the law (no. 1); whether
garments stripped from the murdered martyrs may be used
(3); whether one forced to cook on the Sabbath by Nazis may
himself eat of the food because of danger to life (5); whether
a Jew might read a page of Talmud to a Nazi who wished to
ascertain its contents (14); whether a Jew may save his life by
purchasing a certificate of conversion (15); the prohibition
of leaven on Passover in the ghetto (18); the directive of the
Nazis that any woman found to be pregnant should be killed
with her fetus (18); and whether in view of this the inducing
of abortion is permitted (20); and the case of a woman taken
to a brothel and on whose arm was engraved: a harlot for
Hitlers troops (27).
Recourse to rabbinic responsa is not confined to observant Jews. Reform Jews in the United States have recently developed a responsa literature, as evidenced by the eight volumes of responsa (196090), published in English by S.B.
*Freehof.
Of the considerable number of volumes of responsa published from the late 1960s through the early 1970s, mostly in
Israel, the majority are new editions of responsa which were
out of print. Of those published for the first time the following may be mentioned:
Sheerit Simh ah (Jerusalem, 1969) by S. Bamberger, rabbi
of Stuttgart, which includes the responsa of his father, Rabbi
Seckel Isaac of Kissingen.
Be-Ein H azon (Jerusalem, 1969), anonymous, deals with
topical halakhic problems. Appended is an exchange of correspondence between Rabbis E. *Wasserman and A. *Karelitz, the author of H azon Ish, on a number of these topics. Responsa 14 discuss participation in elections to the Knesset:
No. 5, participation in elections to urban and local councils;
No. 8, the status and authority of the Council of Torah Scholars (Moez et Gedolei ha-Torah) according to the halakhah;
No. 9, whether visiting the Western Wall is a religious obligation and whether the day of the liberation of Jerusalem is to
be regarded as a day of religious thanksgiving.
Az Nidberu Pt. II (Bene-Berak, 1970) by R. Benjamin
Joshua Silver discusses inter alia the carrying of arms on the
Sabbath (no. 44) and the permissibility of purchasing goods
manufactured in Germany (77).
Responsa Shevet ha-Levi (Tel Aviv, 1970) by S. Wozner
deals inter alia with medical injections (no. 61) and the use of
a loudspeaker on the Sabbath (66).
Responsa ha-Rabakh (Jerusalem, 1970) by R. Benjamin
ha-Kohen of Reggio, edited by former Chief Rabbi Isaac *Nissim.
Part 4 of Mekor H ayyim (1972) by R. H aim David Halevi,
Sephardi chief rabbi of Rishon le-Zion.
Hitherto responsa collections have been those of individual rabbis, but the present century, and particularly recent
years, have witnessed a new departure in responsa literature;
236
of war (pt. 3, no. 9), shipping (Pt. 4, no. 5), and the right to
strike (Pt. 2, no. 23); Ovadiah *Yosef, chief rabbi of Tel AvivJaffa, who discusses inter alia the use of the telephone and refrigerators on the Sabbath; Joshua Menahem b. Isaac Aryeh
Ehrenberg, head of the Tel Aviv bet din and author of Devar
Yehoshua (Pt. 1, Jerusalem, 1970), who discusses whether the
victims of mass murders by the Nazis may be exhumed and
reburied in a proper cemetery (no. 25). Others are Mordecai
Fogelman (b. 1899), rabbi in Kiryat Motzkin, who in his responsa Beit Mordekhai (Jerusalem, 1971) deals with problems
that arose in Erez Israel after the Six-Day War: e.g., whether
the blessing (She-Heh eyanu) should be recited when visiting
the Western Wall (no. 23); and whether immigrants arriving
after the Six-Day War were obliged to recite the blessing for
the Land of Israel (no. 28). H ayyim David Halevi (b. 1929),
rabbi of Rishon le-Zion, wrote responsa Mekor H ayyim, 1 (Tel
Aviv, 1967), 2 (ibid., 1968), 3 (ibid., 1970), as well as Bein Yisrael
la-Amim (ibid., 1968) on the subject of religion and state, and
also dealing with topics relating to the post-Six-Day War era;
whether on seeing the Temple Mount after its liberation one
must rend his garment (vol. 2, no. 95); when tourists visiting
Israel are obliged to recite the blessing on the establishment
of the state (ibid.); whether there is an obligation to make the
pilgrimage on the three pilgrim festivals despite the fact that
the temple has not been rebuilt (ibid.); halakhot on the questions of national security, such as military training and selfdefense (vol. 2, no. 99); whether it is permitted to travel on
the Sabbath in a ship with a Jewish crew (vol. 2, no. 172); the
laws of warfare on the Sabbath (no. 173); automatic lifts, trains,
underground trains, and allowing a radar receiver to remain
in operation during the Sabbath (no. 174).
In all post-World War II works of responsa, many queries
are found that arose among observant Jews, despite the inhuman and unbearable conditions which they suffered in the
ghettos and concentration camps. Indeed there are complete
works written by rabbis who themselves suffered in the concentration camps and were eyewitnesses to all that transpired.
After their liberation they noted down the halakhic problems
that had arisen or questions asked by prisoners, and reported
the halakhic solutions they found for all these problems. To
this category of responsa belongs Me-Emek ha-Bakha (Jerusalem, 1948) and Mi-Gei ha-Haregah (ibid., 1961) of Simeon b.
Yekutiel Ephrati, rabbi of Bendery (Bessarabia), and of Warsaw
after the Holocaust, and later head of the kashrut department
of the Israel chief rabbinate. Among the problems dealt with
in the latter work are whether it was murder when the mouth
of a child was closed while in a bunker to prevent the Nazis
hearing it crying, and the child died (no. 1); whether the ashes
of those burnt by the Nazis may be put on show (no. 9); and
the status of sites where Jews killed by the Nazis were buried
in a common grave (no. 11).
responsa
the appearance of periodicals devoted exclusively or largely
to the clarification of practical and topical halakhic problems,
with special stress on the solution of problems arising from
new circumstances. The oldest of these, Ha-Pardes, a monthly,
was founded in Poland in 1913, moved to Chicago in 1925, and
is at present published in New York. The editorial policy of
the non-halakhic section reflects the extreme right-wing Orthodox attitude, which can be seen in the halakhic sections
as well. Among the topics dealt with are the use of the loudspeaker on the Sabbath (Vol. 5), civil marriages (12), adoption
of children (1946. 3), and whether it is permitted to pray in the
Cave of Machpelah since it is now a mosque (1968. 1).
Ha-Torah ve-ha-Medinah (1949 ) is, as its title suggests,
devoted particularly to the clarification of halakhic problems
in the State of Israel and particularly those arising from its
establishment. Thus, among the topics discussed in Volume 1
are the right of extending clemency to those sentenced by the
courts of Israel, the authority of the president and the institutions of elected government: the legal status of spoils of war.
Vol. 4 (1952) discusses the rights of women according to the
halakhah and enlistment of women in the armed forces: Vol.
56, security measures in the state on the Sabbath and festivals; Vol. 78, the powers of municipal authorities according
to the halakhah (63); Vol. 1113 (19602), the religious duty
of aliyah (immigration to Israel) and the prohibition against
leaving Israel; the liability of rabbis to taxation.
Or ha-Mizrah (1959 ), issued by the Mizrachi of the
United States, is more or less a Diaspora equivalent of HaTorah ve-ha-Medinah. Among the problems dealt with are:
Vol. 1 (1959), No. 34, p. 42 war in the light of the Torah;
Vol. 2, No. 11, p. 3 traveling on a ship on the Sabbath that
is manned by Jews; Vol. 3, No. 34, p. 4 use of a corpse for
plastic surgery; Vol. 4, No. 2, p. 13 the halakhic status of Gaza
and Sinai; No. 34, p. 35 the determination of paternity; Vol.
5, No. 2, p. 17 the Karaites; Vol. 6, No. 1, p. 3 the halakhic
definition of a Jew; Vol. 9, No. 34, p. 38 whether one may
buy a house in Israel from a gentile on the Sabbath; Vol. 10,
No. 34, p. 23 transporting immigrants on the Sabbath; Vol.
16, No. 2, p. 92 relations between employee and employer;
Vol. 17, No. 3, p. 105 the right to cede areas of Erez Israel liberated in the Six-Day War; Vol. 18, No. 4, p. 251 halakhah
appertaining to these areas.
Unlike the above two works, which appear under the
aegis of a public body, the Mizrachi-Ha-Poel ha-Mizrachi,
Noam (1959 ), a platform for the clarification of halakhic
problems, is a venture of the Torah Shelemah Institute of
Jerusalem, and its scope is much wider. Among the practical
problems dealt with are the use of the birth control pill (11.
167), heart transplants (13. 1), the transplanting of kidneys and
artificial kidneys (14. 308), artificial insemination (29), and
even whether the laws of the Torah are applicable to the Jew
on the moon (13. 196).
Ha-Darom (1957 ), published by the Rabbinical Council of America, discusses such problems as whether a h azzan
from Israel may officiate on the Second Day of the Festival
237
[Shlomo Tal]
responsa
1968 by Rabbi Joseph Buxbaum. It inaugurated a series of programs centered around the responsa literature.
Ashkenazi works. In addition to ongoing publishing activities, the Mifal H akhmei Ashkenaz (The Writings of the Jewish Sages of Medieval Germany) program has devoted itself
to publishing from manuscript, early editions, and sources,
the responsa and minhag literature of the rabbis of Germany
from the middle of the 14t until the 16t century. Prior to the
inception of this program, only five responsa texts from this
period had been published, and even they were defective and
corrupt.
Sephardi works. The Mifal Or Hamizrah (The Writings of
the Great Sephardi Rabbis) program was founded by Rabbi
Ovadiah Yosef in 1976 to publish the manuscripts of Sephardi
rabbis (primarily responsa) dating from the expulsion from
Spain until the 19t century.
The institute also publishes responsa texts from manuscripts not included in the above programs.
RABBINIC COURT DECISIONS. The responsa literature is primarily composed of expert halakhic opinions and decisions
of the battei din (rabbinic courts). The present-day Israeli
counterpart of this latter feature is the collection of Piskei Din
Rabbaniyyim (Rabbinic Court Decisions), edited by Rabbi
Dov Katz (Vol. 1, 1954; 11 volumes to date). Since Rabbinic
courts in Israel have jurisdiction in Family Law, most of the
material belongs to this subject.
The Beth Din of London has also issued several important decisions in pamphlet form.
Literary Projects Based upon Responsa
Many literary projects and research institutes make extensive
use of responsa for various purposes. The following is a partial listing according to fields of interest.
RABBINICS. Among the literary programs making extensive
use of the responsa for rabbinic and talmudic studies, the Talmudic Encyclopedia (founded in Jerusalem, 1947) has reached
volume 26, up to the letter yod. The encyclopedia contains
entries covering halakhic topics, from the Bible through the
talmudic literature and its commentaries, to the early and
later codes, and the relevant responsa sources. It is also available on CD.
Oz ar Ha-Posekim, also founded in Jerusalem in 1947,
aims at producing a digest of all extant Rabbinic Responsa
bearing upon Jewish Law and ritual, arranged in the order of
the Shulh an Arukh. It concentrates in particular on the Even
ha-Ezer section of the Shulh an Arukh which deals with Family
Law due to the urgency of resolving problems in this sphere
created in the wake of the Holocaust, the Ingathering of the
Exiles into the Land of Israel, and the jurisdiction given to
the rabbinic court in Israel in the realm of Family Law and
19 volumes have been published to date. It is available on CDHalachic Responsa Treasury; texts are only in Hebrew.
Kovez ha-Posekim uses the format of Oz ar ha-Posekim
but is centered on the H oshen Mishpat section dealing with
238
Nokhn Geretenish (1929); and Der Veg tsu Yisroel (1950); and
several plays. His one novel in Hebrew, Nah alat Z evi (1958),
evokes the tragic era of Polish Jewry before the Holocaust.
Individual Reparations
RESTITUTION LAWS. After the collapse of Nazi Germany in
World War II the Western occupying powers obligated the
holders of property which had come into their possession by
unlawful means to restore it to the rightful owners. Since the
Reich no longer existed, the measures taken were notably inadequate as they did not apply to the Reich as the former legal entity which perpetrated the crimes and was therefore responsible for restitution. Furthermore, there was no access to
most of the plundered property. As a result, in Article IV, Part
3 of the Ueberleitungsvertrag (the agreement with the Western
Powers on the establishment of the German Federal Republic,
May 26, 1952), the Federal Republic undertook to provide a
remedy. For this purpose it issued a special law on July 10, 1957,
the Federal Restitution Law (Gesetz zur Regelung der rueckerstattungsrechtlichen Verbindlichkeiten des Deutschen Reiches
und gleichgestellter Rechtstraeger BRue -G).
The Federal Indemnification Law (Bundesentschaedigungsgesetz BEG). The restitution of property to its rightful owner did not, of course, necessarily repair the damage
inflicted by the Reichs criminal acts. Life, health, liberty, and
livelihood could not be restored. In the first instance the German Laender attempted to provide a solution to the problem, but this uneven arrangement was eventually replaced by
the Federal Supplementary Law (Bundesergaenzungsgesetz
BE rg -G), of Sept. 18, 1953, a uniform law applicable to the entire Federal Republic enacted by the German government in
fulfillment of its obligations under the Luxembourg Agreement of Sept. 10, 1952 (see *Reparations, German) and the
Hague Protocols. The BE rg -G was later improved upon by the
BEG Federal Indemnification Law of June 29, 1956, which
was further revised and finalized in the BEG Final Law of
Sept. 14, 1965. This federal legislation provides indemnification
for the victims of national socialism subjected to Nazi persecution for race, religion, or political views and incurring loss
of life, injury to health, deprivation of liberty, loss of property,
and damage to professional or economic advancement. German restitution was complemented by additional laws which
were also based on the Hague Protocols.
The following are the more important laws in this category: law of reparations to public servants persecuted by the
Nazis (Gesetz zur Regelung der Wiedergutmachung national-sozialistischen Unrechts fuer Angehoerige des oeffentlichen Dienstes; BWG oe -D) of April 1, 1951 (several revisions, final version
Dec. 15, 1965). In the versions passed on March 18, 1952 and
Dec. 23, 1955, this law also applies to claimants living abroad.
Paragraph 31d of the law, in compliance with the Hague Pro-
239
[Menahem Slae]
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(191718), 33966; 9 (191819), 13979; 10 (191920), 12151, 30965;
11 (192021), 43371; S. Assaf, Tekufat ha-Geonim ve-Sifrutah (1955),
21120; idem, in: Tarbiz, 8 (1937), 16270; S.B. Freehof, The Responsa
Literature (1955); idem, A Treasury of Responsa (1963); idem, Recent
Reform Responsa (1963); idem, Current Reform Responsa (1969); S.
Abramson, Ba-Merkazim u-va-Tefuz ot bi-Tekufat ha-Geonim (1965),
45, 94, 101; idem, in: Sinai: Sefer Yovel (1958), 40317; B.D. Weinryb,
in: Essays Presented to Israel Brodie (1967), 399417. N. Rakover,
Oz ar ha-Mishpat (A Bibliography of Jewish Law) (Jerusalem, 1975),
115 (Responsa), and by topical index; Y. Choueka, M. Slae and S.
Spiro, in: Proceedings of the Associations of Orthodox Jewish Scientists
5 (1979), 1966; Y. Choueka, A. Schreiber, and M. Slae, in: Legaland
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OF THE 16t CENTURY: I.Z. Cahana, in: Bar-Ilan, 1 (1963), 27081;
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resurrection
tocols, also provides for relief to former employees of Jewish
communities and other public institutions (cf. the two relevant
regulations, dated July 6, 1956 and (April 2, 1963); a law for the
redress of National-Socialist Party injustices concerning the
relief for war victims (final version June 25, 1958), and the same
law for claimants living abroad (final version, June 25, 1958): a
law providing rights to social insurance for victims (Aug. 22,
1949) with many subsequent revisions; a law on insurance for
employees (Feb. 23, 1957 plus revisions); a law on revised regulations for the payment of social insurance benefits to foreigners and persons living abroad (FANG) dated Feb. 25, 1960; and
the revised law on social insurance benefits of June 9, 1965,
Dec. 23, 1966, and May 8, 1967. Article X of the BEG-Final Law
contains a clause for continuing insurance, apart from past
restitution payments; the 11t enactment regulation of the Lastenausgleichsgesetz (LAG law for the equalization of burdens),
passed on Dec. 18, 1956, and revised on Sept. 17, 1957, and Feb.
28, 1961, is also based upon the Luxembourg Agreement and
the Hague Protocols. It provides indemnification to victims
of Nazi persecution under certain conditions not specified by
the BEG and the BRue -G because of the territorial provisions
of these laws. Heirless and unclaimed property and the property of disbanded Jewish communities and other institutions
(foundations and the like) were to be turned over to the successor organizations in the former American Zone to the
Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO), and in the
former British and later also the former French Zone, to the
Jewish Trust Corporation for Germany (JTS).
Collective Reparations
The German Federal Republic also made global agreements
with certain states and provided certain funds to indemnify
the citizens of these states who suffered under Nazi persecution. Such agreements were concluded with Luxembourg,
Norway, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, France, Belgium,
Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
and Sweden. The total payments made under these agreements
amounted to DM972,000,000 ($243,000,000).
For bibliography and further developments, see *Reparations, German, and *Conference on Jewish Material Claims.
[Harry Knopf]
RESURRECTION (Heb. ) , the belief that ultimately the dead will be revived in their bodies and live again
on earth. Resurrection is to be distinguished from the belief
in some sort of personal existence in another realm after death
(see *Afterlife) or in the immortality of the *soul. A major tenet
of Jewish eschatology alongside the *Messiah, belief in resurrection is firmly attested from Maccabean times, enjoined as
an article of faith in the Mishnah (Sanh. 10:1), and included as
the second benediction of the Amidah and as the last of Maimonides 13 principles of faith.
In the Bible
The standard biblical view of death took it as mans final state
(cf. II Sam. 14:14). Aside from such anomalies as Enoch and
240
Elijah who were taken by God (Gen. 5:24; II Kings 2:1), the
common lot of all men, as it was then conceived, is aptly described in Job 7:79:
Remember that my life is a breath;
My eye will not again see good
A cloud dissolves and it is gone;
So is one who descends to Sheol;
He will not ascend.
resurrection
In the Bible, similar figures are applied to the people of
Israel in Ezekiel 37:114 (the vision of dry bones, which the
tanna R. Judah classed as an allegory (Rashi: An allusion to
the Exile as a dead man come to life the Israelites would return from Exile): Sanh. 92b) and in Isaiah 53:8ff. (the suffering and dying servant of YHWH).
The idea of resurrection proper makes its first clear and
datable appearance in Daniel 12:23. In a future time of great
trouble (an allusion to Antiochus IVs persecution), a deliverance will come:
And many of those who sleep in the dusty earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, others to everlasting reproach
and contempt. Then the knowledgeable shall shine like the
brightness of the sky; those who justified the many, like the
stars, forever and ever.
That is to say, the generation of the persecution, whose
wicked members escaped punishment and whose loyal members died without enjoying a reward for their devotion, would
be called back to life to receive their just deserts. Traditional
theodicy, explaining national distress as the product of sin,
was incapable of consoling the pious victims of Antiochus
agents, for this time it was precisely the righteous who died,
while apostates flourished. The anguish of the moment was
assuaged by the belief that in the coming deliverance the injustice perpetrated on earth would be rectified by a judgment
rendered to the deceased, called back to life on earth for the
purpose.
Isaiah 26:19 speaks in similar terms and in a context of
world judgment: Your dead shall live, my dead bodies shall
arise awake and sing you who dwell in the earth! for your
dew is as the dew of light, and the earth shall bring to life the
shades. Whether this is indeed the later concept of resurrection rather than the earlier, figurative image of restoration is
arguable. Critics tend to the first view, dating the passage to
Hellenistic times.
Later Jewish exegesis, influenced by the Jewish doctrine
of resurrection (see below), read it back into many of the
above-cited passages, and others as well. Thus, e.g., the waking in which the beatific vision of Psalms 17:15 occurs was
explained by Rashi as the resurrection (for the plain sense a
cultic experience cf. Ps. 27:4; 63:3; and esp. Ex. 24:11). Often
enough, however, medieval exegetes give the plain (figurative)
sense in addition and prior to the resurrectional one: see Ibn
Ezra to Deuteronomy 32:39; David Kimh i to I Samuel 2:6 and
Ezekiel 37:1. Their reserve and sobriety contrasts with M. Dahoods wholesale adoption of the resurrectional interpretation
in most of the above-cited Psalm passages, in addition to many
others in which long enduring life of royal prayers (e.g., Ps.
21:5; cf. the royal prayers in Pritchard, Texts, 383d, 394a, 397c)
and the future of the righteous (often meaning progeny as
in Ps. 109:13) are whimsically and uncritically combined and
offered as evidence of an early Israelite belief in resurrection
and immortality (M. Dahood fails to distinguish between the
two; Psalms, 3 (1970), xlilii).
[Moshe Greenberg]
Rabbinic Period
In the rabbinic period the doctrine of the resurrection of
the dead is considered one of the central doctrines of Judaism. The tenth chapter of Mishnah Sanhedrin begins, All of
Israel has a portion in the world to come, as it is said (Isa.
60:21) And Thy people are all righteous, at the End they shall
inherit the land and the following have no portion in the
world to come: one who says, There is no resurrection of the
dead. George Foot Moore in Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era (2 (1950), 323) asserts It must be
further observed that, except on the single article of the revivification of the dead, there was no dogma and no canon
of orthodoxy in this whole field [eschatology]. This dogma
was one of the important points of dispute between the Sadducees and Pharisees (see Jos., Wars, 2:163; Ant., 18:16; ARN1
5, 14). The rabbis included belief in the resurrection in the canonical liturgy especially in the second of the 18 benedictions of the Amidah.
The doctrine of the resurrection seems to embody two
significant areas: (1) the idea of retribution and reward for the
Jewish nation as a whole and not merely for individuals; and
(2) the idea that body and soul are a single indivisible unit,
both essential and equal in the constitution of a human being. These two ideas may have developed, or achieved prominence, at different stages in the development of the doctrine
(see below).
As to the first point, in the Israelite worldview the ultimate redemption was always a redemption of the whole people. The prophets predicted a future time when there will be
peace, justice, and righteousness in the world. This reward
would seem to come, then, only to those living at the time of
the redemption. The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead
enables righteous souls throughout history to have a share in
the world to come (olam ha-ba). As Moore points out (ibid.,
31112) the Greek religion was individualistic and needed a
doctrine of immortality for the soul, in which the individual
was rewarded or punished, but Jewish religion posited a reconstituted nation as the arena of retribution.
The second point is somewhat more sophisticated. A rabbinic parable, however, makes it crystal clear (Sanh. 91ab):
Antoninus said to Rabbi, The body and soul could exonerate themselves from judgment. How is this so? The body
says, The soul sinned, for from the day that it separated from
me, lo, I am like a silent stone in the grave! And the soul says,
The body is the sinner, for from the day that I separated from
it, lo, I fly in the air like a bird. He answered him, I will tell
you a parable. To what is the matter likened? To a king of flesh
and blood who had a beautiful orchard and there were in it
lovely ripe fruit, and he placed two guardians over it, one a
cripple and the other blind. Said the cripple to the blind man,
I see beautiful ripe fruit in the orchard. Come and carry me
and we will bring and eat them. The cripple rode on the back
of the blind man and they brought and ate them. After a while
the owner of the orchard came and said to them, Where is
my lovely fruit? The cripple answered, Do I have legs to go?
241
resurrection
Answered the blind man, Do I have eyes to see? What did he
do? He placed the cripple on the back of the blind man and
judged them as one so also the Holy Blessed One brings the
soul and throws it into the body and judges them as one.
Neither body nor soul alone can sin or be righteous,
so only the two together can be judged and punished or rewarded. Again the comparison with the Greek idea, in which
the soul is the whole personality and the body merely its
house, is instructive.
The idea of resurrection, then, for the rabbis was clearly
and literally corporeal. Among the questions concerning resurrection discussed in rabbinic literature are whether or not
the resurrected will have the same imperfect bodies as in this
life or perfect ones, how the bodies will travel to the Land of
Israel from the Diaspora, whether they will be clothed or naked, and the like (TJ, Kil. 9:4, 32c; TJ, Ket. 12:3, 35b; Ket. 11a;
Sanh. 90b; Eccl. R. 1:4). In the talmudic period and on into
modern times this idea has been taken so seriously and literally that pious Jews are often concerned about the clothes
they are buried in, the complete interment of all organs, and
being buried in Israel.
However, there is a serious problem in rabbinic literature
with regard to the historical, or rather meta-historical, position of the resurrection. Some sources seem to imply that it is
the final goal and thus last step in the eschaton, identical with
the world to come, while other sources seem to refer to a resurrection which precedes the final redemption, the world to
come. There even seem to be some sources which place the
world to come as a stage before the resurrection. Furthermore,
there are contradictions with regard to the question of who is
to be resurrected, some sources suggesting clearly that only
the righteous will be revived, others, that resurrection is the
lot of everyone.
Moore resolves these contradictions by suggesting a process of historical development from one set of ideas about the
resurrection and world to come to another, although he warns
that the periodization and use of terminology is not always
exact and consistent (Moore, Judaism, 2 (1946), 378ff.). In an
earlier stage the days of the Messiah, the world to come,
and the coming future all refer to the same period the final stage in the development of history. Thus, the righteous
dead (at this stage probably only of Israel) are revived to enjoy the benefits of a golden age in the Land of Israel. He states
that rabbinic homilies which assign to the world to come such
wordly, albeit exquisite, pleasures as eating the flesh of Leviathan and Behemoth, and cultivating infinitely fertile land
clearly belong to this earlier idea (which, indeed, persisted
alongside the latter; see references there).
In the second, later, stage of the development of the idea
it becomes only a preliminary moment in the eschaton.
Now the various terminologies are separated out and assigned to different periods. There are the Days of the Messiah, the golden age for the Jewish people, but this is now only
a preliminary stage. There follows a general resurrection of all
souls, which are then brought before the heavenly court. Now
242
resurrection
Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Among the medieval Jewish philosophers there were many
differences of opinion with regard to the resurrection. These
controversies depend for the most part on the fact that it was
not clear, or certainly not explicit, that there had been controversy in the talmudic period. Consequently some thinkers
accepted one of the talmudic opinions, and others contested
their views, without realizing that they were simply following
different sides of an old argument.
Saadiah Gaon (The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, 6:7)
maintains that the dead souls remain in a treasury until the
resurrection, when the righteous are resurrected. This constitutes the world to come. He follows, therefore, Finkelsteins
Shammaite view or Moores earlier view.
It was Maimonides, however, who made the most controversial statements in the Middle Ages regarding the resurrection. In his commentary on the first Mishnah of Sanhedrin 10,
he makes the seemingly self-contradictory statement that:
The resurrection is one of the foundations of the religion
of our teacher, Moses; there is no religion and no connection
with the Jewish nation for whoever does not believe in it, but
it is for the righteous but know that man will definitely die
and be separated into that of which he is composed.
Furthermore in the Mishneh Torah (Yad, Teshuvah, 8:2)
he maintains that, in the world to come there is no body,
rather the souls of the righteous alone without a body like the
ministering angels It is easy to see how readers of Maimonides became confused as to his true opinion, and indeed his
main critic Abraham b. David of Posquires takes him severely
to task: The words of this man seem to us to be close to one
who says that there is no resurrection for bodies, but only for
souls, and by my life this was not the opinion of our sages on
this for behold they said [Ket. 11b] in the future the righteous
will arise in their clothes and so they would command
their sons, do not bury me in white clothes or not in black
(Yad, Teshuvah, 8:2). Maimonides, however, in a later work,
Maamar Teh iyyat ha-Metim, The Essay on Resurrection (ed.
with an introduction by J. Finkel, in: PAAJR, 9 (1939), 61105
and Heb. section), clarified his opinion further, stating that of
course there will be a resurrection, but that the resurrection
will not be permanent, that it follows upon a period in which
the souls of the righteous are rewarded in the world to come,
and is followed again by the death of the resurrected and the
return of the righteous once more to the world to come, which
is their true reward. One of the classic commentators on Maimonides, in the Leh em Mishneh, remarks that Maimonides is
consistent in his view in that he holds that the world to come
and the resurrection are two distinct entities, and therefore
he wrote that in the world to come there is no body, it being
the fate of man immediately after death. He goes on to say,
The Ravad (Abraham ben David) his memory be blessed, believes that our teacher (Maimonides) holds that the world to
come is identical with the resurrection and therefore attacked
him because he (ben David) holds that the world to come
is the world of resurrection. This perceptive remark makes
it quite clear that once again, with some variations, the same
controversy that was found in the talmudic period is operative. Modern interpreters of Maimonides (as some of their
medieval predecessors) have raised a question concerning
his true attitude. Did he, as his words imply, believe literally
in the resurrection of the body, or did he, like some Muslim
Aristotelians, consider this belief merely a concession to the
understanding of the masses, while his true view is that the
afterlife consists only of the incorporeal intelligences of those
who have acquired theoretical knowledge in this life.
Nah manides in Torat ha-Adam (at the end of the chapter
Shaar ha-Gemul), discusses Maimonides view. He contends
that, in the opinion of the rabbis, the resurrection is the world
to come, but does not deny the existence of the souls of the
dead in heaven before the resurrection. He merely maintains,
in opposition to Maimonides, that this is not what is meant
by world to come. Moreover, Nah manides himself dismisses
this difference as merely a matter of terminology and says
that the important difference between his view and that of
his predecessor is that while Maimonides decrees death for
the Messiah and his generation, Nah manides allows them to
live forever. However, in answer to Maimonides contention
that there would be no purpose for the body in the world to
come, its only functions being mundane, he states that there
will be a mysteriously refined body, its functions being mystical and having to do with the fact that the body is a microcosm of the structure of the universe. Nah manides, it would
seem, if Finkelsteins view is correct, has created a synthesis
between the two rabbinic opinions.
H asdai Crescas seems to have been the first medieval
philosopher to realize clearly that there was a major difference
of opinion among the rabbis of the Talmud. He states, with
his characteristic clarity, that there are four questions with
regard to the resurrection: the first, will the resurrection be
complete or partial, and if partial, which part? the second, the
time of the resurrection? the third if they will die after their
rising or not? the fourth, if there will be in that time the day
of judgment, which our sages believe in? He states, particularly with regard to the second of these questions, that there
is controversy among the rabbis themselves, pointing to the
view of *Samuel that there is no difference between this world
and the days of the Messiah except that Israel will be free.
This, he says, necessitates the corollary that the resurrection
will take place after the days of the Messiah. He does not hold
(or rather does not realize, if Moore or Finkelstein is correct)
that the other questions depend to a greater or lesser degree
on the answer to this one, and therefore answers them definitely, holding that there will be a resurrection of all but the
greatest sinners, that there will be then a court of judgment,
and that the righteous will live forever in their refined bodies,
in accord with the view of Nah manides.
The common denominator of all the views so far discussed, except, perhaps, that of Maimonides, is that they all
stress the indivisibility of the body-soul unit for purposes of
the accountability of the human personality for its actions,
243
rethymnon
both good and bad. Whether it is understood that all people are resurrected for judgment, body and soul together, or
whether only the bodies of the righteous are resurrected to
enjoy the redemption, the central stress is the same. The human being is one essence, a unit, not merely a soul housed in
a body which itself is of no worth. The parable above of the
two guardians of the orchard is perhaps the best possible illustration of this idea.
Modern Period
In the modernistic versions of Judaism, the belief in resurrection was denied in favor of the seemingly more acceptable
doctrine of immortality. In the Pittsburgh Platform it was
expressly stated that the Reform movement rejects as ideas
not rooted in Judaism the beliefs both in bodily resurrection
and Gehinnom. This idea was reflected in American Reform
prayer books and in the prayer book of the Reconstructionist movement, where the statement affirming resurrection is
removed. In the European reform movements, the tendency
was to retain the traditional formula contained in the liturgy,
but to formulate the translation in such a way that it would
mean immortality and not resurrection (see J.J. Petuchowski,
Prayerbook Reform in Europe (1968), 215ff.).
There has been some sentiment in more traditional circles to retain the belief in resurrection, but rather than taking
it literally, to understand it as a symbol affirming that the ultimate salvation of the individual is dependent on God and that
what is fulfilled is the entire person both body and soul not
just the spiritual essence.
244
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245
In the Aggadah
Reuben is contrasted with Esau in order to demonstrate his
virtue. Whereas Esau looted and plundered the property of
others, Reuben demonstrated that he would only touch that
which was ownerless when he went to pick mandrakes (Gen.
30:14; Gen. R. 98:4). In fact Leah indicated this distinction
when she called him Reuben, i.e., reu bein (lit. mark [the
difference] between) Esau, who sold his birthright and hated
his brother (Gen. 27:41), and Reuben who lost his birthright
to Joseph, but nevertheless saved him from death (ibid., 37:21;
Ber. 7b). The sin of going up to his fathers bed (Gen. 49:4
and I Chron. 5:1) is minimized as much as possible and he is
specifically exonerated from any charge of incest (Shab. 55b).
After the death of Rachel, Jacob had allotted the now vacant
place of honor in his private quarters to the bed of Rachels
handmaid, Bilhah, and the verse is explained to mean that
Reuben saw this as a slight upon the honor of his mother
(Leah), and his sin consisted in removing Bilhahs bed (Gen.
R. 98:4). Moreover, the extent of his subsequent repentance
is commended, and was rewarded by the fact that one of his
descendants, Hosea, was the first prophet to exhort Israel to
return unto the Lord thy God (Hos. 14:2; Gen. R. 84:19). The
sincerity of his repentance also earned him a place in the world
to come (Sot. 7b), and by the fact that he is nevertheless specifically referred to in both Genesis 49:3 and I Chronicles 5:1
as the firstborn (Gen. R. 82:11). It was his prolonged acts of
penance which explains his absence at the time of the sale of
Joseph (Pal. Targ. Gen. 37:29). According to another source,
he was ministering to his father at the time (Gen. R. 84:4). His
attempt to save Joseph found divine recognition in the fact
that the first of the cities of refuge mentioned in Deuteronomy
4:43, was situated in the territory of his descendants (Gen. R.
84:15). He was, in fact, appointed the head of the children of
Israel in Egypt, after Jacobs death (Num. R. 13:8). He died at
the age of 125 (Yalk. Ex. 162).
Bibliography: E. Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstmme (1906), 531ff.; N. Glueck, in: AASOR, 1819 (1939), 246,
n. 669; 14 (1934), 4; Y. Kaufmann, Sefer Yehoshua (1963), 167; Z. Kallai, Nahalot Shivtei Yisrael (1967), 21920. IN THE AGGADAH: Ginzberg, Legends, index; I. Hasida, Ishei ha-Tanakh (1964), 3813. Add.
Bibliography: S. Japhet, I & II Chronicles (1993), 12836; S. Ahi-
246
tuv, Joshua (1995), 21822, 244; J. Tigay, The JPS Torah Commentary
Deuteronomy (1996), 32223; B. Levine, Numbers 2136 (AB; 2000),
499502.
REUBEN BEN H AYYIM (d. before 1276), Provencal talmudist. Reuben studied under Isaac ha-Kohen, a disciple of
*Abraham b. David of Posquieres. Few biographical details are
known of him. Both he and his brother Abraham composed
piyyutim. Among his prominent pupils were *Manoah of Narbonne and Menahem b. Solomon *Meiri. The latter praises his
teacher at great length both on account of his comprehensive
knowledge of the Talmud and his general culture (Introd. to
Beit ha-Beh irah to Avot ed. by B.Z. Prag (1964), 56). Reuben
was the author of Sefer ha-Tamid, a philosophical commentary on the liturgy, which seems also to have contained laws
concerning the prayers together with a commentary.
A fragment of the commentary was published in the collection Oz ar ha-H ayyim, 11 (1935). *Aaron b. Jacob ha-Kohen
of Lunel utilized the work in his Orh ot H ayyim and it is evident that *Abudarham also used it. But apart from these it was
not widely used nor were copies of it available. It was used as
late as the 18t century by Judah b. Meir Toledano, a Moroccan scholar. Azariah dei Rossi (Meor Einayim, section Yemei
Olam, ch. 40) mentions a commentary on the aggadot of the
Talmud by Reuben. According to Geiger, *Levi b. Abraham
b. H ayyim was a nephew of Reuben.
Bibliography: A. Geiger, Kevuz at Maamarim, ed. by S.
Poznaski (1910), 25485; J.M. Toledano, in: Oz ar ha-H ayyim, 11
(1935), 142; idem, Oz ar Genazim (1960), 207f.; S. Hurvitz, in: Talpioth, 9 (1964), 1469; S.K. Mirsky (ed.), H ibbur ha-Teshuvah le-R.
Menah em b. Shelomo ha-Meiri (1950), 1316 (introd.).
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]
reuchlin, johannes
studied under *Judah ha-Nasi (TJ, Kil. 9:3). It is possible that
one of them was Abtolumus b. Reuben, who mingled freely
in Roman society.
Bibliography: Bacher, Tann; Hyman, Toledot; I. Konovitz,
Maarekhot Tannaim, pt. 4 (1969), 113.
247
[Moshe Hallamish]
reuchlin, johannes
Pfefferkorn unwahrhaftigs Schmachbuechlin (Tuebingen,
1511) and supplemented by Ain clare verstentnus in tuetsch uff
Doctor Johannsen Reuechlins Ratschlag von den Judenbuechern
(ibid., 1512). When Hoogstraaten leveled a charge of heresy
against the Augenspiegel and its author, Reuchlin appealed to
Pope Leo X and, in a famous letter, sought the good offices
of the papal physician, Bonet de *Lattes, a professing Jew, in
terms reminiscent of the Book of Esther (1513). It may well be
as a result of this appeal that Reuchlin stood trial not before
Hoogstraaten at Cologne but before the bishop of Speyer, who
acquitted him in 1514. This particular episode was more in the
tradition of the Italian than of the German Renaissance.
Leo X called a temporary halt to the conflict in 1516, but
the battle was resumed when Reuchlins publication of the
Clarorum virorum Epistolae Latinae, Graecae, et Hebraicae
ad J. Reuchlin (ibid., 1514), which contained a list of eminent
German scholars who supported him, brought a curious response. An apparent rejoinder appeared, entitled Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515, 15174), the total effect of which was
to ridicule Reuchlins opponents, the obscurantists (Dunkelmaenner), and bring their cause into utter disrepute. The first
edition of this celebrated satire was mainly the work of Crotus Rubianus, and the two editions brought out in 1517 largely
showed the hand of another of Reuchlins allies, Ulrich von
Hutten. One of the most advanced claims made by Reuchlin in the course of this battle was that the Jews be accorded
proper treatment as members of the Empire and imperial
burghers. So far as the Jews themselves were concerned, victory had been achieved when Hebrew books were saved from
the flames; but for the humanist intelligentsia the fight was not
yet at an end. Pietro Columna *Galatinus published his De arcanis catholicae veritatis (Ortona, 1518) ostensibly as an antiJewish polemic, but its printer was Gershom *Soncino and it
was, to a far greater extent, a Christian kabbalists protest on
Reuchlins behalf. The latters De arte Cabalistica (Haguenau,
1517) ended with a letter to Leo X regarding the Augenspiegel
and this provoked Hoogstraatens reply, Destructio Cabale
(Cologne, 1519), which in turn drew an answer from Paulus
*Ricius. Reuchlins own final contribution to the Battle of the
Books was his Dialogus an Judaeorum libri Thalmud sint potius supprimendi quam tenendi (Cologne, 1519).
Reuchlins militant supporter, Franz von Sickingen, secured the deposition of Hoogstraaten and the silencing of
the Dominicans in 1520, but in the same year Leo X, appalled
by the gathering storm of the Reformation, decided the case
against Reuchlin, all of whose works were subsequently placed
on the Index. This was the supreme irony for, throughout the
controversy, which had set Franciscans against Dominicans,
Austria against France, and most of the humanists against the
erudite reactionaries, Reuchlin had remained a loyal Catholic;
and the *Reformation which the Battle of the Books had hastened, and in which Reuchlins own nephew, Melanchthon, was
to play a prominent part, evoked only bitterness and hostility
from the weary, but unvanquished, Hebraist of Pforzheim.
[Godfrey Edmond Silverman]
248
249
[Gershom Scholem]
Bibliography: L. Geiger, Johann Reuchlin; Sein Leben und
seine Werke (1871); idem, Johann Reuchlins Briefwechsel (1875); H.
Heidenheimer, in: MGWJ, 53 (1909), 17ff.; G.H. Box, in: E.R. Bevan
and C. Singer (eds.), The Legacy of Israel (1927), 31923 and index;
G. Scholem, Die Erforschung der Kabbala von Reuchlin bis zur Gegenwart (1969); idem, Bibliographia Kabbalistica (1933), 126f.; idem,
Ursprung und Anfaenge der Kabbala (1962), 275n., 375, 389; J.L. Blau,
The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance (1944),
41ff.; J. Benzing, Bibliographie der Schriften Johannes Reuchlins im
15. und 16. Jahrhundert (1955); M. Krebs (ed.), Johannes Reuchlin,
14551522; Festgabe seiner Vaterstadt Pforzheim zur 500. Wiederkehr
seines Geburtstages (1955); J. Litvin, in: Jewish Quarterly (= J. Sonntag
(ed.), Caravan (1962), 3244); F. Secret, Le Zhar chez les Kabbalistes
Chrtiens de la Renaissance (19642), index; idem, Les Kabbalistes Chrtiens de la Renaissance (1964), 4472 and index; J.R. Marcus, The Jew
in the Medieval World (1938), 15964; G. Kisch, Zasius und Reuchlin
(1961); J. Reucblin, Gutachten ueber das juedische Schrifttum, ed. by
A. Leinz and V. Dessauer (1965); Baron, Social2, 13 (1969), 18291,
197f.; H.H. Ben-Sasson, The Reformation in Contemporary Jewish
Eyes (1970) = PIASH, 4 no. 12 (1970); M. Brod, Johannes Reuchlin und
sein Kampf (1965).
reutlingen
Mr. Reuters Office and, from 1865, Reuters Telegram Company Ltd. (RTC). At first limited to the dispatch of commercial
telegrams, Reuters agency soon added news, serving clients
and newspapers on the Continent, the provincial press, and
by 1858 the London daily newspapers, including the Times.
In 1869, three years after the laying of the first transatlantic
cable, Reuter laid his own undersea cable connecting Brest
and Duxbury, Massachusetts. By the 1870s, Reuters Ltd. had
established itself as the leading international news agency, extending its services from Europe to North and South America, to the coastal regions of Africa, to the Far East, including
China and the East Indies, as well as to Australia. From 1870
till 1934, secret news cartel agreements with the competing
Agence Havas in Paris and Bernhard Wolff s WTB in Berlin
(from 1893 also with the Associated Press in Illinois) secured
reserved areas of gathering and spreading news, leaving the
entire British Empire to Reuters. In 1871, Reuter who had become a British citizen in 1857, was raised to a German baronage (Freiherrnstand) by Ernst II, the Duke of Saxony-CoburgGotha, which was later recognized by Queen Victoria. During
the 1870s, Reuters son Herbert von Reuter (18521915)
gradually took over Reuters Ltd., succeeding the father upon
his retirement in 1878. The familys association with the news
agency ended with Herberts suicide in 1915. Reuters grandson, Baron Oliver de Reuter (18941968), an art collector
and genealogist, was the familys last offspring.
After 1915, Reuters Ltd. was transformed into a private
company, in 1941 into the Reuters Trust, with independent
trustees, and in 1984 into a public company. In 1923 Reuters
pioneered the use of radio to transmit news internationally, in
1962 for the first time via satellite, and in the early 21st century
controlled the worlds largest satellite and cable network.
Bibliography: L. Fraenkel, ADB, 53 (1907), 31921; F. Fuchs,
Telegraphische Nachrichtenbueros (1919); H.M. Collins, From Pigeon
Post to Wireless (1925). Add. Bibliography: Wininger, 5 (1930),
187; G. Storey, Reuters Century 18511951 (1951); D. Read, The Power
of News. The History of Reuters 18491989 (1992); J. Wilke, Grundzuege der Medien- und Kommunikationsgeschichte (2000); B. Mooney
and B. Simpson, Breaking News. How the Wheels Came Off at Reuters
(2003); B. Soesemann, in: NDB 21 (2003), 4712.
[Irving Rosenthal / Johannes Valentin Schwarz (2nd ed.)]
250
Death persecutions. Apparently some Jews survived, as is evident from documents dated April 20, 1349, in which Emperor
*Charles IV pardoned the crimes perpetrated against the Jews
and distributed the properties of the victims among the rulers
of the regions where they had lived at the time of the massacres. The municipal registers of Wuerttemberg mention Jews
in Reutlingen in 1371. After they had received authorization
to return to the town, they rebuilt their houses and reestablished their institutions. Reutlingen Jews are commemorated
in several *Memorbuecher.
At the close of the 19t century there were 45 Jews in the
town. At the beginning of the 20t century, their numbers had
increased to about 100, but by 1933 they had again declined to
50, while in the official census of 1939 only six Jews were recorded in Wuerttemberg. In 1942 the last Jews were deported
to *Theresienstadt and to *Riga; none returned. After World
War II a monument was set up in the city cemetery in memory
of the Jews who perished during the Holocaust.
Bibliography: Germania Judaica, 2 (1968), 6946; PK Germanyah.
[B. Mordechai Ansbacher]
reuveni, david
(1983), 523637; R. Kartun-Blum, Ha-Kol Z afui ve-ha-Reshut Netunah: Nashim bi-Yez irat A. Reuveni, in: Iton 77, 86 (1987), 2223; Y.
Schwarz, Omanut ha-Sippur shel Aharon Reuveni (1989); idem (ed.),
Mivh ar Maamrei Bikoret al Yez irato (including bibliography, 1992);
idem, Lih yot kedei Lih yot: Aharon Reuveni Monografyah (1993); N.
Loebenstein-Sadan, Aharon Reuveni, Monografyah (1994); Y. BenDavid, Bigenut ha-Mevukhah: Ha-Terilogiyah ad Yerushalayim, in:
Ahavah mi-Mabat Sheni (1997), 8294.
[Getzel Kressel]
REUVENI, DAVID (d. 1538?), adventurer who aroused messianic hopes in the first half of the 16t century. The main
sources of information about his life are his diary, written in
Hebrew, and contemporaries letters. Yet the diary accounts
of his travels in the East prior to his appearance in Europe
seem mainly fictitious, based on myths prevalent at the time.
His true name and identity are unknown. He claimed to be
the son of a King Solomon and brother of a King Joseph who
ruled the lost tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh in the
desert of Habor: hence his name Reuveni. At other times,
however, he claimed descent from the tribe of Judah and even
compiled a pedigree tracing his ancestry back to King David.
Although scholars disagree about his origins, there is some
evidence that he was of Sephardi origin and lived in Israel
and hence had good knowledge of the land, and especially the
holy places. It also seems that he was connected to the sages
of the Jerusalem Yeshivah, particularly the famous rabbi and
kaballist Avraham ben Eliezer Halevi.
His first historically recorded appearance was in Venice
in autumn 1523. According to contemporary accounts, he appeared to be aged about 40. He claimed to be commander in
chief of his brothers army and requested the Jews of Venice to
aid him on an important mission to the pope. Although most
of the Jews doubted his story, he found support among certain
notables including the artist Moses da *Castelazzo. In February 1524 he arrived in Rome, riding on a white horse, and was
received by the humanist Cardinal *Egidio da Viterbo, whose
support strengthened Reuvenis position with Romes Jews and
it seems they were ordered to attend to his needs. Shortly afterward he was received by Pope Clement *VII to whom he
proposed a treaty between his state and the Christian world
against the Muslims.
According to his diary, he requested the pope to give him
letters to the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and to Francis I of France, recommending them to extend him their help,
mainly in the form of armaments. He also asked for a letter to
the mythical Prester John in Ethiopia. Yet it seems that his
real purpose was to get to Portugal, for to which he indeed
received a letter of recommendation, so that the description
in his diary is only a cover-up, written after the failure of his
mission in Portugal. In Rome Reuveni found support in some
enlightened Jewish circles, including the bankers Daniel and
Vitale da Pisa and Benvenida Abravanel, wife of Samuel *Abravanel, who sent him money and a silk banner embroidered
with the Ten Commandments. This and the other banners he
carried created a theatrical impression wherever he traveled.
251
revadim
Jews and Marranos. Hence his constant stress that he is not
a prophet nor a messiah but only a military commander and
occasionally he evaluates the martial qualities of the Jews he
has encountered. All his exaggerated stories about his many
expenses, his wicked servants, and his great treasures reflect
his naive idea that nobles acted in this fashion. His activity
is in sharp contrast with the messianic magical-mythical activity typical of that period, and in this he seems to continue
in the path of R. Avraham ben Eliezer Halevi. It appears that
Reuveni was interested in creating a certain geopolitical situation which would have messianic meaning for the Jews (a
Christian-Muslim war which would become the war of Gog
and Magog). This was probably the purpose of his traveling
with Solomon Molcho to meet the Emperor Charles V in Regensburg. He re-edited his diary after his failure in Portugal,
in the hope that it would help him reestablish his credibility
and continue in his messianic activity. This is the explanation
for the many contradictions in the diary. However, all his pretentious posturing does not hide the fact that he was a deeply
religious man, scrupulously observing the Jewish precepts,
fasting six days in the week, and feeling that Providence had
chosen him to announce the coming redemption to his oppressed fellow Jews.
The story of David Reuveni fascinated subsequent generations and was the subject of a number of novels (e.g., by
Max *Brod).
Bibliography: A.S. Aecoly, Sippur David ha-Reuveni
(1940); E.N. Adler, Jewish Travellers (1930), index; Y. Baer, in: KS, 17
(1940), 30212; A.S. Yahuda, in: Ha-Tekufah, 3334 (1940), 599625;
Rodriguez-Monino, in: REJ, 115 (1956), 7386; C. Roth, ibid., 116
(1957), 9395; Rvah, ibid., 117 (1958), 12835; C. Roth, in: Midstream,
9 (1963), 7681; M.D. Cassuto, in: Tarbiz, 32 (1962/63), 33958; S. Simonsohn, in: Zion, 26 (1961), 198207.
[Shmuel Ettinger / Moti Benmelech (2nd ed.)]
252
RVAH, ISRAEL SALVATOR (19171973), French hispanist. Rvah was born in Berlin to a family originating from
Salonika. Educated in Paris, he began his research career on
16t-century studies under the guidance of Lucien Febvre and
Marcel Bataillon. Wartime persecution put a temporary halt
to his academic career. He worked as a school teacher and in
1946 took a post as a Spanish teacher in Bordeaux and SaintMaur. From 1946 he worked at the French Institute in Lisbon,
where he elaborated his method of blending literary and archival research, first as research fellow and from 1948 as professor, editing its bulletin and publishing Portuguese texts related to Judaism as well as several works by Gil Vicente. In 1955
he was called back to Paris as a directeur dtudes at the cole
des Hautes tudes, and in 1966 he was appointed professor
at the Collge de France, holding the chair of Language and
Literatures of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. During the last decade of his life, he lectured almost exclusively
on Sephardi subjects, leaving most of his studies unpublished
at his untimely demise. As a linguist, Rvah elucidated the
origins of Judeo-Spanish (see *Ladino), his mother tongue,
from the scientific viewpoint of medieval peninsular dialectology. As a historian, he explored the vicissitudes of Jewish
consciousness among the Spanish and Portuguese Marranos
by way of large-scale family monographs, coining the definition potential Jews for this profoundly inconsistent group.
Rvah is best known for his discovery of historical links between the Iberian crypto-Jewish environment and the antireligious revolt of Uriel da *Costa and *Spinoza; he published
several studies on the intellectual history of the Marranos, on
Spinoza, and on Uriel da Costa. In his evaluations of the role
of Jews and New Christians and the Inquisition in Iberian
culture, he defended the centrality of religious factors against
the sociological approaches of Americo Castro and Antnio
Jos Saraiva on this subject.
Among his works are: Spinoza et le dr Juan de Prado
(1959), Des Marranes Spinoza (1995), Antonio Enrquez Gmez, un crivain marrane (2003), and Uriel da Costa et les
Marranes de Porto (2004).
Bibliography: H. Mchoulan and G. Nahon (eds.), Mmorial I.S. Rvah (2001).
[Carsten Wilke (2nd ed.)]
revelation
arts college under Jewish auspices and represented the first attempt to offer a traditional talmudic education with a modern course of secular studies on the higher level based on the
principle of Torah im Derekh Erez . Revel, who served as president of the college, organized the graduate school of Jewish
studies, named after him, in 1937. He was the first institutional
head to give semikhah to Orthodox rabbis in the U.S. Revel
was honorary president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of
the United States and Canada, and was vice president of the
Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1927. He was associate editor of Oz ar Yisrael (1913), a Hebrew encyclopedia.
His scholarly interests included Targum Jonathan, Josephus,
Jubilees, the development of ancient exegesis, Karaism, and,
especially, the evolution of halakhah. He published his doctoral dissertation for Dropsie College, Karaite Halakah and
its Relation to Sadducean, Samaritan and Philonian Halakah
(1913), which refuted A. *Geigers claim that Karaism was a
continuation of Sadduceeism. Revels many articles and novellae were published mainly in the Jewish Quarterly Review,
Ha-Pardes, Horeb, and Talpioth. A biography of Revel by A.
Rothkoff has been published by the Jewish Publication Society of America (1972).
253
revelation
nied by divine words. These words are an essential element,
for revelation as an event generally needs further explanation.
It is only after the Lord has spoken that His manifestation can
be understood and acquires importance for human life. These
characteristics are common to most divine revelations in the
Bible when marked by the use of the nif al nirah.
There is, however, the belief, which originated in ancient
times, that it is deadly for man to see the Deity (Ex. 33:20; Judg.
13:22). Dreams and the mediation of angels have no mitigating
effect, since the dream gives a stronger vision and the malakh
YHWH (angel of the Lord) is the epiphanic medium of the
Lord, even the Lord Himself in self-manifestation or, in other
words, a personification of the theophany (J. Skinner, Genesis (1910), 286). It is only rarely and to special persons, therefore, that YHWH makes Himself visible, and communicates
to man His purposes and intentions. He does so to Abraham
(Gen. 12:67; 17:12), Isaac (Gen. 26:24), Jacob (Gen. 35:910;
48:34; cf. Ex. 6:3), Moses (Ex. 3:2ff., 1617), Manoah (Judg.
13:2122), and Solomon (I Kings 3:5ff.; 9:2ff.). Nevertheless,
He may show Himself to the whole of the people at the Tent
of Meeting (Lev. 9:4, 6, 23; Deut. 31:15; cf. 31:11), which is a
kind of permanent image of the revelation on Mount Sinai
(M. Haran, in: JSS, 5 (1960), 5065, esp. p. 58). What the people see, however, is the kavod, the Presence of the Lord (Lev.
9:6, 23), or the ammud he-anan, the pillar of cloud (Deut.
31:15). The latter indicates the Lords Presence, but, at the same
time, veils Him from sight. The kavod, whose original conception goes back to early times (cf. I Sam. 4:21; I Kings 8:11;
Ps. 24:710), likewise signifies a veiled appearance of God, an
appearance in a manner in which no precise form can be discerned. It probably alludes to a manifestation by fire, light, and
smoke, connected initially with the circumstances in which
the cult operated.
Other texts use the word noda, he made himself known,
which avoids the anthropomorphic connotations of the root
meaning to see. The author of the Priestly document of the
Pentateuch, however, uses both words, but opposes noda to
nirah in Exodus 6:3, the latter denoting the Deitys self-identification by name. Exodus 6:28, in turn, is obviously the inspiration of Ezekiel 20:59 and hence also of Ezekiel 35:1112,
38:23, and 39:7 as well, where the causative form hif il is used
with the Lords Name as object (cf. Isa. 19:21). In all these texts,
noda is connected with the formula ani YHWH (I am the
Lord). These texts may be compared with similar expressions
known from Mesopotamia: I am Ningirsu, I am Ishtar of
Arbela, I am the god Nab, etc. The difference between these
Oriental self-revelation formulas and the biblical one consists
in the fact that the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is usually followed by the statement that the Lord is the God Who brought
lsrael out of Egypt, and Who guides them through history.
The God of Israel thus reveals Himself as acting in historical
events. It may reasonably be inferred, therefore, that, according to the Bible, history is the milieu of Gods revelation.
It has been objected that Gods acting in history plays
no real role in the biblical wisdom literature. This has, in fact,
In Talmudic Literature
The manifestation of God in acts or appearances which overawe man (gillui Shekhinah) is the theme of many passages
in talmudic and midrashic literature. However, the main concern of talmudic thought is not so much with Gods revelation of Himself or of His attributes (although this too is an
important topic), but rather with Gods revelation of His word
to man (devar Adonai). Much is said regarding the revelation
of Gods word to the forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
as well as to other biblical characters, and especially to
the prophets; a vast number of talmudic sources deal with
the revelation of Gods word par excellence, the Torah. Favorite topics of the Midrashim are the giving of the Torah
(mattan Torah), the importance of the Torah for the world
and for the people of Israel, the nature of the Torah, its permanence, etc.
Much less attention is devoted to the nature of the act
of revelation, and what is said regarding the process in which
Gods world is revealed to the Jewish people and to the prophets is not nearly so systematic as the treatment of these topics in philosophy and in patristic literature. Talmudic sources
assume a hierarchy of different forms of revelation, varying
from inspiration by the Holy Spirit (*Ruah ha-Kodesh) to
*prophecy itself; and of prophecy there are different degrees,
of which the prophecy of Moses represents the highest. However, this scheme comes to demarcate the Torah, which represents the prophecy of Moses, from the works of the prophets, and these again from the other books in the Bible which
are inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is bound up, therefore, with
the sanctity and authority to be assigned to the different holy
writings. Similar remarks apply to the talmudic sources regarding the psychological aspects of revelation. Sometimes
the divine manifestation takes place in a vision or in a dream
or through the mediation of an angel; but Moses speaks to
God face to face whenever he wishes. He beholds God as in
a translucent mirror, whereas the other prophets see as in a
dark glass (Lev. R. 1:14; Yev. 49b). The stature of Moses as a
254
been a very awkward point for those who assert that revelation in history is central to Hebrew thought. The difficulty,
however, seems to have originated in a confusion between
revelation as understood by ancient Israelites and as viewed
by modern scholars who are aware of a systematic biblical
theology.
In the Pentateuch and the Former and Latter Prophets,
God reveals Himself, His plans, or His will, through words
or events. The other books of the Bible are generally thought
not to contain revelations of this kind. In relation to modern
theology, it must be emphasized that both revelation and wisdom phenomenologically proceed from experiences of life.
Wisdom characteristically classifies the elementary experiences of daily life, whereas revelation results from prophetic
interpretations of exceptional events in the life of the people
or even of the prophet himself. (For the revelation on Mt.
Sinai, see the Book of *Exodus.)
[Edward Lipinski]
revelation
prophet thus guarantees the sanctity and authority of Torat
Moshe the Pentateuch.
The Torah is identified with the wisdom which had existed before the creation of the world (Sif. Ekev 37; Gen. R.
1:4) and is regarded as the instrument with which the world
was created (Sif. Devarim 48; Avot 3:14). The concept of Torah
is thus broadened to include not only Gods commandments,
the admonitions to observe the commandments, and stories
of the forefathers, but also the admonition of all the other
prophets and the ethical maxims of the other books of the
Bible. Thus there occurs the notion that all the prophecies of
all the prophets were included in the revelation on Sinai they
were formulated and publicized by later prophets when the
need arose (Ex. R. 29, 6; Tanh . Yitro 11).
The notion of the sanctity of the Torah as being the word
of God is, therefore, the core of the talmudic teaching regarding revelation, and forms the theme of several passages which
are specially important as representing the sources for the doctrines concerning revelation which came to be formulated in
medieval Jewish philosophy.
One such passage is the Mishnah (Sanh. 10 (11):1) which
tells that among the Israelites who have no portion in the
world to come are those who deny that the Torah is from
Heaven (Torah min ha-Shamayim). An expansion of this is afforded by the Sifrei (Shelah , ed. Horowitz, p. 121) which says
that also he who admits that the Torah is the word of God
but maintains that one particular matter was said by Moses
of his own accord is to be regarded as a despiser of the word
of God (Num. 15:31). The baraita parallel to this is quoted in
the talmudic discussion as an explanation of the Mishnah in
Sanhedrin 99a and differs from the Sifrei only in emphasizing in more detail that even he who says a particular verse,
a particular point, a particular a fortiori argument, or a particular inference by analogy was said by Moses of his own
accord is to be regarded as a despiser of the word of God.
Thus the concept of Torah min ha-Shamayim is associated
primarily with the notion that every syllable of the Bible has
the verity and authorship of the word of God. The contents
of the sacred books are to be regarded throughout as conscientious and homogeneous, with not only no contradiction in
them, but also no real differences (G.F. Moore). This concept
of the underlying unity of the Scriptures, and especially of the
Pentateuch, is connected with the notion of layers of deeper
meanings beneath the words of the Written Torah of which
the plain literal meaning is only the surface. Such a conception not only leads to the mystic notion of the oneness of the
Torah, which is hinted at in several talmudic passages and
comes to be expressed in particularly striking form by the
medieval mystics (particularly Nah manides); it also forms
the basis (cf. Y. Baer) for the explication of the traditional
distinction between the Written and the Oral Law, the latter
providing the real significance and true interpretation of the
words of the written text.
Scholars such as Joel, Kohler, Boaz Cohen, and Heschel
(see also below) have argued that Abbayes statement (Meg.
255
revelation
to in this passage is ostensibly comparable to Joshuas authorship of the book bearing his name. However, such a straightforward conception of literary authorship will be modified
by the claim that the Torah is literally inspired and is the revealed word of God to Moses. Nevertheless, that the Torah
is written by Moses is everywhere assumed in talmudic and
midrashic literature, and the Torah is frequently described as
Torat Moshe the Torah of Moses.
It has been plausibly argued (J.J. Petuchowski) that of
the two traditional notions, the heavenly origin of the Torah
(Torah min ha-Shamayim) and Mosaic authorship, the former is dogmatic in character in talmudic thought, whereas
the latter is more in the nature of an accepted truth about literary authorship. The two notions are at any rate disparate in
importance.
In receiving the Torah, Moses acted as a scribe writing
from dictation, as was the case with Baruch and the prophet
Jeremiah (BB 15a). This is the passage that has been dominant
in subsequent attempts to describe the nature of the Mosaic
revelation in medieval Jewish philosophy. But there are midrashic sources which would seem to support a less mechanical and more instrumentalist conception of revelation. Thus
the Midrash (Ex. R. 47end) relates that the angels, jealous
of the role entrusted to Moses in bringing the Torah to mankind, voice suspicions that Moses might write his own ideas
into the Torah. God replies that Moses would not do so; but
even if he did he could be trusted to represent reliably the divine will. There is, however, no attempt in talmudic thought
to provide the sort of instrumentalist analogies of revelation
which are offered in patristic thought the inspired writer as
a vessel which the Holy Spirit proceeds to fill, etc. On the other
hand, revelation, like prophecy, comes to each individual in
accordance with his capacities. When the voice went forth at
Sinai, God addressed each person with a voice he could endure (Ex. R. 5:9).
The voice from Sinai (kol mi-Sinai) is a characteristic
talmudic theme. This voice already included all the words of
the prophets, and indeed the rabbis of later ages received what
they say at Sinai (Ex. R. 28:6; Tanh . Yitro 11, etc.). This may
be interpreted (E.E. Urbach, p. 270) as a talmudic attempt to
restrict revelation so far as possible to a onetime act in order
to emphasize the irrelevance in matters of halakhah. On the
other hand, according to other sources, the voice from Sinai
has not yet stopped; so that even though the Holy Spirit has
departed from Israel with the cessation of prophecy and subsequent revelations are confined to a Heaven-inspired echo
(bat kol; 13:2; Sanh. 11a), this heavenly echo still goes forth each
day from Sinai to announce that woe will befall all those who
slight the Torah (Avot 6:2).
NEOPLATONISM. It is interesting to note that the chief representative of the neoplatonic trend of Jewish thought, Solomon ibn *Gabirol, does not even consider the problem of the
relation of reason to revelation, nor does he quote Scripture in
his Mekor H ayyim. His predecessor, Isaac b. Solomon *Israeli,
does deal with the problem of the prophet and prophecy in
passing. The prophet and the sage on the highest level, he who
has achieved union with the Divine, are identified. But the
prophet expresses himself in imaginative language in order
to teach and guide the vulgar masses. One of the functions of
256
revelation
the imaginative faculty of the prophet is to express in figurative symbols and sensible images material derived from reason, a view which is related to that of al-*Frb and which is
to be found in Maimonides Guide.
JUDAH HALEVI. With *Judah Halevi, the autonomous character of revelation and its superiority to reason come to the
fore. In Judah Halevis thought, the divine command (alamr al-ilh), which is the link between God and man, clings
to the prophet chosen by God to reveal His will to man. The
prophet is superior to the philosopher by the very fact that his
knowledge is derived directly from God, whereas the science
of the philosopher is subject to doubt. Judah Halevis concept
is based on the neoplatonic concept of nature being ordered
hierarchically in a great chain of being, that is, an upward
progression from ordinary man to philosopher to Israel and
the prophets and then the Divine. Contrary to his predecessor, Judah Halevi considers the unique quality of revelation
to lie in its nonrational character. The ritual commandments
are the true link between the people of lsrael and God. In the
first treatise of his Kuzari, the claims of Christianity and Islam to have supplanted the Mosaic revelation are dismissed
on the grounds that the beliefs of Christianity are inherently
improbable while the Muslim claims lack supporting evidence
at the same time that the divine origin of the Mosaic revelation is conceded.
MAIMONIDES. Maimonides returns to a more Aristotelian
concept of revelation in which he follows in the footsteps of
his Islamic predecessors al-Frb and *Avicenna. Essentially
Maimonides treats prophecy as a natural phenomenon: Know
that the true reality and quiddity of prophecy consists in it being an overflowing from God through the intermediation
of the Active Intellect, toward the rational faculty in the first
place and thereafter toward the imaginative faculty (Guide,
2:36). If the rational faculty alone comes into play, the individual is a philosopher and if only the imaginative faculty is
brought into play, the individual belongs to the class of statesmen. Therefore, essentially the prophet is a philosopher statesman in accordance with the Platonic tradition. Thus Maimonides takes a position similar to that of Philo mentioned
above. The position of Moses in this scheme is problematic
since, according to Maimonides in both his Guide and his
Mishneh Torah, the imaginative faculty did not play any role
in his prophecy and he prophesied whenever necessary. In a
famous passage Maimonides states that the Law as a whole
aims at two things: the welfare of the soul and the welfare of
the body (Guide, 3:27). For the masses, belief has a political
role to play, for the masses cannot achieve the heights of metaphysical speculation which alone insure true happiness and
the immortality of the intellect. For the philosopher, the Law
insures his political well-being and allows him the necessary
leisure to indulge in the delights of the mind. Therefore, the
function of revelation may be defined as essentially political
in nature, not as a means to individual salvation. In order to
reconcile any conflicts between philosophy and the apparent
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
meaning of revelation, the allegorical method of interpretation is used. It would seem just to conclude from Maimonides
historical analysis of the origin of the sacrificial cult that he
was satisfied with the status quo existing in his time and envisaged the possibility of the abrogation of part of the Mosaic
code, although in speaking as a legist he took of course a completely different position in his Mishneh Torah.
CRESCAS. Maimonides exercised great influence on the development of philosophy in Hebrew by way of both support
and criticism. H asdai *Crescas, writing in 14t-century Christian Spain, and pressed by the attacks of the Catholic Church
and its inroads on the Jewish community, emphasized the
idea that the happiness of man lies essentially in the love of
God and in the service of God through the observance of the
commandments of the Torah. Here revealed religion is given
intrinsic value contrary to the view of the Aristotelians.
ALBO. Joseph *Albo tries to steer a middle course between the
conservative position of Judah Halevi and the more rational
position of Maimonides. He begins his Sefer ha-Ikkarim by
stating that human reason is not capable of comprehending
things as they are in reality There must therefore be something higher than the human intellect by means of which the
good can be defined and the true comprehended in a manner
leaving no doubt at all. This can only be done by means of divine guidance (Book of Principles, ed. and tr. by I. Husik, 1
(1929), 5). For Albo, intellectual perfection is not the ultimate
goal, but rather belief in God and His Torah brings man to
eternal happiness and causes his soul to cleave to the spiritual substance (ibid., 1, ch. 21). His definition of prophecy is
worded very much like that of Maimonides (ibid., 3:8, p. 71),
but emphasis is laid on the intervention of the divine will
which interferes with the natural process more drastically than
in the case of Maimonides. It would seem that Albos limitation of the rationalistic approach of Maimonides is due to the
pressure of Christian polemics.
SPINOZA. Baruch *Spinoza in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (Theological Political Treatise), combating both the conservative and rational attitudes represented by his Jewish predecessors, clearly strips revelation of all authority except in the
sphere of morals and ethics, and pleads for freedom from the
thrall of revealed doctrine, thus laying part of the foundation
for the emergence of the modern era.
[Lawrence V. Berman]
257
revelation
revelation received by lsrael at Sinai does not impinge upon
the domain of the universal religion of reason, for Judaism
is not a revealed religion but revealed legislation, providing
specific laws for the regulation of conduct but not concepts
(Jerusalem (1862), pt. 2, ch. 3).
Idealistic thinkers reformulated the concept of revelation as a gradual process. Divine truth is revealed to man
through his intellectual faculties in an educational process of
continuous or progressive revelation. Nachman *Krochmal, whose views were influenced to a large extent by Hegelian categories of thought, considered revelation the process
of ever-increasing consciousness of the immanent Divine
Spirit. Similarly, Solomon *Formstecher and Samuel *Hirsch
maintained that revelation constitutes the recognition of the
Divine Spirit manifesting itself in man, not the communication received from a transcendent sphere. The last vestiges of
opposition between reason and revelation are overcome in the
neo-Kantian system of Hermann *Cohen. God reveals His will
by creating man as a rational creature who through his reason
is capable of apprehending the laws of logic and ethics. Thus,
revelation no longer refers to any historic event nor even any
special mode of cognition; it characterizes a trait of man, who
through the possession of his rational faculties becomes the
bearer of divine revelation (Die Religion der Vernunft aus den
Quellen des Judentums (1919), 8292).
In radical opposition to all idealistic trends, Solomon
Ludwig *Steinheim emphasized the inadequecy of speculative reason in the realm of religious truth. Objecting also to
Mendelssohns position, he stressed the primacy of the doctrinal, rather than legislative, elements in the content of revelation. Only through revelation can belief in a freely creating God arise (Die Offenbarung nach dem Lehrbegriffe der
Synagoge, 1 (1835), 318). Although Steinheim did not regard
revelation as a process, but as a particular event in which the
word of God is communicated to man, he was not committed to the doctrine of the verbal inspiration of the Scripture.
The latter doctrine is the basis of Samson Raphael *Hirschs
system, which stresses the belief in the divine origin of both
the Oral and the Written Law.
Existentialists opposed the theories that consider revelation primarily as the transmission of content consisting either
of metaphysical principles or moral and ritual laws. Martin
*Buber advocated a conception of revelation involving a dialogic relationship between man and God. Revelation is the
encounter of the Presence of God, not the communication of
ideas or instructions. Revelation constitutes a wordless address, which in turn stimulates a human response (Eclipse
of God (1952), 135). This response, according to Buber, never
gives rise to a general law, but only to a unique, subjective
deed or commitment.
Although Franz *Rosenzweig subscribed to the premise that revelation represents the manifestation of a relationship in the form of a dialogue, he emphasized that it depends
upon the will of God, Who chooses to reveal Himself at specific times to different individuals. Through revelation a cov-
258
[Walter S. Wurzburger]
Bibliography: J. Morgenstern, in: ZA, 25 (1911), 13993; 28
(1914), 1560; G. von Rad, in: G. Friedrich (ed.), Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament, 2 (1935), 2405; W. Zimmerli, in: Geschichte und Altes Testament. A. Alt zum 70. Geburtstag dargebracht
(1953), 179209; idem, in: Evangelische Theologie, 22 (1962), 1531; H.
Haag, in: Theologische Zeitschrift, 16 (1960), 2518; J. Barr, in: VT Supplement, 7 (1960), 3038; idem, in: Interpretation, 17 (1963), 193205;
S.H. Hooke, Alpha and Omega, a Study in the Pattern of Revelation
(1961); J. Lindblom, in: HUCA, 32 (1961), 91106; idem, in: ZAW, 75
(1963), 26388; J. Jeremias, Theophanie. Die Geschichte einer alttestamentlichen Gattung (1965); J. Scharbert, in: Muenchener Theologische Zeitschrift, 18 (1967), 93118; B. Albrektson, History and the
Gods (1967); F. Baumgaertel, in: Zeitschrift fuer Theologie und Kirche,
64 (1967), 393422; B. Gemser, Aduc loquitur (1968), 15076; H.C.
Brichto, in: HUCA, 39 (1968), 3553. IN TALMUDIC LITERATURE: M.
Joel, Blicke in die Religionsgeschichte, 2 (1883), 176f.; K. Kohler, in: JE,
S.V. inspiration; J.F. Moore, Judaism (1927); B.J. Bamberger, in: HUCA,
16 (1941), 97113; Y. Baer, in: Zion, 17 (1952), 155; 18 (1953), 91108;
27 (1962), 11755; idem, Yisrael ba-Amim (1955); B. Cohen, Law and
Tradition in Judaism (1959), 717; M.M. Kasher, Torah Shelemah,
reviczky, imre
19 (1959), 328ff.; J.J. Petuchowski, in: Hibbert Journal, 57 (1958/59),
35660; S. Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (1961), chs. 610;
E.E. Urbach, H azal; Pirkei Emunot ve-Deot (1969). ANCIENT AND
MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHY: Guttmann, Philosophies, index;
L. Strauss, Philosophie und Gesetz (1935), 87122; H.A. Wolfson, in:
JQR, 32 (1942), 34570; 33 (1942), 4982; idem, Philo, 2 vols. (1947), index; S. Pines, in: EIV, S.V. hitgallut; A. Altmann and S.M. Stern (eds.),
Isaac Israeli (Eng., 1958), index, S.V. prophecy and prophet; E. Schweid,
in: Tarbiz, 35 (1965), 4860; S. Pines, in: Scripta Hierosolymitana, 20
(1968), 354; Husik, Philosophy, index, S.V. prophecy. MODERN JEWISH PHILOSOPHY: Guttmann, Philosophies, index; J. Heinemann,
Taamei ha-Mitzvot be-Safrut Yisrael, 2 (1956), index, S.V. hitgallut;
E.B. Borowitz, A New Jewish Theology in the Making (1968), passim;
S.H. Bergman, Faith and Reason: An Introduction to Modern Jewish
Thought (1963), passim; S. Noveck (ed.), Great Jewish Thinkers of the
Twentieth Century (1963), index; N. Rotenstreich, Jewish Philosophers
in Modern Times: from Mendelssohn to Rosenzweig (1968), index.
Auschwitz. His works include Vonagl falvak (Villages in Agony, 1914), Emberek arca (Faces of Men), and Velk-rtk
(With Them For Them, 1961).
Bibliography: Magyar Irodalmi Lexikon, 2 (1965), 6012;
Magyar Zsid Lexikon (1929).
[Baruch Yaron]
RVSZ, BLA (18761944), Hungarian journalist and author. Rvsz was on the staff of the Social Democrat daily
newspaper Npszava from 1906 and became a permanent
member of its editorial board. Socialist in outlook, he often
dealt with Jewish subjects and showed religious sentiment.
His friendship with the great Hungarian poet, Endre Ady
(18771919) led to his able biographical studies of Ady, published in 1935. Rvsz also wrote a biography of M. *Nordau
(1940). After the Nazi invasion he was arrested together with
other Jewish journalists, and is thought to have perished in
REVICZKY, IMRE (18971957), Hungarian colonel; commander of the East Hungarian (Transylvanian) brigade of the
labor battalions during World War II. Reviczky had about
30,000 Jewish forced laborers under his command, to which
he was appointed in 1943. From the first he opposed every attempt to maltreat them, granted interviews to their relatives,
and assisted them whenever possible. Reviczky was especially
helpful after the German invasion of Hungary, when conscription orders were issued to all male ghetto inmates, regardless
259
revisionists, zionist
of age. On the approach of the Red Army, Reviczky dispersed
the brigade in the neighborhood, and instead of sending the
Jews to Germany, he loaded the wagons for their transport
with lumber. When the Germans discovered Reviczkys stratagem, they sought to arrest him. He tried to escape with his
staff, but was caught and sent to *Dachau. After the war Reviczky served in the Hungarian army but was later dismissed.
He had to work at manual labor until he was granted a pension. He was recognized in 1966 by *Yad Vashem as one of the
*Righteous of the Nations (H asidei Ummot ha-Olam).
Bibliography: j let, 19, no. 12 (1963), 5; 21, no. 24
(1965), 4.
[Baruch Yaron]
REVISIONISTS, ZIONIST (full name: Union of Zionists-Revisionists; abbr. Hebrew name, Ha-Z ohar; later New
Zionist Organization), movement of maximalist political
Zionists founded and led by Vladimir *Jabotinsky. In the later
1920s and in the 1930s the Revisionists became the principal
Zionist opposition party to Chaim *Weizmanns leadership
and to the methods and policy of the World Zionist Organization and the elected Jewish leadership in Erez Israel. The
initial nucleus of the Revisionist movement consisted of a
group of Russian Zionists who had supported Jabotinsky during World War I in his campaign for the creation of a *Jewish Legion. Their organ became the Russian-language Zionist
weekly *Razsvet published in Berlin (192224), later in Paris
(192434). This group was joined by other Zionist circles and
personalities, such as Richard *Lichtheim, Robert *Stricker,
Jacob de *Haas, the Hebrew poet Jacob Cohen, and others,
who opposed Weizmann and his policy.
The Revisionists based their ideology on Theodor Herzls
concept of Zionism as essentially a political movement, defined by Jabotinsky as follows: Ninety per cent of Zionism
may consist of tangible settlement work, and only ten per
cent of politics; but those ten percent are the precondition of
success. The basic assumption was that as long as the mandatory regime in Palestine was essentially anti-Zionist, no
piecemeal economic achievements could lead to the realization of Zionism, i.e., the establishment of a Jewish state with
a Jewish majority in the entire territory of Palestine, on both
sides of the Jordan.
At its inception, the Revisionist program centered on the
following demands: to reestablish the Jewish Legion as an integral part of the British garrison in Palestine, to develop the
*Jewish Colonial Trust as the main instrument of economic
activity, and to conduct a political offensive which would induce the British government to adapt its policy in Palestine to
the original intention and spirit of the *Balfour Declaration.
The Revisionist program soon became more elaborate, asking,
in addition to the demand for Jewish military units, etc., for
the introduction of a whole new system of policy in Palestine,
defined as a settlement regime a system of legislative and
administrative measures (such as land reform, state protection
of local industries, a favorable fiscal system, etc.) explicitly de-
History
The founding conference of the Union of Zionists-Revisionists took place in Paris in 1925. The first president of the Union
was Vladimir (Zeev) *Tiomkin. At its inception, the movement was an integral part of the World Zionist Organization.
It attracted a large following in Eastern and Central Europe,
where masses of Jews were waiting to emigrate. From four
Revisionist delegates to the 14t Zionist Congress (1925), its
representation rose to 52 delegates at the 17t Congress (1931).
Subsidiary organizations sprang up under Jabotinskys leadership: *Betar, a mass movement of youth; Berit ha-H ayyal
(union of army veterans), existing mainly in Poland; Orthodox adherents organized in Ah dut Israel; the womens Berit
Nashim Leummiyyot; high school students in Masada, and
the Nordia sports organization. In Palestine, the Revisionists
achieved the position of the second-largest party in the Asefat
ha-Nivh arim by gaining 17 of the votes in 1931. The Zionist
majority, in particular the labor parties, rejected the ideology
and tactics of the Revisionists, often attacking them as fascists. Growing conflicts in the Palestine labor market led to
the withdrawal of Revisionists and members of Betar from the
*Histadrut and the establishment of an independent National
Labor Organization in 1934. Bitterness reached a climax in
1933 when two young Revisionists in Palestine were accused
of assassinating the labor leader Chaim *Arlosoroff. Palestinian courts acquitted both, but the antagonism remained and
poisoned the political atmosphere for many years.
From the late 1920s, especially after the enlargement of
the *Jewish Agency through the inclusion of 50 non-Zionists (1929), Jabotinsky pressed for independent political action of the Revisionist movement in the international field,
though the Zionist Executive considered it a breach of discipline. When Jabotinsky urged the secession of the Revisionist Union from the World Zionist Organization, allowing individual Revisionists to maintain their membership in it, he
was opposed by members of the Revisionist executive, Meir
*Grossman, Lichtheim, Stricker, and others. When the internal controversy reached an impasse at the session of the Re-
260
revisionists, zionist
visionist Party Council at Katowice (1933), Jabotinsky suspended the Revisionist executive and assumed personal
responsibility until the forthcoming world conference. A
plebiscite among the membership endorsed Jabotinskys move
by a large majority, but his opponents seceded and founded
the small *Jewish State Party, which was represented at the
18t Zionist Congress (1933) by seven delegates, as against 46
Revisionist delegates.
The first large-scale political action of the Revisionist
Union was a world petition (1934) addressed by Jewish men
and women to Britains king and Parliament and to the governments and parliaments of the states of which they were
citizens. More than 600,000 Jews in 24 countries signed the
petition. After the Arlosoroff murder trial, an attempt at a
reconciliation between the Revisionists and the Zionist leadership was made in 1934. At the initiative of Pinh as *Rutenberg, Jabotinsky and David *Ben-Gurion met in London and,
after lengthy negotiations, signed three agreements. The first
enjoined all Zionist parties to refrain from certain forms of
party warfare, notably libel, slander, insult to individuals
and groups. The second was a labor agreement providing for
a modus vivendi between the Histadrut and the Revisionist
workers, including the controversial issues of strikes. The third
provided for suspension of the Revisionist boycott against the
Zionist funds and a guarantee of immigration certificates for
members of Betar. The agreements were welcomed by Zionist
public opinion, but the labor agreement was submitted to a
referendum of Histadrut members and rejected by a majority. The atmosphere of goodwill petered out. When the Zionist
General Council voted a discipline clause, intended to preclude independent political activities of Zionist parties (1935),
a plebiscite held among Revisionists decided to secede from
the World Zionist Organization and to establish a new Zionist
body. Elected by 713,000 voters, the constituent assembly of
the New Zionist Organization (NZO) met in Vienna with de
Haas as chairman (September 1935). Jabotinsky was elected
president (nasi). The aim of the NZO was formulated as the
redemption of the Jewish people and its land, the revival of its
state and language, and the implanting of the sacred treasures
of Jewish tradition in Jewish life. These objectives were to be
attained by the creation of a Jewish majority in Palestine on
both sides of the Jordan, the upbuilding of a Jewish state on
the basis of civil liberty and social justice in the spirit of Jewish tradition, the return to Zion of all who seek Zion, and the
liquidation of the Jewish Dispersion. This aim transcends the
interests of individuals, groups, or classes.
In the later 1930s the NZO called for a policy aimed at
speedy evacuation of the Jewish masses from the danger
zone in Eastern and Central Europe, based on alliances with
the governments of those countries. A ten-year plan for the
transfer to and absorption in Palestine of 1,500,000 Jews was
prepared in 1938. In 193839 the scheme gained the sympathy of Polish government circles, which seemed to be ready to
intervene with the British government and raise the problem
of Jewish mass emigration at the League of Nations. But Jew-
261
revisionists, zionist
ficially become the aim of Zionism and illegal immigration
was conducted on a large scale by the Haganah, while some
cooperation was established between the Haganah and Iz L, the
Revisionist leaders decided to rejoin the Zionist Organization,
and 42 Revisionist delegates were elected to the 22nd Zionist
Congress (1946). In Palestine, two Revisionist representatives
signed the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel on
May 14, 1948, but their party was not invited to participate in
the Provisional Government. When the Iz L disbanded, its veterans founded the new *H erut Party in Israel (October 1948);
it won 14 seats in the First Knesset (1949), while the Revisionist list was unable to seat a single deputy. In the Diaspora, Revisionist groups remained mostly loyal to the old framework,
but in 1950 a world union was founded called Berit H erut haZ ohar, with H erut as its organization in Israel. A Revisionist
representative was elected to the Jewish Agency Executive in
April 1963 by a majority vote, against strong opposition from
the Zionist labor parties. But the rift between the Revisionist
and the labor camps was largely healed in the later 1960s, when
the *Eshkol government decided to transfer Jabotinskys remains to Mount Herzl in Jerusalem and particularly after H erut
leaders, as part of the *Gah al bloc, joined the government of
national unity in 1967. In the 1968 World Zionist Congress, Revisionists accounted for 69 delegates out of 644 (10.7).
In the 1920s, and particularly in the 1930s, the Revisionist
movement maintained a number of newspapers and periodicals in several countries. Apart from Razsvet, a French-language weekly La Voie Nouvelle appeared in Paris. In Poland
the Yiddish weekly Der Nayer Veg enjoyed popularity in the
mid-1930s, when it was edited by the poet Uri Z evi *Greenberg. In the late 1930s the great Yiddish daily in Warsaw, Der
Moment, became closely linked with the Revisionist movement. Robert Strickers Neue Welt in Vienna served the Revisionist movement as long as Stricker himself was one of its
leaders. In London The Jewish Standard was edited by Abraham Abrahams. In Johannesburg, South Africa, The Jewish
Herald is the organ of the Revisionist movement.
In Palestine the daily Doar ha-Yom purchased by Jabotinsky in 1928 had a Revisionist-oriented editorial policy. It continued to be published for about two years. A maximalist Revisionist faction, led by Abba *Ah imeir, Y.H. *Yeivin, and U.Z .
Greenberg published in the early 1930s its own paper H azit haAm. The daily Ha-Yarden existed in Jerusalem for several years
in the mid-1930s but for lack of funds became a weekly and was
transferred to Tel Aviv in 1935. In 1938 Ha-Mashkif began to appear again and continued to be published through the period of
statehood. The monthly Beitar, edited by Joseph *Klausner and
B.Z. Netanyahu was published in Jerusalem in the mid-1930s
and became the ideological and literary organ of the Revisionist-oriented public in Palestine. In the State of Israel, the daily
H erut served the movement until its merger with Ha-Boker in
1960 into the daily Ha-Yom. The latter closed in 1970.
See also *Jabotinsky; *Jewish Legion; *Betar; *Herut; *Irgun Z evai Leummi.
[Joseph B. Schechtman]
262
revisionists, zionist
the founding of the Revisionist Zionists and Betar in the early
1920s (see Revisionists, Zionist), by way of the struggle of
Irgun Z evai Leummi in the years 193748, and founding
of H erut and, subsequently, of Gah al (1965) and the Likkud
(1973) until Likkuds victory in the elections of May 1977. The
intention is to throw some light on a few of the basic problems
in the development of the Zionist and Israeli right, and to
concentrate in particular on the above-mentioned question
of continuity and change, of tradition and alteration, on both
the ideological and socio-organizational levels.
FROM POLAND TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL. Prior to 1939, Revisionisms main strength as a social and cultural movement in
263
revisionists, zionist
a difficult internal struggle, H erut drew the conclusions from
this change and established a faction within the Histadrut
the Blue-White faction which expressed radical formulations
in wages and in the realm of social policy different from the
formulation that had been acceptable to Revisionism in the
Mandatory period.6 Fidelity to the ideological tradition and
ideological change gave rise to a network of philosophies that,
on the one hand, included emphasis on the priority status of
the private sector and the demand for maximum reduction of
state involvement in the economy while, on the other, there
was support for widespread social legislation (minimum salary, national health insurance, etc.). What was described by
Revisionisms opponents as speaking with two voices was an
authentic expression of the internal complexity of H erut and
the change in its social structure.
FROM PARTY TO UNDERGROUND AND FROM UNDERGROUND
TO PARTY. The adaptation to changes was not achieved without a severe organizational upheaval. Even prior to 1944 Revisionism was far from being a one-dimensional movement
in terms of the opinions held by its members, and its organizational structure was split as well. There was a big difference
between the Zionist Revisionists, the political arm, and Betar,
the youth organization, and in 1933 the tension between the
various groups caused the first split in Revisionism with the
breaking away of a group of veterans headed by Meir Grossman and the founding of the *Jewish State Party. Within the
party there was a tendency to undermine the basic axioms of
Revisionism that expressed a nationalist-activist philosophy
and demanded a change in the methods of operation of the
movement. The Iz L grew within Betar in an underground
fashion and contrary to the stand of the Betar leaders. Not till
1944 did the Iz L become the main and most active organization within Revisionism; after Jabotinskys death and the outbreak of World War II, they disbanded. There were still those
within the Zionist Revisionists and Betar who felt that the
Iz L was a temporary entity and that at the conclusion of the
struggle against the British its role would be over, and the leadership would be returned to the veterans of the two groups.
This attitude gave rise to severe tension among them, but in
practice Revisionism as a political movement was eliminated
after 1939 and the Iz L took over. The latter was not the underground arm of a bona fide political party (as was the Haganah), but a sovereign underground organization.
The Iz L was not merely a new organizational entity but
made a break that affected history of Revisionism, a break
that came about not only because of the personal identification between the leaders of the Iz L and the former leaders of
Betar, and the fidelity of the Iz L leaders, not to Revisionism
as a movement, but to Zeev Jabotinsky as leader and teacher.
Jabotinsky and Revisionism believed in the need for the existence of the movement as a bona fide party, functioning on a
political plane and believing in the power of moral pressure
and in the moral stand of Zionism, and in the force of common interests between Zionism and Great Britain. The Iz L
rejected this attitude and placed its trust mainly on the pressure generated by armed struggle. To a large extent, this was
a transition from the political philosophy of Jabotinsky to
the revolutionary philosophy of Abba Ah imeir which Jabotinsky completely rejected although he understood its roots
and motives.
Menah em Begins personality and activity mark the combination of the political philosophy and the revolutionary, despite the fact that at the Warsaw Convention of Betar in September 1938 he expounded the revolutionary philosophy in
opposition to Jabotinskys legal philosophy. Begin rejected the
reasoning of the Loh amei H erut Israel and linked the revolutionary and political philosophies. Although the Iz L, under his leadership, didnt believe in the need for joint action
by Zionism and Britain and indulged in underground activity for the removal of the British from Erez Israel, his underground activity was largely designed to stress the hardship in
which Jewry found itself after the Holocaust and the aspirations of the Jews to realize the moral and historical right to a
Jewish state. Contrary to the Leh i, the Irgun Z evai Leummi
was closely linked to Jabotinskys inheritance, even though its
activity was contrary to his philosophy. The spirit of Ah imeir
and Uri Z evi Greenberg held great sway in the Iz L but it was
Begin who underscored and strengthened the attachment to
Jabotinsky and expressed the ideological continuity between
Jabotinsky and Betar, and the Irgun Z evai Leummi.
The Iz L did not go out of existence in 1949, nor did it
return the mantle of leadership to the veterans of the Zionist
Revisionists and Betar. The Zionist Revisionist leadership
brought the party back into the Zionist Federation in 1946
and took part in the Provisional Council of State; three of
its members were amongst the signatories of the Scroll of
Independence. There was a low of distrust between the leadership of Iz L and that of the Zionist Revisionists, with the former considering itself as the new leadership. The Iz L emerged
from the underground and established a new political party
in the State of Israel, the H erut Movement, founded by
the Irgun Z evai Leummi. It replaced the Zionist Revisionists
and created an amalgamation with the Zionist Revisionists in
the Diaspora under the aegis of the Zionist Movement Brith
H erut-ha-Z ohar. The veteran Zionist leadership ran independently in the elections to the First Knesset but its list the
Jabotinsky Movement Brith ha-Z ohar gained only 2,892
votes (0.7 of the votes). Part of the veteran leadership joined
the H erut Movement while others left Revisionism. (Some
of them joined the General Zionists, while others, such as
Dr. Benjamin Lubotsky, after a short-lived attempt to establish an independent party called Mifleget ha-Am, even
joined Mapai.) In the 1950s a significant change took place
in the leadership of H erut, with some members of the Iz L
and its supporters in Israel and abroad, such as Hillel Kook,
Shmuel Marlin, Shmuel Katz and Uri Z evi Greenberg, leaving the movement, while Revisionists who had belonged to
the moderate line in Revisionism joined and were included
in its Knesset list.
264
revisionists, zionist
The new partys main problem was twofold: on the one
hand it had to establish its right of legitimization as a democratic-parliamentary movement, free of its past as a breakaway
underground movement and meriting widespread political
support irrespective of any sympathy for its struggle against
the British; and, on the other, for the right of legitimacy as a
political party in opposition to a political and national structure it considered faulty and negative. In the 1950s, the H erut
Movement deleted the words Founded by the Irgun Z evai
Leummi and toned down its policy to some extent. The
claim-cum-aspiration for Israeli sovereignty over Transjordan was dropped from the party platform, and it adjusted
to the rules of parliamentary-electoral contest, particularly
after the serious crisis that broke out in the wake of the dispute over German reparations and the violent demonstration
against the Knesset in January 1952. Voices were now heard
within the H erut claiming that it had no chance of defeating
Mapai at the polls and that its excessive parliamentarianism
was blunting its revolutionary character and turning it into a
regular Israeli political party of the establishment. At this point
Menah em Begin was the link between the democratic parliamentary approach of Jabotinsky and that of H erut as against
the revolutionarism and anti-parliamentary tendency within
the movement. Victory for his line was complete when several of Leh is former leaders (led by Yiz h ak Shamir, current
Speaker of the Knesset) joined the H erut Movement. The antiparliamentary tendencies in H erut disappeared completely
during the 1950s and the heritage of the underground and
the separation of Revisionism and Iz L faded from the movements behavioral patterns. During the 1960s the process of
legitimization was completed with the establishment of the
H erut-Liberal Bloc (Gah al).
HISTORICAL RIGHT AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY OVER
WESTERN PALESTINE. The various groups and schools of
thought within Revisionism had no uniform position with
regard to the Arab problem. The conclusion, however, was
the same: Revisionism, Iz L and H erut stood for the historical
right of the Jewish people to national sovereignty over Western Palestine.7 Up to the Six-Day War, the H erut Movement
was the only Israeli political party that maintained in its manifestos the necessity for the wholeness of the homeland. The
policy and ethics of the iron curtain were acceptable to Revisionism and H erut, both of whom felt that the Arabs would
come to terms with the Jewish state only after it became clear
to them that it was an existing and organic fact in the Middle
East. However, while Jabotinsky felt that the main point was
that the Arabs of Palestine were a national minority living in
a territory where the Jewish national majority ruled and that
within this context they were entitled to the full legal rights
of a national minority, the H erut Movement spoke about civil
equality of rights of the Arabs of Palestine, not in a separate
autonomous framework.
Following the Six-Day War the principle of national
sovereignty over Western Palestine became the main issue in
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
Gah als platform and the moderate Liberals also adopted it.
From this point of view, the traditional position of the Liberals had become more extreme, but from a different point
of view it created unity in the Gah al framework, and subsequently moderation in that of the Likkud in positions of the
H erut Movement, for the 1977 election manifesto no longer
explicitly determined the need to apply Israeli sovereignty
forthwith to Judea and Samaria.8 In this area a gradual process of withdrawal can be detected initially a retreat from the
demand for sovereignty over Transjordan and subsequently
a tactical renouncement of the demand for the introduction
of sovereignty over Western Palestine. Begins Peace Plan was
anchored in Jabotinskys political program by offering provisional autonomy to the Arabs of the territories, but not in
the context of Jewish sovereignty. The question of national
sovereignty over Judea and Samaria remained open, at least
theoretically, although there was a declared objection to the
application of any other
sovereignty over these territories. There was therefore opposition to the Peace Plan within H erut. In effect, Begins opponents of various hues within H erut accused him of deserting the fundamental principle of Revisionism, i.e., that there
should be no retreat from the public declaration concerning
Israels right of sovereignty over all of Western Palestine. This
opinion supported by that of Revisionism maintains that
for Zionism to relinquish, even with reservations, any part of
Western Palestine, would be tantamount to recognizing the
legitimacy of another national claim over it. The Premier, on
the other hand, considered his Peace Plan as taking due account of current political facts as well as of Jabotinskys political heritage, inasmuch as it proposed autonomy for the Arabs
of the territories but opposed the introduction of any other
national sovereignty over them. The debate revealed to a large
extent not only the unique reliance of H erut on the Jabotinsky heritage but also the current ideological hangover from
the ideological struggle of the thirties and forties. As Prime
Minister, Begin continued to practice Jabotinskys belief in
the power of the moral claim, of historical right and cooperation based on common interests with the Western Power
(the U.S.A. replacing Britain), but not Jabotinskys philosophy that Zionism does not need to conceal the full scope of
its national and political aspirations. It is an irony of history
that the argument between Begin and his opponents within
his movement recalls to a certain extent the dispute between
Jabotinsky and Mapai at the 17t Zionist Congress in 1931. Jabotinsky had demanded that the Congress publicly declare
that the aim of Zionism was to establish a Jewish state in Palestine and Transjordan, while the leaders of Mapai considered
such a declaration dangerous and superfluous and preferred
a vague formulation.9
PRIVATE ECONOMY AND STATE INVOLVEMENT. Jabotinsky failed in his attempt to gain the political cooperation of
the civilian parties in the Yishuv and Zionist movement.
From this point of view, the establishment of Gah al in 1965
265
revisionists, zionist
was something Begin achieved where Jabotinsky failed. This
amalgamation was not based solely on the assumption that
only a unification of the camp of the right would be able to
overcome the continued hegemony of the Labor movement.
It was created because H erut and the Liberals shared the same
platform in their economic and social ideology. Revisionism,
and subsequently H erut, considered the private sector and private initiative as the main motivating force of the economy, in
which they demanded a minimum of state involvement. Both
parties considered this involvement as strengthening the base
of the ruling party. Jabotinsky, more than any other Zionist
leader, accredited the bourgeoisie and private initiative with
moral justification and moral validity within a comprehensive socio-economic theory that had no room for partisanclass interests. However, the cooperation with the Liberals,
based on an appreciation of, and belief in, the primacy of the
private sector and a reduction of state involvement, was accompanied in H erut by the demand by some sections for state
involvement in various social and economic areas that were
contrary to the Liberal program, such as the introduction of
a minimum wage, national health insurance, etc. The tension
between H eruts bourgeois ideological foundation and its etatist tendencies was accentuated as a result of the increase in the
number of organized workers in H erut, principally after the
establishment of the Blue-White faction in the Histadrut. This
internal tension was blunted to a great extent because H erut
was in the position of being a critical opposition with whose
political nationalist outlook employees could identify, and also
because it was a vehicle for expression of socio-economic bitterness, frustration and deprivation. During the first year of
the Likkud rule, this internal tension did not surface, but it
can be clearly seen as one of the most difficult problems of the
Likkud as the party in power, having to honor both ideological commitments and its loyalty to the ideological heritage of
Revisionism and Jabotinsky as well as its electoral commitments to the voting public at large. H erut has absolutely opposed the socio-economic structure of the Israeli economy
and society as they took shape during the period of Labor
Movement hegemony, but the ideological tradition and commitment to work for a basic change of this structure has not
yet been realized.
266
revivim
great weight of personality in history, for it would be difficult
to understand how the continuity was created between Revisionism and the Iz L and H erut without Begin, since the status of Revisionism was irrevocably dependent on the figure
of Jabotinsky and that of H erut on the figure and personality
of Begin. It is a case of a social and political movement which,
although its roots are deep, needs an authoritative personality in order to exist.
Notes
1. The problem of defining the ideological and social face of the Revisionist movement has engaged the attention of members of the
Movement, its opponents and scholars. The accepted distinction
into right and left which defines the latter as accepting the socialist or social democratic world outlook, that views the working class as the main social stratum and the collective economy
as the ideal one, and right, on the other hand, as anti-socialist,
considering the middle class and private initiative as the kingpin
of society and the economy, is here adapted, despite the fact that
these accepted definitions largely ignore the special nature of the
left and of the right in the Zionist movement and Israeli society as compared with left and right in the countries of Western democracy.
2. Leonard J. Fein: Israel (Boston, 1967), p. 89.
3. During the dispute in the Central Committee of H erut, Menah em
Begin battled against the critics of his Peace Plan: There are some
here who sat at his (Jabotinskys) feet, and we never turned our
backs on him. This barb was directed principally at MK Geula
Cohen, the most bitter opponent of his policy, with Begin referring to the fact that Leh i, to which Geula Cohen belonged, had
explicitly rebelled against the heritage of Jabotinsky, and that she
was not therefore entitled to quote Jabotinsky in support of her
opinions in opposition to the Premier. In August 1955 Begin had
called upon Geula Cohen and her friends from Leh i to return to
the H erut Movement and the Jabotinsky heritage: My second
appeal is addressed to all those pupils of Zeev Jabotinsky, to all
those who have ever sat at his feet or learned from him. I call on
you, from the bottom of my heart, not, heaven forbid, out of any
sense of achievement, but in all humility: Come, return to the
rock from which you were hewn; join us again. Among us are
those who left him at a time of double weakness, our weakness of
organization and public spirit and their spiritual weakness but
now, as the turning-point is heralded, let us each forgive the mistakes of the other for the chain of Zeev Jabotinskys disciples
has not yet been broken, nor will it ever be. Menah em Begin: On
conclusion of the election campaign (Tel Aviv, August, 1955). The
most comprehensive biography of Menah em Begin is that of Eitan Haber, Menah em Begin The Legend and the Man, Delacorte
Press, N.Y., 1978.
4. See: Yaacov Shavit, Revisionism in Zionism The Revisionist
Movement: the Plan for Colonizatory Regime and Social Ideas,
192535 (Tel Aviv, 1977. Heb), pp. 2734.
5. The average age of Iz L members was 26, half of whom were manual workers and half white collar workers and members of the free
professions; 65 lived in the main cities.
6. The Blue-White faction joined the Histadrut in 1965 after a legal
struggle, and in the elections to the Labor Federation they won
15.2 of the votes to the Histadrut Committee.
7. The first manifesto of H erut declared that the Hebrew homeland,
whose area stretches on both sides of the Jordan, is an historical
REVISTA CULTULUI MOZAIC (Jewish Religious Review), a fortnightly review published in Romanian by the
Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania. It was founded
in 1956, and by 1970 was the only Jewish newspaper in Romania. Appearing in three languages, Romanian, Yiddish, and
Hebrew, it was the only periodical in the countries of Eastern Europe with a Hebrew section. It was edited by Moses
*Rosen, chief rabbi of Romania. The reviews propaganda for
the government was, generally speaking, slight, appearing
chiefly for special occasions such as parliamentary elections.
Other articles have dealt with the Romanian national festival,
the eastern blocs version of the struggle for peace, and similar
subjects. In addition to traditional religious material, the review devotes much space to articles on the history of Romanian Jewish communities, Jewish personalities, Jewish writers, and economic life. News appears from Israel and Jewish
groups in the Diaspora. Other features are translations from
Yiddish and rabbinic literature.
[Theodor Lavi]
REVIVIM (Heb.
) , kibbutz in southern Israel, 21 mi.
(34 km.) S. of Beersheba, affiliated with Ha-Kibbutz haMeuh ad. It was founded in 1943 as the southernmost of three
observation outposts established to explore natural conditions
267
REVSON, CHARLES HASKELL (19061975), U.S. industrialist. Born in Boston, Revson got his first job as a textile buyer
in New York City. He was sales manager for a nail polish firm
when, in 1923, he resigned to begin his own company, Revlon,
Inc., with his brother Joseph and a chemist, Charles Lachman.
His first important innovation was the introduction of truecolor nail enamels, to replace the old transparent nail polish.
He sold them first through salons and then through department stores. In 1939 he inaugurated matched lipstick and nail
colors and introduced marketing innovations such as giving
the colors of the products exotic, evocative names. This concept sparked the whole cosmetics industry into new growth,
catapulting Revlon, Inc. to prominence. Revlon became the
worlds largest cosmetics manufacturer, with 26 companies
in 12 European lands and in Israel, Australia, and Japan, and
with markets in 80 countries. Revson served as president of
Revlon from 1932 to 1962 and then as chairman from 1962 until his death in 1975.
In 1956 he established the Charles H. Revson Foundation, through which he donated more than $10 million during
his lifetime. The majority of these donations went to organizations serving the Jewish community, medical institutions,
schools, and universities. Revson helped found the Albert
Einstein School of Medicine of Yeshiva University. He served
as chairman on a number of national drives, including the
United Jewish Appeal and United Cerebral Palsy.
Bibliography: A. Tobias, Fire and Ice: The Story of Charles
Revson, the Man Who Built the Revlon Empire (1976).
[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
268
REVUE DES TUDES JUIVES (REJ), Jewish scholarly periodical in Europe. The Revue was founded in 1880 as the organ of the Socit des tudes Juives, on the initiative of Zadoc
*Kahn and Isidore *Loeb to stimulate Jewish studies in France.
It was to deal with all aspects of the Jewish past, excluding dogmatic or purely denominational matters. The Revue published
many important articles on the history of French Jewry, and
also touched on all other fields of Jewish studies. It included
a valuable and extensive book review section. Maintaining
a high scholarly level, the Revue gained an important place
among learned journals. The publication of the Revue, interrupted during World War II, was resumed afterward with the
assistance of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique,
the cole pratique des hautes tudes (VIt section) and, for a
few years, the Memorial Foundation. In 1961 the Revue merged
with Historia Judaica, whose editor, Guido *Kisch, became coeditor of the Revue. The editorship of the REJ was held successively by Isidore Loeb, Israel Levi, Julien Weill, Maurice Liber,
Georges *Vajda (19461980), G. *Nahon and Ch. *Touati for
a time with G. Dahan, S. Mimouni (1997 ), E. Oliel-Grausz
(19972002), J.P. Rothschild (from 2001). Toward the end
of the 20t century and into the 21st, ancient studies became
more prominent, while medieval and French studies decreased
slightly, and the bibliographical sections were expanded. A
general index of vols. 150 (1910) was prepared by A. Hertz;
a table of contents of vols. 50100, appeared in 1936. G. *Nahon edited the Tables et index of vols. 101125 (REJ 132:3, 1973);
126131 (REJ 135:4, 1976); 132138 (REJ 139:4, 1980); J.P. Rothschild, the Tables et index [for vols. 139158 (19801999)],
(2003). The last issues are partially available on line.
Bibliography: Z. Kahn, in: REJ, 1 (1880), 58 (introd.);
M. Liber, ibid., 89 (1930), 125; 105 (1940), 1622; J. Weill, ibid., 105
(1940), 315. Add. Bibliography: Anniversary Vol., ibid., 139
(1980), 5108.
[Georges Weill / JeanPierre Rothschild (2nd ed.)]
269
TRADITIONAL SUPERNATURALISM. The traditional supernatural theories of retribution, despite the philosophic context
in which they appear, retain the basic beliefs regarding reward
and punishment that are expressed in the talmudic literature.
*Saadiah (Book of Beliefs and Opinions, 4 and 5), whose exposition may be taken as representative of traditional supernaturalism, states the position this way: God exercises a miraculous and absolutely just providence over man. Thus He
has revealed in the Torah the commandments man is to keep.
Man is rewarded or punished in accordance with his obedience or disobedience of the Torah. His deeds are known to
God and recorded by Him. Reward and punishment are meted
out both in this world and the next. Still, the fact that a person suffers or prospers in this world is no necessary indication
that he is righteous or wicked. There are reasons other than
sinfulness for suffering in this world, as there are reasons for
prospering other than virtue. A righteous person may suffer
in this world as atonement for his few bad deeds so that, his
270
271
[Alvin J. Reines]
rexingen
maintained that no divinely guided pedagogic purpose could
be ascribed to the event. He rejected any theological response
which might suggest that Hitler and the Nazis were unwitting
agents of the Lord of history. The translation of the works of
Eli *Wiesel into English gave the problem literary immediacy. Wiesel, a survivor of Auschwitz, maintained a Job-like
posture of faith in his coming to grips with the catastrophe.
Wiesel was joined by Fackenheim in the reaffirmation of the
traditional God of their people in spite of the Holocaust. Fackenheim argued that to reject the traditional God was to give
Hitler the victory (The Christian Century, May 6, 1970). Rubenstein responded that loyalty to the Jewish past did not involve uncritical acceptance of its perspectives and that a God
who was even remotely involved in Auschwitz was a deity unworthy of Jewish faith.
[Richard L. Rubinstein]
272
REZIN (Heb. ) , properly Ras yn, the Hebrew form of Aramaic Rayn, the man of favor, in cuneiform transcription
Rah ianu, the last king of *Aram-Damascus (II Kings 15:37; 16:5;
Isa. 7:1ff.). His name is attested in a tribute list of Tiglath-Pileser III dating from 734 B.C.E. Shortly after, in alliance with
*Pekah of Israel, he attempted to depose *Ahaz of Judah and
enthrone a rival candidate. This pressure from the north compelled Judah to evacuate definitively the port of Elath in the
far south (II Kings 16:6). However, Tiglath-Pileser, being solicited with an enormous payment by Ahaz, attacked Aram
and Israel. Upon the capture of Damascus, in 732 B.C.E., Rezin
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
Reznikoff, Charles
was killed (II Kings 16:9) and his former kingdom annexed to
the Assyrian Empire.
Bibliography: P. Rost, Tiglat-Pileser (1893), 144; B. Landsberger, Samal (1948), 66 n. 169; H. Tadmor, in: Journal of Cuneiform
Studies, 12 (1958), 40; idem, in: H.H. Ben-Sasson (ed.), Toledot Am
Yisrael bi-Ymei Kedem (1969), 134.
[S. David Sperling]
REZINA, city in the region of Bessarabia, E. Moldova. Jewish settlement during the first half of the 19t century turned
Rezina into an urban community. In 1847, 248 Jews were registered in Rezina; in 1897 there were 3,182 Jews (85 of the total population). A considerable part of the Jewish population
engaged in viniculture and tobacco production, Rezina being
the most important center for tobacco growing in Bessarabia.
In 1925 200 Jewish families cultivated an area of 1,567 hectares, 1,400 of which were rented. Before World War II communal institutions included a hospital built in 1916, and a
kindergarten and elementary school both maintained by the
*Tarbut organization. In 1930 there were 2,961 Jews in Rezina
(39.4 of the total population). The community was destroyed
when the German and Romanian armies entered Bessarabia
in July 1941.
[Eliyahu Feldman]
273
rheims
Reznikoff favors relatively short, direct poems built on perception and sympathetic observation of urban life; these concentrated lyric units are almost always structured into larger
sequences or serial forms. As Charles Bernstein notes, There
is no poet more dedicated to foregrounding the detail and the
particular than Reznikoff and no poet more averse to blending
these details into a consuming and totalizing form.
To a much greater extent than any of his colleagues, including Zukofsky, who came from the same Yiddish-speaking immigrant background, Reznikoff consistently addresses
Jewish history, religion, and culture, and frequently documents contemporary Jewish life in America. Through much
of his writing career, Reznikoff s work appeared in the Menorah Journal, and the Jewish-American intellectual movement
associated with that publication also played a crucial role in
his writing and thinking about Jewish identity. Reznikoff s poetry may be regarded as an open-ended debate around such
issues as language, religious belief and practice, Diaspora,
and above all, the historical fate of the Jewish people. As Paul
Auster puts it, In spite of this deep solidarity with the Jewish
past, Reznikoff never deludes himself into thinking that he
can overcome the essential isolation of his condition simply
by affirming his Jewishness. For not only has he been exiled,
he has been exiled twice as a Jew, and from Judaism as well.
Thus, in the volume Jerusalem the Golden (1934), the tensions
of assimilation and devotion to Jewish tradition manifest
themselves among modern Jews of New York, but also mirror
the lives of the Hebrews in the ancient city of King David. The
culmination of Reznikoff s poetic investigation into Jewish fate
is Holocaust (1975), based on the transcripts of the Nuremberg
and Eichmann trials. Yet Reznikoff is equally concerned with
Americas historical destiny, as seen by his longest work in his
mode of poetic documentary, Testimony: The United States.
Based on American court reports from 1885 to 1900, including industrial accidents, hate crimes, and domestic violence,
Testimony is a dark vision of one of the most hectic periods of
modernization, a deliberate response to any optimistic notion
of American progress and civic life. L.S. Dembo, who contributed immensely to the rediscovery of Reznikoff and his fellow Objectivists through a series of interviews he conducted
with them in 1968 and 1969, sums up Reznikoff s status as a
Jewish-American poet as follows: Being himself, however,
really meant not just a Jew or just an American but both and
neither. An exile, he sits down by the waters of Manhattan
to weep; a wry smile comes over his face, for he realizes that
he is home. And then he really weeps.
Bibliography: P. Auster, The Decisive Moment, in: The
Art of Hunger (1997); C. Bernstein, Reznikoff s Nearness, in: My
Way: Speeches and Reviews (1999); L.S. Dembo, The Monological Jew
(1988); N. Finkelstein, Not One of Them in Place: Modern Poetry and
Jewish American Identity (2001); S. Fredman, A Menorah for Athena:
Charles Reznikoff and the Jewish Dilemmas of Objectivist Poetry
(2001); M. Heller, Convictions Net of Branches: Essays on the Objectivist Poets and Poetry (2002); M. Hindus (ed.), Charles Reznikoff: Man
and Poet (1984); R. Omer-Sherman, Diaspora and Zionism in Jewish
American Literature (2002); H. Weinfield, Wringing, Wringing His
274
RHINEWINE, ABRAHAM (18871932), Canadian journalist and historian. Rhinewine, who was born in Mezhirech
(Miedzyrzec), Poland, studied for several years in the yeshivah
in Slobodka. To avoid arrest for political activity he fled to
London, where he lived from late 1907 to late 1908. He emigrated to Toronto in 1909. Already involved in journalism and
editing before his arrival in Canada, in 1912 he joined the staff
of Torontos Hebrew Daily Journal, and from 1915 to 1931 served
as its editor. For 15 years Rhinewine wrote almost daily for the
Hebrew Daily Journal, reporting on a wide range of communal
and cultural issues, as well as contributing some of his own
fiction and drama. As the papers editor, Rhinewine managed
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
rhode island
to appeal to a broader spectrum of the Jewish community,
but the newspapers editorial policy was decidedly pro-labor
and Zionist. Rhinewine was an active member of the Labor
Zionist movement. As a Labor Zionist delegate, he attended
the founding convention of the 1919 Canadian Jewish Congress in Montreal and remained an active supporter of the organizations work. He was also an advocate of Jewish secular
education and a founder and volunteer teacher at the National
Radical School in Toronto, which opened its doors in 1911 with
the support of various left-wing community groups. In addition Rhinewine chaired the Sholem Aleichem Library. An author in both Yiddish and English, Rhinewine did pioneer research in Canadian history. His writings include Erets Yisroel
in Yidishn Lebn un Literatur (1921); In a Kanadishn Shtot (1921),
a novella; the two-volume Der Yid in Kanada (192527); and
Looking Back a Century on the Centennial of Jewish Political
Equality in Canada (1932). A year before he died, Rhinewine
was pushed out of his position at the Hebrew Daily Journal.
He founded a rival weekly, the Yidishe Velt, but died of a heart
attack while working on the second issue.
Bibliography: C.L. Fuks, 100 yor yidishe un hebreyishe literature in kanade (1980), 28890; S. Speisman, The Jews of Toronto:
A History to 1937 (1979); R. Frager, Sweatshop Strife: Class, Ethnicity
and Gender in the Jewish Labour Movement in Toronto, 19001939
(1992).
[Ben G. Kayfetz / Richard Menkis (2nd ed.)]
Congregations
The first congregation, Sons of Israel, was chartered in 1854.
After merging with Sons of David in 1874, it affiliated with the
Reform movement. Jacob Voorsanger, a graduate of Hebrew
Union College, became the first Rhode Island rabbi ordained
in America. Sons of Israel and Davids first building was
erected in downtown Providence in 1890. The second, known
as Temple Beth-El, was built in South Providence in 1911. The
third synagogue, designed by Percival Goodman and built on
Providences East Side in 1954, remains one of the finest examples of modern synagogue architecture in New England. The
42-year tenure of William *Braude, Beth-Els scholarly rabbi,
has been the longest in Rhode Island.
The oldest congregation in Providence remaining Orthodox was Sons of Zion, organized in 1875. Beth Jacobs synagogue, erected in 1906, is the only Jewish building to survive
the North End, which was demolished during the 1950s and
1960s for highway construction and urban renewal projects.
The oldest Conservative congregation was Beth Israel,
established in 1921 in South Providence. The next was Temple
275
rhode island
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8BTIJOHUPO
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Jewish communities in Rhode Island and dates of establishment. Population figures for 2001.
Emanu-El, which in 1927 erected a magnificent domed edifice, the first synagogue on the East Side and is still thriving
in the same building site.
By the turn of the 19t century, Jewish communities
sprouted in many of Rhode Islands smaller and somewhat
isolated cities and towns. Newports famous Touro congregation was revived, and others arose in Pawtucket, Bristol, and
Westerly. In 1961, when Woonsockets Conservative congregation built a second synagogue, it commissioned magnificent
stained glass windows, textiles, and metalwork.
Hastened by the decline of South Providence and the
availability of single-family housing elsewhere, new congregations were established around Narragansett Bay. In 1952,
the first suburban synagogue was built in Cranston, only a
few miles south of Providence. With the construction of new
highways, such distant towns as Barrington and East Greenwich also became bedroom communities. In 2005, there were
six congregations in Providence, 11 located elsewhere around
the state.
Organizations
A Bnai Brith lodge was organized in Providence in 1870, a
Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Association a decade later. New
immigrants established scores of mutual aid societies. For
example, three Hebrew free loan associations have existed
for more than a century. Except for Lawrence Spitz, who led
Woonsockets Independent Textile Union in the 1930s, Jews
played minor roles in organized labor. They were active in a
bevy of Zionist organizations, however.
Over the past century, almost all of the Jewish communitys social service agencies have been built on or relocated
to Providences East Side. These have included a home for the
aged, a hospital, an orphanage, a community center, a family
counseling center, and a Holocaust museum. There are two
day schools and a bureau of Jewish education. Since 1954, the
Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association has published an
annual journal.
276
rhodes
first elected in 1991. Jews have been elected to every statewide
office, including three as attorney general. David N. Cicilline
is currently mayor of Providence.
Leonard Holland was the longest serving adjutant general of the National Guard. Three Jews have served on Rhode
Islands Supreme Court, and several have been close advisers to Senators.
Wider Impact
Jews have actively participated in Rhode Islands cultural life,
especially during the past half century. The states major theatrical company, Trinity Repertory, originated at the Jewish
Community Center. Daniel Robbins, the first Jewish director
of Rhode Island School of Designs Museum of Art, helped
create its core collection of modern art, the gift of Selma Pilavin.
Active in civic affairs, Jews have helped lead the United
Way, the Rhode Island Foundation, and the ACLU. Rhode
Islands Childrens Hospital was named for its largest donor,
Hasbro. Irving Fain championed fair housing legislation, and
in 1965 three rabbis marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. A Jewish philanthropist donated the Roger Williams
Spring, where Providence began, to the city.
sail for Pamphylia on his way to Rome, he was nearly shipwrecked and with difficulty made his way to Rhodes. There,
according to Josephus account (Ant., 14:3778, see also Wars,
1:280), he found the city devastated by the war against Cassius
and did not hesitate to help it even though he was in need
of funds, but actually exceeded his means in restoring it. It
is probable that he thereby intended also to benefit the local
Jewish population. Following the battle of Actium (31 B.C.E.)
Rhodes was the scene of a meeting between Herod and the
victorious Octavian. On this occasion Herod proclaimed his
loyalty and friendship to the new Roman emperor and as a
result was reconfirmed king of Judea (Wars, 1:3878, Ant.,
15:1878). Josephus states that Herod continued to offer economic aid to Rhodes: again and again he made contributions
for shipbuilding, and when their Pythian temple burnt down
he rebuilt it on a grander scale at his own expense (Wars,
1:424; Ant., 16:147).
[Isaiah Gafni]
Ancient Period
The biblical reference to Rhodes is in Genesis 10:45. Dodanim, the son of Yavan (Greece) and the biblical figure after
whom the Island of Rhodes is named and to whom it belonged, was Noahs great-grandson on the side of his son Yefet.
It is written, By these were the isles of the nations divided in
their lands; everyone after his tongue, after their families, in
their nations (Gen. 10:5). Although it is uncertain when the
first Jews settled in Rhodes, it appears that a Jewish community existed on the island at least toward the end of the Hellenistic period. Rhodes is listed in a Roman decree among
those areas notified of the renewal of the pact of friendship
between the Roman senate and the Jewish nation under the
high priest Simeon (142 B.C.E.), and numerous scholars have
concluded from this document that a Jewish community existed on Rhodes at the time (cf. Suetonius, Tiberius 32, where
a Diogenes Grammaticus is mentioned who used to dispute
on the Sabbath; cf. also IG, XII, fasciculus 1, n. 11, line 5, where
one should probably read Menippus of Jerusalem; cf. corrigenda, p. 206).
Herod the Great had occasion to visit the island a number of times. His first visit was in 40 B.C.E. when, having set
277
rhodes
ish household heads during the reign of Suleiman the Great
(152066), but the number was probably higher. Expulsees
from Spain and Portugal, as well as returned anusim (Marranos) strengthened the Jewish community and fortified it as an
important Judeo-Spanish-speaking center. Also some 150 Sephardi families were transferred from Salonika to Rhodes for
economic and strategic reasons as part of the sorgun by order
of the sultan in order to strengthen the population base. Jews
from Izmir, Istanbul, and Jerusalem were also relocated there;
as well as Jewish political prisoners. Rhodes became known as
the small Jerusalem. In the Ottoman period, the community
had two main synagogues: Kahal Grande and Kahal Shalom,
founded later, in 1577, and renovated in 1593. Noteworthy of
the time was the 16t century local poet Judah Zarko, who
published his work Leh em Yehudah in 1560. Among the noteworthy rabbis of Rhodes were: Judah ibn Verga (16t century);
Moses Bussal (17t century); Jehiel Bassan (18t century); Michael Jacob Israel (17901856) author of the responsa Yad Yamin; Judah Moses Franco, who became Rishon le-Zion in 1911;
and, above all, the long line of the rabbis of the Israel family,
beginning with Moses Israel of Erez Israel, who was appointed
chief rabbi of Rhodes in 1714. The Jews of Rhodes were merchants, manufacturers of arms, moneychangers, tax farmers,
and physicians; the middle class were craftsmen: carpenters,
tanners, goldsmiths, and bookbinders, and others made a wellknown wine, silk clothes, and wove cloth.
Moses de Vushal of Safed, chief rabbi of Rhodes in the
mid-17t century, presided over a flourishing yeshivah on the
island. He wrote Yismah Moshe and lived in a time of messianic hysteria within the community prompted by the messianic activity of *Shabbetai Z evi of nearby Smyrna (Izmir).
Shabbetai Z evi stayed at the rabbis house for a month in 1662
when he was en route to Erez Israel. Rabbi Vushals son, Solomon, became an ardent follower of Shabbetai Z evi. After this
false messiah converted to Islam by order of the Ottoman
authorities in September 1666 in order to avoid a death sentence, Solomon Vushal also converted to Islam, like many of
Shabbetai Z evis devout followers throughout the region and
the world. The rabbis who followed Moses de Vushal had to
cope with the problem of maintaining rabbinical authority due
to the turbulence caused by Shabbateanism. The community
also suffered a plague in 1667, which caused many to flee temporarily to the villages of the island. In the 18t centuries the
community was led by the Chief Rabbis H ayyim Algazi; Shmuel Sadok; the above Moses Israel (171438); Ezra Malki (of
Safed), who died in 1768; Moses ben Eliyahu Israel (Moses
Israel II) of Jerusalem, who was appointed in 1773 but died
at the early age of 34 in 1782; Jedidiah Samuel Tarica (whose
family originated in Candia); and H ayyim Tarsa, author of
the responsa H ayyim Shenayim and student of Rabbi Moses
Israel II.
Aharon Rah amim Franco was the Austro-Hungarian
consul in Rhodes beginning in 1769. In addition, he was
appointed by the Emperor Franz Josef as minister of the
post.
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ribalow, menachem
finally served as chief rabbi of Hebron (18781901). Reuben
Eliyahu Israel was the last chief rabbi of Rhodes, appointed in
1921 and serving until his death in 1932.
The Mah zor Sefarad was used by all; parts of prayers and
especially piyyutim were recited in Ladino. Before marriages,
the dowry was assessed and the amount inscribed in a register
and later in the ketubbah; the dowry was exhibited on carts
in the Jewish quarter. On the Sabbath after the marriage the
groom was called to the tevah and recited Abrahams order to
his servant to find a bride for his son Isaac in Mesopotamia
(Gen. 24); the congregation sang each verse in the Aramaic
Targum. Those who recovered from serious illness or grave
danger would offer a sacrifice a cow or sheep whose blood
the shoh et would smear on the door and the doorposts.
Italian Rule
In 1912, after the Balkan Wars, Rhodes and other Dodecanese
islands came under Italian rule. There were about 4,500 Jews
in Rhodes at the time. Rhodes became the center of the Italian
possessions in the Levant and Italian Jews settled on the island.
An Italian rabbinical seminary, the Collegio Rabbinico, was
founded by the Italian government in 1928 to serve the Italian
Levant (the Balkans, Erez Israel, Egypt, and Ethiopia); it was
closed in 1938 before the Fascist racial laws were promulgated.
It was headed by such scholars and luminaries as Rabbi Marcus Breger, Riccardo Pacifici, Prof. Isaiah Sonne, and Rabbi
Michel Albagli. The musicologist Albert Hemsi did important
fieldwork with Rhodian Judeo-Spanish speaking Jews to annotate their knowledge of romances, coplas, and other cultural
literary forms and religious musical rituals.
Jews who had arrived in Rhodes after 1919 (103 families
from Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey) were expelled and most
of them sailed for Tangier. Others later fled in the face of the
discriminatory measures, mainly to the Belgian Congo and
Rhodesia; where Rhodian enclaves had existed since the early
20t century. Some 200 local Jews embarked the illegal immigration boat Rim to Erez Israel after its North European Jewish passengers on the shipwrecked Agios Nikolaos had been
stranded in Rhodes for six weeks and housed at the local stadium. After the capitulation of Italy to the Allies in September 1943, the Germans occupied Rhodes, and on July 24, 1944,
deported to *Auschwitz all of the 1,820 Jews who were left on
the island; only 179 survived. The future UN Secretary-General
and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, then a young Wehrmacht Intelligence officer, was present for the collection of
gold when the Rhodian Jews were interned at the Chemenlik
warehouses, formerly an early Ottoman aeronautical base,
and assisted in arranging logistics for their deportation to
the Haidari Camp in Piraeus, from which they would be deported to Auschwitz/Birkenau. Twenty-nine-year-old Turkish consul and Righteous Gentile Salahattin Ulkumen saved
some 46 Jews from deportation.
Post-World War II
When Rhodes became a part of Greece in 1947, some 50 Jews
lived there. In 1969 there were 32 Jews on Rhodes. In the early
279
RIBEIRO, BERNARDIM (14821552), Portuguese poet. Ribeiro was a prominent courtier, but beyond this little is known
about his life except that he is said to have become insane after losing his mistress to a rival. The most talented Portuguese
poet before Cames, Ribeiro wrote eclogues that created a
vogue for bucolic verse. His outstanding work was the Hystoria de Menina e Moa (also known as Saudades), the first edition of which was published by the Jewish printer Abraham
*Usque at Ferrara in 1554. The work is a novel of romance and
chivalry in pastoral disguise, remarkable for its sensitivity, its
realistic detail, and its prevailing melancholy. Some passages
have been given a kabbalistic interpretation, or have been seen
as referring to the persecution of the Jews. It has been suggested that Ribeiro was befriended by the Usque family, after
he had fled from the Portuguese court; and it has even been
conjectured that the similarities between the Menina and the
Consolam of Samuel *Usque stem from the fact that the
latter and Ribeiro were one and the same person. One of the
most important pieces of imaginative literature produced in
the 16t century, Ribeiros novel had considerable influence
on later writers.
Bibliography: B. Ribeiro, Historia de Menina e Moa, ed.
by D.E. Grokenberger (1947); A.J. Saraiva and . Lopes, Histria da
literatura portugusa (19594), 21329; A.F.G. Bell, Portuguese Bibliography (1922), s.v.; J. Teixeira Rego, in: Estudos e Controvrsias, 2nd
series (1931).
[Kenneth R. Scholberg]
RIBEAUVILL (Ger. Rappoltsweiler), town in the HautRhin department, E. France. By 1311 there was a Jewish community in Ribeauvill large enough to own a synagogue, but
RIBEIRO DOS SANTOS, ANTONIO (17451818), Portuguese jurist, philologist, and humanist. Ribeiro was born in
Oporto, Portugal. After studying under the Jesuits in Brazil,
he returned to Portugal in 1764, where he studied Canon Law
at Coimbra. He was ordained subdeacon in 1796, and fulfilled
important ecclesiastical functions in Viseu, Faro, and Evora,
where he served as Deputy of the Holy Office. He was a strenuous defender of the principle of democratic rule as opposed
to the divine right of absolute monarchy.
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ribicoff, abraham A.
In 1776 Ribeiro was appointed the first Director of the
Public Library of Lisbon, in which capacity he served until
his death.
He left many works on literature, history, law, and philology, among them studies on the history and literature of Portuguese Jewry. His Memoria da literatura sagrada dos Judeus
portugueses desde os primeiros tempos da Monarquia at aos
fins do sec. XV (An Account of the Sacred Literature of the
Portuguese Jews form the Early Days of the Monarchy until
the End of the 15t Century); Memoria da literatura sagrada
dos Judeus portugueses no sec. XVI (An Account of the Sacred Literature of the Portuguese Jews in the 16t Century);
Memoria da literatura sagrada dos Judeus portuegueses no sec.
XVII (An Account of the Sacred Literature of the Portuguese
Jews in the 17t Century); Memoria da literatura sagrada dos
Judeus portugueses no sec. XVIII (An Account of the Sacred
Literature of the Portuguese Jews in 18t Century) were published by the Portuguese Academy of Sciences.
He bequeathed several manuscripts to the Public Library
of Lisbon, among them two studies entitled Do estado civile
religioso dos Judeus em Portugal e da sua emigrao para varias partes do mundo (On the Civil and Religious Status of the
Jews in Portugal and Their Emigration to Various Countries
in the World) and Memorial dos feitos de Jeronimo de Santa
F contra os Hebreos An Account of the Activities of Jeronimo
(Geronimo) de Santa Fe against the Jews).
Ribeiro revealed his Jewish origin to a friend, Attilio
Zuccagni Orlandini, an Italian geographer, and asked him
to copy his manuscript on the Civil and Religious Status of
the Jews in Portugal and to publish it in his happy Tuscany,
where one enjoys that honest freedom of opinion which in
Portugal is almost always denied and punished, so that my
work on the unfortunate Israelite Nation, so painstakingly
compiled, should not remain forever buried in the Archives
of the Public Library.
Zuccagni Orlandini in fact copied the manuscript and
translated it into Italian, but failed to publish it.
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riblah
Ribicoff served as chairman for the Committee on Government Operations (94t and 95t Congresses) and the Committee on Governmental Affairs (95t and 96t Congresses).
After serving in the Senate, he returned to the practice of law
in New York City.
Ribicoff wrote America Can Make It! (with P. Danaceau,
1972). The American Medical Machine (with P. Danaceau,
1972). Politics: The American Way (with J. Newman, 1973).
Nixons Good Deed: Welfare Reform (with V. Burke, 1974).
and Mental Health and Retardation Politics (with D. Felicetti, 1975).
Add. Bibliography: J. Lieberman, The Legacy: Connecticut
Politics, 19301980 (1981); S. Isaacs, Jews and American Politics (1974);
L. Tanzer (ed.), The Kennedy Circle (1961); S. Opotowsky, The Kennedy Government (1961).
[Sanford A. Lakoff / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
RIBLAH (Heb. ) .
(1) Ancient Syrian town situated between Lebo-Hamath and Kadesh on the Orontes, south of Lake Homs, on
the crossroads of the military highways to Mesopotamia and
Egypt; present-day Ribla. Perhaps because it was better known
than nearby Lebo-Hamath in Ezekiels time (see below) it is
named in Ezekiel 6:14 (read ) , instead of the latter, as
the theoretical northern limit of the Land of Israel. Around
this point there are many important tells. The great battle of
Kadesh between Pharaoh Ramses II (19t Dynasty) and the
Hittite king Muwatalliu was fought there in 1286 B.C.E. The
name of Riblah was then probably Sabtna (Pritchard, Texts,
256). This place was strategically situated for northwestern
or southwestern conquerors of the West. After a short reign
of three months, King *Jehoahaz of Judah was deposed and
imprisoned in Riblah by Pharaoh *Neco, presumably while
the latter was still in northern Syria in the year 609. Later he
took Jehoahaz with him to Egypt (II Kings 23:3334). *Nebuchadnezzar chose Riblah as his headquarters during his last
campaign against Jerusalem in 588586 B.C.E. After two years
of siege, King *Zedekiah saw that the situation was desperate and tried to flee the city, but the Chaldeans overtook him
at Jericho and brought him to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. All
of Zedekiahs children were slain before his eyes; he himself
was then blinded by order of Nebuchadnezzar and brought
to Babylon (II Kings 25:17; Jer. 52:9ff.).
(2) Shepham Hariblah (Num. 34:11) is a still unidentified boundary point on the northeastern boundary of the
Land of Israel.
RICARDO, DAVID (17721823), British economist. He was
born in London into a Sephardi family which in 1760 had immigrated from Holland. He was sent to Holland for a traditional Jewish education. After his return to London in 1786,
Ricardo joined his father, Abraham Ricardo (d. 1812), a successful member of the stock exchange. In 1793 he married the
daughter of a Quaker, broke with his family and left the faith,
although he persistently advocated religious liberties and the
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rice
dam, Ricardo acquired his knowledge and love of this music
from his grandfather Elyakim Alvarez Vega, who was h azzan
of the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam from
1885 to 1923. He was also the conductor of the Sephardi childrens choir Santo Servicio, which performed at religious services there. Ricardo settled in Erez Israel in 1933 and although
a mechanical engineer by calling, devoted himself from 1940
to recording the musical traditions of his community, collecting some 300 melodies. His recordings were donated to the
National Sound Archives in the late 1950s and remain an important musical document for scholars. He published three
booklets titled Neim Zemirot containing 170 notated traditional tunes from the Portuguese Jews Congregation (Amsterdam 1975) with an introduction by E. *Gerson-Kiwi; he
dedicated the work to his late grandfather.
[Akiva Zimmerman / Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
283
284
rich, adrienne
theater was a forum for the discussion of problems that affect the lives and happiness of millions, but that did not prevent him from writing appealing little plays like The Left Bank
(1931) and Two on an Island (1940). Not for Children (1935) was
a satire on the theater.
His other plays include See Naples and Die (1929), A New
Life (1944), The Grand Tour (1951), and Love Among the Ruins
(1963). Two of his novels were Imperial City (1937) and The
Show Must Go On (1949). Rice published an autobiography,
Minority Report, in 1963.
Bibliography: R. Hogan, Independence of Elmer Rice (1965);
J. Meersand, Traditions in American Literature, A Study of Jewish
Characters and Authors (1939), 2532, index; B. Mantle, Contemporary American Playwrights (1941), 5461; S.J. Kunitz, Twentieth Century Authors, first supplement (1955), incl. bibl.
[Joseph Mersand]
RICE, ISAAC LEOPOLD (18501915), U.S. lawyer and promoter. Rice was born in Wachenheim, Bavaria, and taken as a
child to Philadelphia. He abandoned a career in music to study
law, graduating in 1880 from Columbia Law School where
he taught from 1882 to 1886. He devoted himself to railroad
law, and was instrumental in reorganizing several southern
railroads, which later constituted the Southern Railway, and
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. In the 1890s Rice
turned to electrical inventions, working on the electric storage battery, electric automobiles, and electric boat industries.
He was president of the Electric Boat Co., the National Torpedo Co., the Electric Storage Battery Co., the American
Casein Co., and numerous other firms manufacturing
railway and marine vehicles and rubber tires. A prominent
chess player, Rice invented the Rice Gambit opening and
received the silver trophy for the International Universities
Chess Match. Rice wrote What Is Music? (1875) and contributed to several periodicals, including The Forum, which he
founded.
Bibliography: AJYB, 6 (1904/05), 1678; AJHSP, 25 (1917),
1756; New York Times (Nov. 3, 1915), 15.
[Edward L. Greenstein]
RICH, ADRIENNE (1929 ), U.S. poet. Rich was the daughter of a Jewish father who distanced himself from Judaism,
285
rich, buddy
and a gentile mother. Her Jewishness, and her response to it,
inform much of the poignancy of her poems about claiming
a heritage. No less importantly, her poetry is often bound up
with her father, patriarchal authority, and her lesbianism. A
revolt against, as well as a feminist reading of, a Judaism that is
male-dominated, gives Richs poetry a characteristic strength,
compassion, and large embrace. In Yom Kippur 1984, she
reflects: Am I writing merely about privilege/ about drifting
from the center, drawn to edges. Rich, often writing about
the shared experiences of females and about historical women,
began her career with tightly controlled poetry which brought
her early recognition by critics and other poets. Her first book
of verse, A Change of World (1951), was chosen by W.H. Auden
for the Yale Younger Poets Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship
followed (195253). The Diamond Cutters and Other Poems
(1955) won the Ridgely Torrence Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America. She was also awarded the National
Institute of Arts and Letters Award for poetry (1960); another
Guggenheim Fellowship (196162); and a Bollingen Foundation grant for translation of Dutch poetry (1962). In 1994, she
was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
Rich married an economist, had three sons, and served
as Phi Beta Kappa poet at William and Mary College, at
Swarthmore College, and at Harvard College. After Rich and
her family moved to New York City in 1966, she grew active
in protests against the war in Vietnam. Richs poetry became
radicalized as well, moving away from the precise blank verse
that had been her trademark to freer meters. Leaflets (1969)
expressed her new conviction that the goal of poetry should
be to illuminate the moment, rather than to be worked over
for posterity.
In 1970 Richs husband died and she became increasingly
involved in the radical feminist movement. She won the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America in 1971
and served as the Fanny Hurst Visiting Professor of Creative
Literature at Brandeis University in 197273. When she was
awarded a National Book Award for her 1973 book of verse,
Diving into the Wreck, she refused to accept the award as an
individual, and instead accepted it in the name of all women.
Her books of poetry include Poems: Selected and New (1975)
and A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far (1981). Of special
interest is Richs volume of poetry Your Native Land, Your Life
(1986) which speaks about her Jewish identity. Her An Atlas of
the Difficult World: Poems 19881991 was published in 1991; her
Collected Early Poems, 19501970 in 1993; The School Among
the Ruins: Poems, 20002004 in 2004. She has written several
volumes of essays, among them On Lies, Secrets, and Silence:
Selected Prose, 19961978 (1979); Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose, 19791985 (1986); and What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (1993).
Add. Bibliography: J.R. Cooper (ed.), Reading Adrienne
Rich: Reviews and Re-visions, 195181 (1984), J. Perrault, Writing Selves:
Contemporary Feminist Autobiography (1995); A. Templeton, The
Dream and the Dialogue: Adrienne Richs Feminist Poetics (1994).
[Sylvia Barack Fishman / Lewis Fried (2nd ed.)]
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richards, martin
top of $50,000 a day Rich was paying in contempt-of-court
fines. During this period, Rich and Green were in Europe.
When the deal was finally rejected, Rich and Green became
fugitives when they decided to stay abroad. The resellers who
were the main co-conspirators in the fraud were convicted
and served 12 months in jail. Richs companies pleaded guilty
to 78 counts and paid over $150 million while he and Green
remained fugitives.
Rich was joined in Switzerland by his wife, DENISE
EISENBERG RICH (1944 ), the daughter of Holocaust survivors who fled Germany for Worcester, Massachusetts. Her
father made millions in a shoe factory while Denise went to
Boston University, where she taught herself to play the guitar
and began a songwriting career. They married in 1966 and
she stayed with her husband in Europe. After about 10 years,
she returned to New York City with their three daughters and
reportedly received a large divorce settlement. Denise began
pursuing her songwriting career in earnest, contributed heavily to the Democratic Party and the campaign of Bill Clinton,
whom she met in 1993, and became famous for large parties
in New York City. Over the years, her songs were nominated
for Grammys and Oscars and she wrote songs for pop stars
like Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, and Patti LaBelle. The songs
and parties continued until 1996 when the Riches middle
daughter, Gabrielle, died of leukemia at the age of 27. Denise
then created the G & P Charitable Foundation (G for Gabrielle, P for Philip, her daughters husband) to finance cancer
research. Since its formation in 1998 the foundation raised
millions, aided by an appearance at the first gala by thenPresident Clinton.
While in exile, Rich continued his questionable business
practices. In 1988, the Defense Logistics Agency lifted its bar
on contracting with a Rich company and between 1989 and
1992, the U.S. Mint issued at least 21 separate contracts for
nickel, zinc, and copper to the company.
Over the years, Rich kept trying to win a pardon, his lawyers arguing that he was the victim of overly zealous prosecutors. Many of those who wrote letters of support for a presidential pardon were leaders of Jewish philanthropy in the
United States and Israel. Rich had given to a variety of major
institutions in Israel, including Shaare Zedek Medical Center,
Ben-Gurion University, the Israel Museum, and the Jerusalem
Foundation. He also helped bring dozens of Jews from Ethiopia and Yemen to Israel and was one of 14 people who pledged
five million dollars to Birthright Israel, a program that sends
young, primarily North American, Jews on free trips to Israel.
On January 20, 2001, only hours before leaving office, Clinton granted Rich a pardon. Clinton explained his decision by
noting that similar situations were settled in civil, not criminal, court, and cited clemency pleas from Israeli government
officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
After his pardon, Rich began lucrative business dealings
with Saddam Hussein of Iraq, which were disclosed in 2005 in
connection with the United Nations oil-for-food scandals.
[Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)]
RICHARDS, BERNARD GERSON (18771971), U.S. journalist, widely active in Jewish affairs. Richards was born in
Keidan (Kedziniai), Lithuania, and was taken to the U.S. in
1886. He began his journalistic career as a reporter on the Boston Post, and wrote for several Boston and New York papers,
as well as for Yiddish and other Jewish journals, including the
American Hebrew and The New Palestine. He also edited the
magazine New Era. From 1906 to 1911 Richards served as secretary of the Jewish Community of New York City, an organization designed to further the cause of Judaism, and in 1915
helped found the *American Jewish Congress, of which he was
executive director until 1932. At the end of World War I he was
a member of the American Jewish delegation to the Versailles
Peace Conference. He also founded the Jewish Information
Bureau of Greater New York (1932), and the American Jewish
Institute, New York (1942) to further adult education. He was
director of both these institutions. He was also a member of
the Zionist Organization of America, and his revised edition
of I. Cohens The Zionist Movement (1946) included a supplementary chapter of his own on Zionism in the U.S. His other
books were The Discourses of Keidansky (1903), and Organizing American Jewry (1947). His papers are in the library of the
Jewish Theological Seminary, New York.
[Irving Rosenthal]
287
RICHIETTI, JOSEPH SHALLIT BEN ELIEZER (17t century), rabbi and emissary of the Holy Land. Richietti apparently came from Mantua and settled in Safed some time after
1659. From 1674 to 1676 he was an emissary of Safed in Italy.
Moses *Zacuto welcomed him with great honor upon his arrival in Mantua in 1674. He was a Shabbatean of Zacutos circle. During his mission he published his H okhmat ha-Mishkan
(Mantua, 1676) on the erection of the Tabernacle, at the end
of which he republished the Iggeret Mesapperet Yah asuta deZ addikei de-Ara de-Yisrael (A genealogical table of the righteous men of Erez Israel). In the introduction to the work he
speaks of having drawn up a map of Erez Israel. He appears
also to have spent some time in Verona. According to documents of the Mantua community, he lent a sum of money to
the community during a time of need. He possessed important
manuscripts, among them a copy of the *Midrash ha-Gadol,
and was the first European scholar to make use of it.
Bibliography: Yaari, Sheluh ei, 39, 57, 81, 84, 414; S. Simonsohn, Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Dukkasut Mantovah, 2 (1964),
2912; I. Tishby, Netivei Emunah u-Minut (1964), 8183.
[Abraham David]
288
Montreal to the east. Between the middle 1950s and the early
1970s Richler made his home in London, England, raising a
family and supporting himself by writing screenplays. Upon
returning to Montreal to stay, Richler told friends that he
worried that being too long away from his home turf might
weaken his relationship with his richest material. The major
novels that best reflect his ability to weave Montreal Jewish
themes into a larger fictional tableau are St. Urbains Horseman (1971), Joshua Then and Now (1980), and Solomon Gursky
Was Here (1989). In the first of the three, Montreal plays the
slightest role, and Richler addresses the Holocaust with deft,
dark humor and moral outrage. Joshua Then and Now presents a loving portrait of a St. Urbain Street childhood. And in
Solomon Gursky Was Here, Richlers most ambitious book, he
takes liberties with the Bronfman liquor dynasty, the role of
Jewish wealth and power in Canada, alongside a fanciful consideration of Jews in the Arctic. These major books confirmed
Richlers place at the forefront of Canadian letters.
Richlers output also included three childrens books featuring a character named Jacob Two-Two, as well as an excellent memoiristic collection, The Street (1969). Among his
many literary awards are two Governor Generals Awards, the
Giller Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
Alongside his fiction and memoir, Richler embraced
freelance journalism and published regularly in Canada and
abroad on subjects as varied as Israel and the sporting life.
His willingness to editorialize aggressively and acerbically
placed him at the center of the political and cultural debate
concerning Quebecs national aspirations. Richler dismissed
the indpendantiste movement as destructive, incoherent, and
self-serving, insisting that its roots could be found in the xenophobic right-wing ideologies of 1940s Quebec. His influential, as well as provocative contributions to this discussion include a long essay, which appeared in The New Yorker in 1991,
and his full-scale study and memoir Oh Canada! Oh Quebec:
Requiem for a Divided Country (1992). With the latters publication Richler found the Montreal Jewish community fully
behind him possibly for the first time in his career as they
applauded his criticism of Quebec nationalism. In the Frenchspeaking community, Richler solidified his position as the Anglophone bte noir of French cultural life in the province.
In his last years, Richler was elevated to the role of cultural icon in Canada, a development that propelled his final
novel, Barneys Version (1997), to bestseller status. The novel
also became an unlikely success in Italy, where readers embraced Richlers characteristic brand of political incorrectness.
Bibliography: J. Yanofsky, Mordecai & Me: An Appreciation of a Kind (2003).
[Norman Ravvin (2nd ed.)]
richmond
RICHMOND, state capital of Virginia, U.S, and commercial center on the James River; 2001 population of metropolitan region 1,138,000 and within the city itself 192,000; Jewish
population, 12,500.
There is evidence of Jews residing in Richmond as early
as 1769. Revolutionary war veterans and business partners,
Jacob I. Cohen and Isaiah Isaacs, the citys earliest known Jewish residents, were instrumental in the establishment of the
states first Jewish congregation in 1789. Kahal Kadosh Beth
Shalome was the sixth and westernmost congregation in the
colonies, and one of the six that congratulated George Washington upon his inauguration as first president. The 1790 census shows Richmond with the fourth largest Jewish population, following only New York, Charleston and Philadelphia.
The first Jewish burial ground in the state was established on
Franklin Street in 1791 and, the first synagogue was dedicated
on Mayo Street in 1822.
The early Richmond Jews appear to have integrated easily into the citys life, holding a number of elective and civic
positions. Jacob Cohen was elected to the City Council in 1793
and served as a Master of his Masonic Lodge; Samuel Myers
became alderman in 1800; Benjamin Wolfe and Joseph Darmstadt were elected to the City Council in 1816; and Solomon Jacobs was elected recorder, the second highest municipal office
after that of the mayor, in 1815 and again in 1818. Gustavus A.
Myers (18011869), known as the most prominent Jew of the
city in his day, served on the City Council for nearly 30 years,
12 of which as its president. Judah P. *Benjamin, former U.S.
Senator from Louisiana, lived in Richmond while serving as
secretary of state for the Confederacy.
In 1841 the German Jewish community broke from Beth
Shalome to establish Beth Ahabah, a new synagogue in the
289
richter, burton
ing, senior living apartments, and a rehabilitation clinic; the
Carole and Marcus Weinstein Jewish Community Center;
Jewish Family Services, the oldest family welfare agency in
Virginia, established in 1849; two days schools Rudlin Torah
Academy (K-12) and the Solomon Schechter School; and two
high schools for the Orthodox community Shaarei Torah,
a high school for girls, and Yeshiva of Virginia, a high school
for boys. There are four summer camps and a religious school
for children with special needs. The department of religion at
the University of Richmond teaches Judaism and holds the endowed Weinstein-Rosenthal Chair. Virginia Commonwealth
University has a Center for Judaic Studies headed by Rabbi
Jack Spiro, rabbi emeritus for Beth Ahabah. There are four
mikvaot and a Kosher Conference and Retreat Center.
Richmond is the home of two Jewish museums, the Beth
Ahabah Museum and Archives that chronicles over 300 years
of Richmond Jewish History, and the Virginia Holocaust Museum that teaches tolerance through the experiences of local
survivors. Spearheaded by Jay Ipson, the Holocaust Museum
recently relocated to a 19t-century tobacco warehouse deeded
to the museum by the State of Virginia. In 1997, Commonwealth and Community: The Jewish Experience in Virginia
opened at the Virginia Historical Society and traveled through
the state to The Chrysler Museum in Virginia Beach and Roanoke. Saul Viener and the Jewish Federation of Richmond
partnered with the Historical Society to develop the exhibit
that remains on view at the Beth Ahabah Museum & Archives.
The Jewish Experience is also part of a permanent exhibition
on Virginia history at the Virginia Historical Society. In 2001
a Virginia Historical Marker was installed on South 14t street
marking the site of the first Beth Shalome synagogue.
Throughout the late 19t and the 20t century Richmond
Jews continued to serve in a variety of elected offices and civic
positions. William Lovenstein, served in the Richmond Light
Infantry Blues during the Civil War and later as president pro
tem of the Virginia State Senate. Alfred Moses, Julius Straus,
A.H. Kaufman, Clifford Weil, Joseph Wallerstein, Lee A. Whitlock, and Nathan Forb were elected to City Council. Sol L.
Bloomberg was a council president. Dr. Edward N. Calisch,
the rabbi of Congregation Beth Ahabah from 1891 until 1946,
was an important leader in the community. Norman Sisisky
was elected as the delegate representing Petersburg in the Virginia General Assembly in 1973 and to nine terms as U.S. Representative for Virginias Fourth Congressional District. Eric
Cantor served as the chief deputy majority whip, U.S. House of
Representatives, as the U.S. Representative for Virginias Seventh Congressional District (2000); and as Henrico County
delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1992 to 2000.
Michael Schewel served as Virginias secretary of commerce
and trade under Governor Mark Warner.
Jewish-Christian relations in the Richmond area were
characterized for many years by the indifferent Christian response to Jewish efforts to establish a meaningful religious
dialogue. In the late 1990s, Congregation Beth Ahabah forged
new ties with its neighbor St. James Church when it was se-
290
RICHTER, ELISE (18651943), Austrian professor of Romance languages. Born and raised in Vienna, Elise Richter
was among early matriculants when the University of Vienna
opened its doors to female students in 1897. Richter passed her
doctoral orals in comparative linguistics summa cum laude in
1901, and her post-doctoral dissertation defense for her university teaching credential (Habilitation) in Romance philology in 1905. It took two more years before she received her official appointment as the very first Privatdozentin, or female
unsalaried lecturer, in Austria. In 1921, she was promoted to
the rank of untenured associate professor, another first for an
Austrian woman. She taught a wide range of courses on various Romance languages and published extensively, especially
in the field of historical grammar. Only in 1923, however, did
she finally receive a paid university teaching contract, which
guaranteed her financial independence. She continued to
teach phonetics courses at the University of Vienna until she
was seventy-three years old, several years past the normal age
of retirement.
Elise Richter participated actively in Austrian political
life during the interwar years as a member of the small liberal
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
richtmann, mzes
Bourgeois-Democratic Workers Party. Despite her personal
reticence, she helped to establish and then chaired the Federation of University Women of Austria from 1922 to 1930. This
organization aimed at assisting women to break into previously inaccessible fields within academia.
After the Anschluss in March 1938, Elise Richter suffered
many humiliations due to her Jewish descent. Not only was
she dismissed from her teaching position, but she was also
banned from using the university library and prevented from
visiting museums and theaters. Her property, including her library, was confiscated and, although she continued her scholarly work until 1941, she could no longer publish in Germany.
In October 1942, together with her sister, the English literary
specialist Helene Richter, Elise Richter, was deported to Theresienstadt on the last large transport from Vienna; both elderly
women became Holocaust victims.
Richters students and disciples did not forget her, but
continued to publish her work posthumously. The Austrian
government erected a plaque in her memory as the first
woman professor at the University of Vienna.
Bibliography: H.H. Christmann, Frau und Jdin an der
Universitaet: Die Romanistin Elise Richter (1980). H.P. Freidenreich,
Female, Jewish, and Educated (2002); L. Spitzer and H. Adolf, In
Memoriam Elise Richter, in: Romance Philology, 1 (194748): 32941;
B.M. Woodbridge, Jr., A Bibliography of the Writings of Elise Richter, in: Romance Philology, 26 (1972): 342360.
[Harriet Pass Freidenreich (2nd ed.)]
mann and W. Schobert (eds.), Hans Richter. Malerei und Film. Exh.
cat. Deutsches Filmmuseums (1989); G. Homann, Hans Richter
18881976. Das bildnerische Werk (1985).
[Jihan Radjai-Ordoubadi (2nd ed.)]
RICHTER, RAOUL (18711912), German philosopher. Richter, who was born in Berlin, was the son of the non-Jewish
painter, Gustav Richter, and Carola, the daughter of the composer Giacomo *Meyerbeer. He grew up in the rich artistic
and cultural atmosphere of his parents circle. He became a
teacher at Leipzig, and in 1905 a professor. His first writing
was Zur Loesung des Faustproblems (1892).
In 1903 he published his important biographical study
of Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, sein Leben und sein Werk.
His Der Skeptizismus in der Philosophie und seine Ueberwindung (2 vols., 190408) is a historical and philosophical
study of skepticism from ancient times up to Nietzsche. His
last book, Religionsphilosophie (1912), contains his critique of
positive religion, his opposition to theism and atheism, and
his advocacy of pantheism. Richter believed God was neither
personal nor impersonal, but rather a suprapersonal organism. In 1913 a volume of his Essays was published containing
works on Faust, Nietzsche, and Pascal.
[Richard H. Popkin]
291
ricius, paulus
onward he published his articles anonymously. During the fascist regime in Hungary, he was among the few who were active
in the resistance, and he published a number of anti-regime
pamphlets illegally. Richtmann was elected member of the Pest
bet din after World War II, and he devoted himself exclusively
to research. The works Orthodoxia s cionizmus (Orthodoxy
and Zionism, 1920) and Szombat Almanach (Saturday Almanac, 1927) were published under his editorship. In 1955,
on the occasion of his 75t birthday, a tribute was published
which includes a bibliography of his writings.
Bibliography: Magyar Zsid Lexikon (1929), 746; A.
Scheiber, in: j let no. 38 (1950); Shunami, Bibl, 734 no. 4181.
[Baruch Yaron / Alexander Scheiber]
RICIUS, PAULUS (Rici, Rizzi, also known as Paulus Israelita; d. 1541), humanist, translator, and apostate. Probably born
in Germany, Ricius was baptized in Italy about 1505 and in the
following year met Erasmus at Pavia, where he became professor of philosophy and medicine. Ricius was one of the very
few converted Jews of the age who made a serious contribution to Christian Hebraism, although he also wrote a series of
works (Sal Foederis, 1507, 15142) designed to confirm his new
faith and refute Jewish arguments by means of the Kabbalah.
From 1514 he was body physician to the Emperor Maximilian
in Augsburg; he was elected to the chair of Hebrew at Pavia in
1521; and the favor which he enjoyed at the imperial court led
to his being ennobled as Baron von Sparzenstein in 1530. The
works which Ricius published include translations of Jewish
and Muslim texts and some original writings, mainly on mystical themes. The translations are: part of Joseph *Gikatillas
Shaarei Orah; the sole surviving Latin edition of a medical
treatise by the 12t-century Spanish scholar Albucasis; and
works by Averroes.
It is, above all, as one of the architects of the Christian
Kabbalah that Ricius is now mainly remembered. The Shaarei
Orah translation Portae lucis (Augsburg, 1516) was consulted by Conrad *Pellicanus while it was still in manuscript
and inspired many later scholars to tackle similar projects
(e.g., the Zohar translations of G. *Postel). Ricius helped to
popularize the prophecy of Elijah (based on Sanh. 97a) and,
like *Pico della Mirandola (whose knowledge of Kabbalah
Ricius disparaged), he was able to discover the Trinity and
other Christian doctrines in Jewish mystical works, which he
defended against the attacks of Jacob *Hoogstraaten in his
Apologeticus sermo (in Pistorius, Artis Cabbalisticae Tomus I, 1587).
Other works by Ricius include the treatises De anima coeli (1519) and Responsio ad interrogationem de nomine Tetragrammato (1519), and Statera prudentium (c. 1532), which led
to a controversy with the humanist Girolamo Aleandro because of the authors evident toleration of Protestantism. De
coelesti agricultura libri quattuor (1541), a collection of Ricius
major works which appeared shortly before his death, contained a preface by his former teacher, the philosopher Pietro Pomponazzi.
292
Bibliography: F. Secret, Les Kabbalistes chrtiens de la Renaissance (1964), 8799 and index; idem, in: Convivium, 5 (1956), 550;
idem, in: Rinascimento, 11 (1960), 16992; Steinschneider, Cat Bod,
214143; C. Singer, in: E.R. Bevan and C. Singer (eds.), The Legacy of
Israel (1927), 240; C. Roth, Jews in the Renaissance (1959), 80, 145.
[Godfrey Edmond Silverman]
rieger, paul
After sea duty, Rickover studied electrical engineering
at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and Columbia University. He served aboard submarines for three years and then
held increasingly important staff and command positions.
During World War II Rickover headed the Electrical Section,
Bureau of Ships in the Navy Department, and was decorated
for his effectiveness in obtaining men and materials to produce electric power and equipment necessary for naval shipbuilding and maintenance. Serving at Oak Ridge in 1946, site
of the development of the atomic bomb, and visiting other
nuclear research installations, Rickover became convinced of
the feasibility of constructing nuclear-powered submarines.
Almost alone against considerable opposition, he persuaded
the navy to undertake the effort in late 1947. Rickover was soon
placed in charge of the project, working with the Atomic Energy Commission, which designed and built the reactors. The
Nautilus, the first atomic-powered submarine in the world,
was launched in January 1954. Despite his success, Rickover
would have been forced to retire in 1953 if Congressional intervention had not kept him on duty and ensured his subsequent
promotions to rear admiral and vice admiral. He made other
contributions to nuclear-power developments, was active in
the field of education, and received many decorations. In 1973
Rickover was promoted full admiral. In 1979 he was awarded
the Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award and in the following year the Medal of Freedom by President Carter.
Bibliography: C. Blair, The Atomic Submarine and Admiral Rickover (1954).
[Stanley L. Falk]
RIEGELMAN, HAROLD (18921982), U.S. lawyer and public official. Riegelman, who was born in Des Moines, Iowa,
entered private law practice after service in World War I. His
public posts included: New York State veteran relief commissioner (192232); special assistant New York State attorney
general (192930); special counsel to the U.S. Treasury Department (1935); delegate to the New York State Constitutional
293
riegner, gerhart
Rome, a history of the Jews in Rome, published in English by
Vogelstein in 1940.
Bibliography: H. Liebeschuetz, in: YLBI, 8 (1963), 2523.
[Cecil Roth]
294
riesser, gabriel
RIESSER, GABRIEL (18061863), pioneer of Jewish emancipation in Germany. Born in Hamburg, Riesser studied law
at the universities of Kiel and Heidelberg. After trying in vain
to become lecturer in one of the universities, and after being
refused permission to practice as a notary in Hamburg because of his faith (1830), Riesser decided to devote his life to
the struggle of the Jews to achieve *emancipation. He published in 1831 a pamphlet, Ueber die Stellung der Bekenner des
Mosaischen Glaubens in Deutschland. Addressed to Germans
of all religious persuasions, it marked a turning point in the
struggle for emancipation. Riesser demanded emancipation
for the Jews in the name of honor and justice. In his view the
claim that the Jews must convert in order to obtain full civil
rights was evidence of contempt for religion. The Jews themselves must fight for their own rights, and for that purpose
they must organize themselves in special associations, since
only by a common effort and not as individuals do they have
a chance of success. His call struck a responsive chord and the
pamphlet soon had to be reprinted.
Riesser and his ideas were severely criticized, especially
by the rationalist theologian and professor, H.E.G. Paulus
from Heidelberg. Paulus maintained that the adherence of
the Jews to their religion made them a different Jewish nation, and therefore they did not have the right to be citizens
(Staatsbuerger). In the controversy with Paulus, Riesser tried
to prove that the Jews had ceased to be a nation. He held that
their religion was a religious denomination and therefore they
were equal to all other Germans, Protestants or Catholics, in a
country in which they had lived for many generations. Riesser
vigorously rejected Paulus claim that the Jewish identification with Germany would be delusive. He argued that the
long-awaited political union of Germany could be achieved
only in a state built on the principles of justice, liberty, and
equality, and these principles also necessitated the granting of
emancipation to the Jews. He propagated his views in comprehensive essays about the problem of Jewish emancipation in
the constitutional debates of his time, which he published in
his periodical Der Jude, Periodische Blaetter fuer Religion und
Gewissensfreiheit (18311833). Its very name indicated Riessers
self-consciousness at a time when German Jewry was seeking
to substitute the word Jewish with Mosaic. He published
in 1838 Einige Worte ueber Lessings Denkmal, an die Juden
Deutschlands gerichtet. Riesser expressed the hope, in messianic vein, that the struggle for the sake of human values would
be crowned with success, and that love of mankind and tolerance would defeat religious hatred and the suppression of
free conscience. At the same time Riesser tried in vain to be
naturalized in Hessen and to take part in forming its constitutional regime. In 1840 he was permitted to open a notarys
office in Hamburg. In the years preceding the 1848 Revolution,
ideological and political strife in Germany intensified and this
found expression in his work, Juedische Briefe, Zur Abwehr und
Verstaendigung (184042), in which he entered into polemics
with Bruno *Bauer and Wolfgang Menzel, who was a rabid
opponent of Heinrich *Heine and Ludwig *Boerne. Riesser
had already defended Boerne in 1831 when the latter was attacked because of his Briefe aus Paris.
Riessers aspiration to function simultaneously as a German statesman and as an advocate of Jewish emancipation
materialized during the Frankfurter Vorparlament und National Versammlung in 184849. Distinguishing himself in the
National Assembly as a powerful speaker, he was vice president (for two months) and a member of the constitutional
committee. He belonged to the right wing of the center in the
National Assembly, expressing his views on a free, united,
great, and strong Germany in his article, Ein Wort ueber die
Zukunft Deutschlands (1848). The climax of his activity was
the Kaiserrede (March 29, 1849), which was considered one
of the most brilliant speeches delivered in the National Assembly. It contained the summary of the debate on the proposed constitution, and in it Riesser sought to provide justification for offering the imperial German crown to the king
of Prussia; he was later one of the members of the delegation
to the king, who declined the offer. Riesser proudly fought in
the National Assembly for the acknowledgment of the Jews
right to full civil rights. His very status in the National Assembly was a partial expression of emancipation, which was
given further expression in his later years. In 1849 not only
was he naturalized in Hamburg but he became its representative in the Erfurt parliament (1850). With the formation of
a citizens council (Buergerschaft) in Hamburg, Riesser was
elected to it and became its vice president (1859), and in 1860
he was appointed a member of the Hamburg High Court, the
first German Jew to receive this title. Among his many travels outside Germany, Riesser visited the United States in 1856.
He returned from this trip disappointed and shocked by the
status of the American Blacks, which he regarded as a grave
blow to the principle of equality and freedom, especially in
a country whose democracy was theoretically the model for
the rest of the world.
Riesser abandoned the observance of all Jewish tradition in his private life, but he insisted that those who wished
to observe these traditions should do so of right and not on
sufferance. Riesser was one of the leading members of the
Hamburg Temple and associated himself generally with the
moderate wing of the *Reform movement. He opposed giving up a special Jewish character in order to achieve emancipation. Only from the religious point of view were the Jews a
minority, according to Riesser, a minority whose rights should
be recognized by the ruling Christian majority.
The Jewish struggle for emancipation was identified with
the figure of Riesser, whose sharp intellect and upright personality won him much reverence. Medals were struck in his honor
and declarations of gratitude were presented to him during his
lifetime. After he died a special association to perpetuate his
memory was formed; M. Isler published Riessers biography
and writings under the auspices of this society (Gabriel Riessers Gesammelte Schriften, 186768; repr. with an epilogue by
J.H. Schoeps, 2001).
295
riesser, jacob
296
297
rieti, vittorio
Italia, 6578; Davidson, Oz ar, 4 (1933), 450; J. Goldenthal, Il Dante
Ebreo (1851); G. Karpeles, Geschichte der juedischen Literatur, 2 (19213),
745ff.; I. Reggio, in: Bikkurei ha-Ittim, 9 (1829), 14; M.A. Shulwass,
Hayyei ha-Yehudim be-Italyah (1956), index.
[Yonah David]
RIFKIND, SIR MALCOLM (1946 ), British Conservative politician. Rifkind was born in Edinburgh, the son of a
credit draper of Lithuanian origin. He was educated locally
and graduated with a degree in law from Edinburgh University, where he was involved in politics, becoming chairman of
the university Conservative Association in 1967. Called to the
Bar in 1970 (he was later a Queens Counsel), in the same year
he was elected to Edinburgh Council and unsuccessfully contested the Parliamentary seat of Edinburgh Central. Elected to
Parliament for Pentlands in 1974, he was appointed opposition
front bench spokesman on Scottish Affairs in 1975. Having
served on the Parliamentary committees dealing with foreign
affairs, following the Conservative election victory in 1979 he
served as minister for home affairs and the environment at the
Scottish Office from 1979 to 1982 and Parliamentary undersecretary of state, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 198386.
In January 1986 he became the youngest member of the Cabinet and first Jewish secretary of state for Scotland. He held
this office until he was appointed secretary of state for transport in 1990. In 199295 he was the first postwar Jewish secretary of state for defense since Emanuel *Shinwell. From 1995
to 1997 he served as foreign secretary, the first Jew to hold
this post since 1931. Rifkind lost his seat in Parliament in the
Labour landslide of 1997 and received a knighthood the
same year. Subsequently he worked for the BHP oil company
and, in 2004, was selected as the Tory candidate for the safe
seat of Kensington and Chelsea. In public life he consistently
maintained an interest in the affairs of Israel. He opposed
the visit of PLO officials to London in 1975 and was honorary secretary of the Parliamentary group of Conservative
298
RIETI, VITTORIO (18981994), composer. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Rieti studied with Giuseppe Frugatta in Milan and later in Rome with Ottorino Respighi. During the
1920s and 1930s he was part of a group of French composers
known as Les Six and spent most of his time in Paris, where
he composed ballet and theater music in a neoclassical style.
After moving to the United States in 1940, he became an instructor at various colleges and concentrated on symphonic
and chamber music. Among his compositions are the music
for Balanchines ballets Barabau (1925) and Le Bal (1929) presented by Diaghilev, the ballet David Triomphant (1926), the
operas LArca di Noe (1922), Orfeo tragedia (192829), Teresa
nel bosco (1934), Don Perlimplin (1952), Viaggio di Europa
(1954), The Pet Shop (1958), The Clock (195960), Maryam the
Harlot (1966), oratorios, symphonies, orchestral works, chamber music, songs, and piano pieces.
Bibliography: Grove online, S.V.; C. Ricci, Vittorio Rieti
(1987).
[Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
riga
vols., ed. A. Bellow and W. Keens, 1986, 1989), and At 90, on
the 90s: The Journal of Simon H. Rifkind (1992).
RIGA (Lettish Riga), Baltic port, capital of Latvia; under
Russian rule from 1710 to 1917, capital of Livonia (Livland);
19441991 in the Latvian S.S.R. The first documentary evidence of Jews in Riga the record of a sale of merchandise to
a Jew named Jacob is dated 1536. During Polish and Swedish rule in Livonia (15611621 and 16211710, respectively) restrictions were imposed on Jewish residence, but in the course
of time a number of Jewish merchants arrived there. By 1645
there was a special Jewish inn in the city where visiting Jewish merchants had to stay. In 1710 the Livonia region was incorporated into Russia and, according to reports by English
merchants dating to 1714, Jews and Catholics then enjoyed religious freedom. In 1725 a few privileged Jews were given the
right to reside outside the Jewish inn. In that same year they
were permitted to bury their dead in Riga, whereas previously
they had to be taken to *Courland for burial. Despite requests
from the city authorities and the provincial governor, Empress
Elizabeth Petrovnas decree of 1742, ordering the expulsion of
Jews from *Russia, was also applied to the Jews in Riga. It was
not until 1766, under Catherine II, that Jewish merchants were
allowed into Riga, although they were restricted to a visit of
six weeks and to residence at the Jewish inn; a few privileged
Jews were given special permission to stay elsewhere.
Permission was granted for Jews to reside at Sloka (Ger.
Schlock), a nearby town, in 1785, where in 1792 they were permitted to open a prayer room. A few managed to settle in Riga,
although the official ban was still in force. In 1798 there were
seven Jewish families living in Riga, and by 1811, 736 Jews in the
city and suburbs including over half in Sloka. As Riga was outside the *Pale of Settlement, it continued to be difficult for Jews
to enter the city. However, in 1813 the Jews of Sloka were given
the right to settle there. The same year a community is mentioned. In 1822 Jews were permitted to engage in crafts. The
Jewish statute of 1835 (see *Russia) confirmed the permanent
residence rights of part of the population. In 1840 Sloka Jews
were allowed to open a school in Riga which became one of
the few modern institutions in Russia at that time. Max *Lilienthal was invited to Riga to become principal of the school
and rabbi of the German synagogue. After he left there, Reuben *Wunderbar became principal of the school.
In 1841 Jews were allowed to register officially as inhabitants of the city, and later were permitted to build synagogues,
own real property, and engage in commerce and trade; an organized community was officially founded in 1842 and continued to function until 1893. In 1850 the community asked
for permission to buy land for a synagogue, on which building commenced in 1868. The number of Jews increased from
5,254 in 1869 to 22,115 (8 percent of the population) in 1897
and 33,651 (6.5 percent) in 1913. They played an important role
in commerce, the export of goods (especially grain, timber,
and flax), in industry, banking, and the various crafts. Jews
owned timber mills, tanneries, and engaged in clothing and
shoe manufacture. Before the outbreak of World War I the majority of dentists and 20 percent of the physicians were Jews,
while only a few practiced as lawyers. There were a number of
synagogues and h asidic prayer rooms, schools, h adarim both
of the traditional and the reformed type, a library, charitable
institutions, and various clubs and societies. Zionist activities were organized at the end of the 19t century and a delegate from Riga attended the First Zionist Congress. In 1898
the third branch of the *Society for the Promotion of Culture
among the Jews in Russia (after St. Petersburg and Odessa)
was formed in Riga. Among the official rabbis (see *kazyonny
ravvin) were two Hebrew authors, A.A. Pomiansky (187393)
and J.L. *Kantor (190915). During the war, in 1915, Riga Jews
gave refuge to the Jews from Courland, who had been driven
out of their homes by the czarist authorities. During the war
and the subsequent changes of regime in the area the Jewish
population in Riga decreased.
After the establishment of the independent Latvian Republic, Riga became the capital of the new state; its Jewish
population grew from 24,721 (13.6 percent of the total) in 1920
to 39,459 (11.68 percent) in 1925, 42,328 (11.20 percent) in 1930,
and 43,672 (11.34 percent) in 1935. In 1935 Riga Jews formed
approximately 47 percent of the total of Latvian Jewry. The increase was largely the result of internal migration, especially
from the province of Latgale. Riga was the economic, political, cultural, and social center of Latvian Jewry.
Under the democratic regime of the country (191834),
an autonomous Jewish school system was administered from
Riga. A manifold network of Hebrew and Yiddish elementary and secondary schools was established. These included
around 12 Hebrew and Yiddish schools, mainly supported by
the city council; private secondary schools whose language of
instruction was Russian or German; two vocational schools,
one of *ORT and one of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews in Russia; a pedagogical institute; and a
Froebel institute for kindergarten teachers where a large number of students were from Lithuania who returned to teach
there. There was also a Jewish university. The yeshivah in
Riga was headed by its chief rabbi Menahem Mendel Sack,
who was also active in the general communal affairs of Latvian Jewry; he perished in the Holocaust.
Chairman of the community was Mordecai *Dubin,
leader of Agudat Israel and its representative in parliament.
For a short time Riga was the center of the Lubavitch H asidim
where their leader Joseph Isaac *Schneersohn stayed for several years after leaving the Soviet Union. Several charitable institutions, among them Jewish hospitals, were established by
contributions of philanthropists. The Yiddish theater of Riga
was known even outside the borders of Latvia for its high level
of artistic performance. There were also several sports clubs,
headed by Maccabi. Two or three Yiddish daily newspapers
were published, and newspapers and various periodicals in
other languages were published by Jews: the best known was
Frimorgn (192534), edited by J.Z.W. *Latzky-Bertholdi and
Jacob *Hellman. The general Russian newspaper Sevodnya,
299
riga
which was known among Russian readers outside Latvia, was
owned by Jews and devoted considerable space to Jewish affairs. There were a number of Karaites in Riga, among them
owners of two cigarette factories. The Jewish share in the commercial, industrial, and banking activities of the city was substantial; the central office of the Association of Latvian Jewish Credit Cooperatives was situated in Riga. Jews sat on the
city council, and there were Jews on the teaching staff of Riga
University and the state music conservatory.
Contemporary Period
The 1959 census indicated a Jewish population of 30,267 (out of
600,000 inhabitants of Riga), 14,526 of whom designated Yid-
300
Holocaust Period
During the first period of Soviet regime in Latvia (from June
1940 to June 1941), Communist rule was introduced: Jewish,
especially Zionist, public activity ceased, and Jewish commerce and industry were nationalized. After war broke out between the U.S.S.R. and Germany, Riga was occupied on July 1,
1941, and persecution began of the 40,000 Jews there. AntiJewish attacks were organized by the Einsatzgruppen, aided by
Latvian fascists, resulting in the death of 400 persons; mass
arrests of Jews took place and the synagogues were set on fire.
In the period SeptemberOctober 1941 a walled ghetto was established in the Moscow quarter to which 30,000 Jews were
confined. On Nov. 30, 1941 (10 Kislev, 5702), approximately
10,600 Jews were shot in a nearby forest by Einsatzgruppe A;
later similar Aktionen took place on December 79; a total of
25,000 Jews were killed, about 80 percent of the ghetto population (one of the victims was the historian Simon *Dubnow).
The first ghetto (also known as the large ghetto) was then
liquidated, and the 4,000 remaining male Jews were put into
a forced labor camp (the little ghetto). Women were imprisoned in a separate camp.
At the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942, Jews deported from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia began arriving in Latvia; most of them were murdered in the forests.
About 15,000 of the deportees were put into a special camp in
Riga (the German ghetto) under a special Judenrat whose
authority was later imposed on the whole ghetto. Several Jewish labor camps were also established in Riga and the vicinity.
On Nov. 2, 1943, an Aktion took place in the Riga ghetto, in
which the old, the very young, and the sick were murdered.
Afterward the ghetto was liquidated, and the surviving Jews
taken to the Kaiserwald concentration camp, near Riga. Latvian and other local inhabitants collaborated with the Nazis in
the persecution and murder of Jews. In the summer of 1944,
as a result of the Soviet offensive in the Baltic area, the Kaiserwald concentration camp was liquidated, and the remaining
Jews deported to various camps in Germany; few of them survived. After the war the survivors chose to stay in the camps
for *Displaced Persons rather than return to Riga (which was
occupied by the Soviet Army on Oct. 13, 1944). Eventually
most of them settled in Israel, and some in the United States
and other countries.
[Joseph Gar]
RIGHT AND LEFT (right: Heb. ; Akk. imnu, imittu; Ugaritic, ymn; left: Heb. ; Akk. umlu; Ugaritic, (u)mal; and
common Semitic). The biblical usages of right and left are
basically fourfold: right as opposed to left; directions (cardinal points); strength and weakness; merism. As is the case in
many cultures, right is favored over left in various contexts.
Examples for each of these usages will be presented below, as
well as Ancient Near Eastern parallels wherever appropriate.
Right as Opposed to Left
Right and left play an important role in Jacobs final blessing
to his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. 48: 1220),
whom Joseph places at the left and right sides of Jacob, respectively (verse 13), expecting his father to place his right
hand on Manasseh (the firstborn) and his left on Ephraim,
and then bless them. But Jacob crosses his hands, placing his
right hand on Ephraim (verse 14) and his left on Manasseh, despite Josephs objections (verse 18). Jacob explains his actions
by stating that Ephraim will be greater than Manasseh (verse
19). Right and left parts of the body also play an important role
in sacrifices as may be seen from the following phrases which
occur many times in the Book of Leviticus and elsewhere: the
right thigh (Ex. 29:22; Lev. 7:32, 33; 8:25, 26; Num. 18:18, etc.);
the right ear and the right thumb [or big toe] (Ex. 29:20; Lev.
8:23, 24; 14:14, 17, 25, 28, etc.). Two Ancient Near Eastern parallels to this usage in sacrifice have been found at Ugarit. In
one (R 24.253; Ugaritica, 5 (1955), no. 13), in a sacrificial context, the phrase s b mal dalpm appears which may be provisionally translated: the left protuberances [?] of two bulls.
In another (R 261.247; not yet published but quoted by C.H.
Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook (1965), Glossary, nos. 1107, 2393a),
the phrase q ymn occurs, which is the same as the Hebrew
shoq ha-yamin, , right thigh, quoted above. Finally,
the right side (of the throne) is usually the side on which the
kings or Gods associates sit (I Kings 2:19, the queen; Zech.
3:1, Satan; Ps. 109:6, Satan, etc.). This is paralleled in Ugaritic
literature by the following passage: tdb ksu wyt tb lymn aliyn
Bl, A throne is placed and he is seated to the right of Puissant Baal (II AB 5:10810; Pritchard, Texts, 134).
hams separation from Lot (Gen. 13:9ff.), Abraham says (according to one interpretation): If [you go] north [] ,
I will go south [
;] And if you go south [] , I will
go north [] . The southern border of Manasseh
is described in the Book of Joshua as ha-gevul el ha-yamin
(
, Josh. 17:7) the boundary of the right, while
north of Damascus is expressed as mi-semol le-Dammeseq
() , to the left of Damascus (Gen. 14:15). Perhaps the most instructive passages for this usage are those
which use right and left together with the regular words for
the other directions: North and south [ ] You [God]
have created them (Ps. 89:13); Then it [the border] turns
eastward [ ] and touches northward [] ,
then it continues northward [ ; lit. left] Josh. 19:27).
Finally, the tribe *Benjamin (ben-yamin, son of the right)
was the most southern tribe in the House of Joseph (II Sam.
19:1721), and this usage has a direct parallel in the Mari letters where both the DUMU-Iamna, southern tribe, and the
DUMU-Simal, northern tribe, are often mentioned (e.g., Archives royales de Mari, 1 (1950), 60:9, p. 116). Semantically,
DUMU-Iamna (probably to read mr-yamna) is exactly parallel to Benjamin, though there is no valid evidence for any
historical connection between the two.
301
In Talmudic Literature
Although there does exist some evidence that the left was regarded as sinister in the Talmud, the general opinion, both
in halakhah and aggadah, is merely that the right is more important and significant than the left. The word yad (hand),
without qualification, was taken to refer always to the right
hand, as the word ez ba (finger) to the index finger of the
right hand (Zev. 24a). All religious duties had normally to be
performed with the right hand (or foot, see below). The only
302
303
MOVING. An additional principal form of help was to assist Jews who wished to flee from an endangered place to
another location; either within German-controlled areas, or
across frontiers to countries not embroiled in the war, such
as Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, and Turkey. Even in areas under German spheres of influence, conditions for Jews varied.
In France, for instance, it was somewhat easier to survive in
the southern Vichy, so-called free zone, where antisemitic
measures were applied with less severity than in the Germanoccupied north (including Paris). Conditions were even more
favorable in southeastern France, in the provinces under Italian administration, where Jews were not mistreated. Similar
conditions prevailed in other regions under Italian rule, up
to September 1943, in western Yugoslavia, Albania, and the
Italian zone in Greece, which included Athens. In Poland,
conditions were bad and dangerous everywhere. At the same
time, for people trying to pass as non-Jews it was safer to do
so far away from ones own hometown, so as not to be recognized on the streets. Some persons also wished to flee from
one to another ghetto, where it was felt life was relatively more
tolerable, such as the Warsaw ghetto up to summer 1942, as
compared with the Lvov (Lww) ghetto. In Ukraine, persons
close to the Romanian zone of occupation wished to flee
there; again, because of the less severe conditions prevailing
for Jews after the initial period of widespread pogroms by the
Romanian military. In Ukraine and Belarus, one could also
try fleeing into the deep forests, to join up with friendly partisans fighting the Nazis. In Greece, after the whole country
came under Nazi rule in September 1943, Jews sought to escape into the hills, to enlist with the partisans, or by boat to
neutral Turkey, where they were permitted to land. Similarly,
in Norway and Denmark, thousands of Jews escaped, either
by boat or by negotiating tortuous paths through the hills,
to Sweden, where they were welcomed. In France, after the
whole country, including the Italian zone, came under direct
Nazi control, after September 1943, Jews sought to flee either
to Switzerland or to Spain. In all these endeavors, to travel
over long distances and tortuous trails and negotiate wellguarded border crossings without being apprehended, help
was needed from non-Jews since the use of public transportation and public accommodations was forbidden to Jews by
304
305
Problematic Issues
Most rescue stories placed before the Commission for the
Designation of the Righteous do not present problems, and
do not therefore occasion serious divisions of opinion among
commission members, insofar as the Righteous title is concerned. However, as with all issues dealing with human behavior during times of extreme stress and tension, from time to
time cases of a special and unique character come to the fore
which may not accord in all its aspects and contours with the
criteria for the Righteous title. Such cases, due to their special
and unique character, may require a different approach and
judgment. Over the years, the Commission has acted in such
specific cases, as follows:
1. The testimony of a rescued person who was an infant
at the time is acceptable but not sufficient for the Righteous
title, as it may be assumed that it is based on hearsay. What is
required is an additional corroborative statement from someone who was at the age of understanding, or supporting documentary material in lieu of eyewitness testimony.
306
Jews in an underground shelter on the Aryan side of Warsaw. When the place was discovered, the Germans shot all
the bunkers inhabitants, including their rescuers the Polish
Wolski family. Rescuers in other countries fared no less well.
In Germany, the farmer Heinrich List was sent to the Dachau
camp in 1942, where he died the same year, after being apprehended for sheltering a Jewish acquaintance on his farm.
In Italy, Giovanni Palatucci was also sent to Dachau, where
he perished, for aiding Jews and other persons sought by
the Nazis, in Fiume. In Denmark, Henry Thomsen was arrested and sent to the Neuengamme camp, where he died, for
his involvement in ferrying Jews across to Sweden. In France,
Father Jacques (Lucien Bunel) was arrested in his Catholic
seminary, in Avon, after it was discovered that he was sheltering three Jewish boys. He was sent to a concentration camp,
where he died. Suzanne Spaak, deeply immersed in the rescue of Jewish children in the Paris region, was executed by
the Nazis on the eve of the liberation of the city, in August
1944. In the Netherlands, Joop Westerweel, Jaap Musch, Joop
Woortman, and Albertus Zefat, were executed on Dutch soil
for their involvement in the rescue of Jews. Sometimes, not
directly aiding but merely showing sympathy with Jews could
land the person in a concentration camp. Adelaide Hautval,
who complained of the treatment of Jews in a French prison,
was dubbed a Friend of the Jews, and deported to Auschwitz,
which she luckily survived. These are but a few of many examples of rescuers who suffered martyrdom, or severe physical damage to their health, for their attempt to help Jews elude
the Nazi dragnet. Much as the rescuers feared the Germans,
the danger did not only stem from them but also from other
quarters as well, such as local collaborators, anti-German
partisans units who also attacked Jews and their protectors
(especially in Eastern Europe), various antisemitic elements
(pro- or anti-Nazi), and plain blackmailers holding to no particular political agenda.
righteousness
persuasion converted out of Judaism before the advent of
Nazism and anti-Jewish laws in his country is considered to
have willingly left the Jewish fold, and his, or her, case (be it
as rescuer or rescued) is not considered with the framework
of the Righteous program. Such a ruling would not apply if
the conversion was done to avoid persecution by the Nazis
and their allies.
Motivations and Lessons
Several studies have been made to try to explain the motivations of the rescuers. Nechama Tec, in her research on Polish
rescuers, concluded that most rescuers in her sample stood
out from their immediate surroundings, since they did not
identify with the behavioral norms of their neighbors. In
short, rescuers tended to be nonconformists and individualists who preferred to draw their own conclusion as to the
proper responses to various human issues confronting them.
Samuel and Pearl Oliner researched rescuers from many
European countries, and found, as opposed to Tec, that most
rescuers had so completely internalized the social norms of
their society, such as compassion and aid to the less favored,
that whereas most others only paid lip service to the values
taught in their society, rescuers in fact had taken these teachings so seriously that they became behavioral codes in their
day-to-day lives to a greater degree than non-rescuers and
bystanders. Whatever the ultimate reasons for this unique
kind of behavior (risking ones life to help strangers), the example of the Righteous Among the Nations suggests that man,
left to his own devices, while not a saint is not necessarily
prone solely to evil deeds. When confronted and challenged,
ordinary people have the capacity to perform acts of goodness
for their own sake. The lessons to be drawn include the following: (a) That it was possible to save Jews at the individual
level, even in spite of the risks involved; that the individual,
left to his own devices, can decide to act right morally and
can make a difference, and thereby serve as an example and
role model for the behavior of others. (b) That helping others in distress may be a natural, not coerced, human behavioral mode, and represents man at his best. The French Jewish
philosopher Emmanuel *Levinas has stated that a true ethic
begins with a turning towards and responding to the Other,
since such an encounter makes possible a true dialogue with
ones own conscience the questioning of oneself in light of
the Other, who is somehow also present in ourselves, in our
consciousness, yet is not of it. (c) An added dimension to the
uniqueness of the behavior of the rescuers comes to the fore
when one compares their responses with that of the perpetrators. Perpetrators usually say: I did not do it exactly as
described. Besides, I was forced into it, for orders have to be
obeyed. Personally, I have nothing against Jews, and I am not
responsible for my deeds. I am passing the buck. Rescuers,
in contrast, generally say: Of course I did it, and I would do
it again, if called upon. I take full personal responsibility for
my deed. I was not coaxed into it, and no one forced me to
do it. Besides, it was the most natural thing. Herein lies the
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
RIGHTEOUSNESS, the fulfillment of all legal and moral obligations. Righteousness is not an abstract notion but rather
consists in doing what is just and right in all relationships;
...keep justice and do righteousness at all times (Ps. 106:3;
cf. Isa. 64:4; Jer. 22:3; Ezek. 18:1927; Ps. 15:2). Righteous action results in social stability and ultimately in peace: And
the work of righteousness shall be peace (Isa. 32:17; cf. Hos.
10:12; Avot 2:7).
In the Bible righteousness bears a distinctly legal character; the righteous man is the innocent party, while the wicked
man is the guilty one: And the judges judge them by justifying the righteous and condemning the wicked (Deut. 25:1;
cf. Ex. 23:7; II Sam. 15:4; Isa. 5:23). Righteousness requires not
merely abstention from evil, but a constant pursuit of justice
and the performance of positive deeds (Deut. 16:20; Jer. 22:3;
cf. Prov. 16:17; Gen. R. 30:9; Jub. 7:20; Tob. 3:2; Kid. 40a). The
meaning of righteousness is broadened to include actions
beyond the letter of the law in the realms of ethics and ritual
(Ezek. 8:5; Tob. 1:1012; Eccles. 7; Lev. R. 27:1). Paralleling the
concept of righteousness is that of wickedness (see *Z edaqah
and *Rishah). Failure to perform obligations leads indirectly
to the upsetting of social stability and, ultimately, to the deliberate undermining of the social structure (Isa. 5:23; Hos. 10:13;
Amos 5:12; Avot 5:18; Sanh. 101b; RH 17a).
Against the juridical background of righteousness, the
paradox of divine justice comes into prominence. A doctrine
307
righteousness
of exactly balanced rewards and punishments contradicts the
reality in which the just man suffers in consequence of his very
righteousness (Eccles. 7:15; cf. Gen. 18:23; Jer. 12:1; Hab. 1:13;
Mal. 3:15; Ps. 32:10; Job, passim; Wisd. 23; Lev. R. 27; Ber. 7a;
Shab. 55b; Hor. 10b). This individual problem takes on a national character in Jewish history, throughout which an innocent nation is constantly being persecuted (Wisd. 10:15;
IV Ezra 10:22). The paradox becomes even more striking in
view of the legal character of the covenant between God and
His people: And I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness
and in justice (Hos. 2:21).
Attempts to come to grips with this paradox account
for the notion that the righteous man suffers for and with his
generation, and that his death expiates for their sins (MK 28a;
Ex. R. 43:1; cf. Gen R. 34:2; Sanh. 108a). Often, however, mans
anger and righteous indignation in the face of overwhelming
injustice causes him to invoke that absolute righteousness
which rests only with God: for Thou art righteous (Neh.
9:8; cf. II Chron. 12:6; lsa. 5:16; 45:2225; Ps. 89: 16; II Macc.
12:6; H ag. 12b).
Because righteousness is not an inherent human characteristic, but rather a learned trait resulting from sustained
performance of obligations, man can never attain the peak of
righteous perfection: For there is not a righteous man upon
earth that doeth good and sinneth not (Eccles. 7:20; cf. Ps.
143:2; Job 4:17; 15:14; Dan. 9:18). The impossibility of achieving absolute righteousness, however, does not preclude the
constant striving toward this end. The Jew emulates the Patriarchs, conscious that God evaluates even their righteousness in relative terms (Gen. R. 30:9; Shab. 55a; Sanh. 107a; cf.
Hab. 2:4; Yoma 38b; RH 16b; Sanh. 93a; Num. R. 3:1; Song R.
3:3; Zohar, Gen. 9). Judaism holds in contempt those who
assume a pretense of piety and righteousness: Be not righteous overmuch neither make thyself overwise (Eccles. 7:16;
cf. Eccles. 7:5; Nid. 30b), while, on the other hand, it exalts the
z addikim nistarim (the hidden righteous) of each generation
(Suk. 45b; Hul. 92a; Gen. R. 35:2).
The prophets conceive of the ideal society in terms of
righteousness (Isa. 28:17; 60:21; Jer. 23:57; Hos. 10:12; Zech.
8:8; Ps. 7:10; 18:25; Dan. 9:24). Subsequent attempts to formulate a code for an ideal society rest heavily on practical principles of daily righteous conduct (En. 10:21; 13:10; Ps. of Sol.
17:27; Meg. 17b; cf. the teachings of the Teacher of Righteousness in the Dead Sea Scrolls). Eschatologically, righteous action within a righteous society will restore peace in the world
and will reestablish Jerusalem as the citadel of righteousness:
And I will restore thy judges afterward thou shalt be called
the city of righteousness (Isa. 1:2627; Jer. 31:22).
the man free from sin, the one who carries out his obligation
to God and to man by obeying the precepts of the Torah. Occasionally in the literature the term z addik denotes the specially pious, the man of extraordinary goodness, the holy
man or saint, as when it is said that there are never less than
36 z addikim in the world who see the Divine Presence each
day (Suk. 45b). But in general the term z addik does not necessarily suggest unusual piety, but simply the carrying out of
Gods will. This can be seen from the division of men (RH 16b)
into the thoroughly righteous (z addikim gemurim), the thoroughly wicked (reshaim gemurim), and the average persons
(beinonim). In one passage (Ber. 61b) the distinction is made
that the z addikim are governed by the good inclination, the
wicked by the evil inclination, and the average by both inclinations. When *Rabbah commented that he was an average person *Abbaye objected that this would mean that most people
are wicked. The term righteous is used of women as well as
of men (Song. R. 1:17; Sot. 11b). The z addikim among the gentiles have a share in the world to come (Tos. Sanh. 13:2).
The z addikim, in their humility, promise to do only a little for others but in reality do much (BM 87a). The z addikim
are so scrupulous in avoiding the slightest taint of theft that
their honestly acquired property becomes dearer to them than
their own person and they risk their lives to preserve it (H ul.
91a). They have a strong social conscience. They rise up early
in the morning to attend to the needs of the community (Yalkut, Ex. 264). Even at the time of their death they worry not
about their own affairs but about their communal responsibilities (Sifrei, Num. 138).
Even when they are dead the z addikim are called living,
unlike the wicked who are called dead even while they are
still alive (Ber. 18a). When a z addik resides in a city, he adorns
that city so that when he departs its glory departs with him
(Gen. R. 68:6). The very stones of a place quarrel among themselves for the privilege of serving as a pillow for the z addik who
is obliged to sleep out of doors (H ul. 91b). Beauty, strength,
riches, honor, wisdom, old age, gray hairs, and children are
comely to the z addikim and comely to the world (Avot 6:8).
But the z addikim suffer in this life. Whenever they wish to
have a life of comfort Satan complains that they ought to be
satisfied with the reward stored up for them in the hereafter
and not wish to enjoy, too, the ease of this world (Gen. R.
84:3). God causes the z addikim to suffer in this world to purge
them of the few sins of which they are guilty, just as when a
tree stands in a clean place with its branches overlapping an
unclean place the branches are lopped off so that the whole
tree can stand in a clean place (Kid. 40b). In another passage,
however, it is said that Moses received no answer when he
asked God why it is that one z addik meets with good fortune
in this world while another meets with evil (Ber. 7a).
A man can repent sincerely in his heart of the sins he has
committed and by so doing change his status from that of rasha (wicked) to that of z addik. Thus if a man who is thoroughly wicked betroths a woman on the understanding that
he is a z addik the act is valid. Conversely, if a known z addik
308
[Zvi H. Szubin]
rights, human
betrothed a woman on the understanding that he is a rasha
the act is also valid because he may have been guilty of an acceptance of idolatry in his heart and this would change his
status (Kid. 49b). A man who has been a perfect z addik all
his life and is sorry for the good deeds he has done thereby
cancels out all those good deeds. Conversely, a complete rasha
who repents of his evil deeds at the end of his life cancels out
thereby all those evil deeds (Kid. 40b). Nevertheless, a good
deed is not disqualified by any self-seeking motive. For example, a man who gives charity so that his children may live
or that he may have reward for it in the hereafter can still be
considered a perfect z addik (Pes. 8ab).
In medieval Jewish thought a definite tendency can be
observed to extend the scope of righteousness. Not only is
greater inwardness demanded of the z addik, but he is expected to observe as the norm rules of conduct which in rabbinic literature are set down as the ideal for the especially
pious. The medieval moralistic literature consists mainly of
such demands classified and codified as standards to which all
should aspire. A typical example is the anonymous work with
the revealing title of *Orh ot Z addikim, The Ways of the Righteous (tr. S. Cohen (1969)). Thus the saying of R. Yose, who is
described (Avot 2:8) as a h asid (saint), that all mans deeds
should be for the sake of heaven (Avot 2:12), is formulated in
the Codes (Tur, Oh 231) as the rule for all men. When a man
eats and drinks, for example, it should not be in order to enjoy his food and drink but to have strength for Gods service.
The same applies to his working, sleeping, marital relations,
and conversing with others. All should be done for the sake
of heaven and not for personal gratification.
In Maimonides writings, the life of righteousness is
made to embrace the Greek ideal of harmony and balance in
choosing the middle way. The good man should be neither too
prone to anger nor as indifferent to insult as a corpse; neither
too ambitious nor too lazy; neither frivolous nor melancholic;
neither greedy nor a spendthrift (Yad, Deot 1:45). Man is
free to choose the way he wishes to follow. It is given to every
man to be as great a z addik as Moses or as great a rasha as Jeroboam (Yad, Teshuvah 5:2). Maimonides defines the z addik
as the man with more good deeds to his credit than bad. The
rasha has more bad deeds than good ones, while the average
man (beinoni) has his good and bad deeds equally balanced.
The same assessment is made by God of a country and of the
world as a whole. But it is not the mere quantity of the deeds
which counts in this assessment. A good deed can be of such
quality that it can succeed in outweighing many bad deeds,
and the converse is also true (Yad, Teshuvah 3:12).
Among the kabbalists the term z addik is given, as in a
few instances in rabbinic literature, the meaning of saint. The
z addik is no longer simply the ordinary good man but a holy
man of elevated degree. In the Zohar, z addik is the name of
one of the *Sefirot Yesod, foundation. This is the creative
principle and is symbolized by the phallus. Consequently, the
z addik on earth is especially careful to avoid any flaw in the
sign of the covenant, i.e., he keeps himself free from all forms
of sexual impurity. One who does not guard the sign of the
Covenant as he should cannot be called a z addik (Zohar, Gen.
94a). Among the biblical heroes, the counterpart of Yesod is
Joseph who refused to yield to the blandishments of Potiphars
wife and who, as a result, is called Joseph the z addik (Zohar,
Ex. 23a). In H asidism, too, the Z addik is the miracle-working
saint and holy man, the hasidic master. The term h asid could
not have been applied to him since this was the name given
to his followers, the h asidim. Once the term had been used
in this sense the rabbinic references to the z addik were interpreted in the Hasidic literature as referring to the holy man. In
H abad theory the terms z addik and rasha are acknowledged
to be used in the rabbinic literature, in some instances in the
loose sense of one who is acquitted in judgment by God and
one who is declared guilty. But the true definition of the z addik
is that he is the man who has no evil inclination because he
has killed it by fasting (Likkutei Amarim, I, 1). The prescriptions for leading the good life found in the classical sources
are not for such rare souls who do not need them, but for the
average men (beinonim). The beinoni is now, in fact, not average at all but the righteous man who struggles against the
evil within him in order to do Gods will.
The pursuit of righteousness was the aim of the Lithuanian Musar movement but the approach was decidedly
non-mystical. In response to the claim of H asidism that the
z addik is invested with the power to cause harm by his curse,
Israel Salanter, the founder of the movement, is said to have
retorted that if that were so, the z addik can be a danger to
others and should be obliged to pay for any harm he may
do in this way. The followers of Israel Meir ha-Kohen (the
H afez H ayyim) used to say that while it was the boast of
the h asidim that their z addik decrees and God fulfills, of the
H afez H ayyim it was rather true that God decrees and the
z addik fulfills. The righteous man, according to the Musarists, is other-worldly, ascetic, profoundly concerned with his
ethical obligations, and devoted to the study of the Torah and
the practice of the precepts. The Musar leaders and teachers
were frequently referred to as ha-rav ha-z addik, The rabbi,
the z addik
In modern writings on Jewish religious thought, especially those in Western languages, the emphasis is chiefly on
the ethical and moral content of righteousness and on its universal application.
309
[Louis Jacobs]
Bibliography: S. Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (1909); R. Mach, Der Z addik in Talmud und Midrasch (1957);
I. Tishby, Mishnat ha-Zohar, 2 (1961), 655733; E.E. Urbach, H azal;
Pirkei Emmunot ve-Deot (1969), 42854.
RIGHTS, HUMAN. The following article deals with the subject of human rights, their essence and the contents of various fundamental rights as reflected in the sources of Jewish
Law. The interpretation of Israels Basic Laws concerning human rights in accordance with the principles of a Jewish and
democratic state, and the principles of the Israeli Declaration
rights, human
commanded, obligated, given duties rather than rights. Under this basic approach of Jewish law, as noted earlier, human
rights are often formulated by way of negation, that is, by proscribing infringement of the various rights. Thus, for example,
the Torah says you shall not go around as a talebearer among
your people (Lev. 19:17) as an expression of the right to a good
name; you shall not rule over him with rigor (Lev. 25:43) as
an expression of mans dignity; you shall not go into his house
to fetch his pledge (Deut. 24:10) as an expression of his liberty and right to privacy (see *Imprisonment for Debt), and
so on, with you shall implicit in you shall not.
Together with this, there are cases in which man is required, as a positive commandment, to respect various rights.
Thus, regarding the obligation to maintain human dignity
and physical integrity: therefore take good heed unto yourselves (lit., your souls, interpreted as your lives; Deut
4:15) and, regarding freedom of movement: proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof
(see below).
Mans right to self-fulfillment, or self-realization so
extolled in the Western, humanist and liberal culture of our
times as a central foundation of various rights, is by no means
self-evident from the standpoint of Jewish law, because this
conception places man in the center, whereas the Jewish religion, like other religions, places God at the center (A. Lichtenstein, Im ke-Vanim, im ka-Avadim Zekhuyot ha-Perat leOr ha-Halahhah, in: Alon Shevut Bogrim, 12 (1997), 103110;
idem, Aseh Rez ono, Batel Rez onkha Hirhurim al ha-Mifgash bein Halakhah u-Moderniyyut, in: Alon Shevut Bogrim,
13 (1999), 12533; and see the ruling of Justice Y. Englard, HC
2458/01 New Family v. The Committee for Approving Agreements to Carry Fetuses, 57 (1) PD 419).
This basic distinction between human rights and human obligations is not merely a semantic difference, but also
carries moral significance and consequences with regard to
the desired balance between conflicting values. Whereas contemporary constitutional law speaks of the realization of interests, Jewish law stresses human responsibility. Thus, while
contemporary theories emphasize mans self-fulfillment, in
Jewish law, notwithstanding that this value exists to a certain
degree (see comments below on Freedom of Expression and
Creation), the focus is on mans obligations and responsibilities towards others.
Another substantive difference between the approach of
Jewish law and the basic premises of modern law, relates to
the essential nature of human rights and their practical implications. In contemporary legal systems, the various rights
afforded to human beings are of significance mainly in relation to other people. The modern theory of human rights
holds that society (whether the state or individuals in society) must allow individuals to realize their right to freedom
of expression, freedom of occupation and movement, and so
forth. The rights are theirs although they are, of course,
entitled to waive them. This is not the attitude of Jewish law,
where the emphasis is on mans obligations. According to this
310
of Independence, and the disputes over the method of finding a synthesis between these values are discussed at length
in the entries: *Values of a Jewish a Democratic State; *Law
and Morality; *Human Dignity and Freedom.
rights, human
approach, in many cases people are not allowed to waive their
rights, which are in fact obligations. Thus, they may not waive
the right to life and commit suicide (see *Suicide), nor waive
their human dignity and remove their clothes in public, even
if no one else sees them.
This approach was uniquely expressed in a ruling of
the Israel Supreme Court concerning a person who wished
to waive his right to dignity and insisted that a police officer
carry out a search of his person in the streets of the town. Justice Elon, on the basis of Jewish law, denied the request, stating that the preservation of human dignity, which results
from man being created in Gods image, is not only a right
but also an obligation imposed on human beings; hence, one
is not entitled to waive it (see at length under *Human Dignity and Freedom, Cr. App. 2145/92 State of Israel v. Guetta,
46 (5) PD 704).
Terminology: Right, Liberty, Freedom
Like many other legal terms such as *h azakah (possession,
ownership, acquiring or proving, presumption); *kinyan (legal rights, act of acquisition); ones (Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri,
7172; Jewish Law (1994), 79) the various terms used in the
theory of human rights in Jewish law also have multiple meanings. Thus, for example, the term zekhut as used in Jewish law
carries various different meanings depending on the context.
At times it is used in the sense of a right, as in modern legal
terminology (thus, for example, M. Ketubbot 4:4: The father
has a right to receive his daughters betrothal [money]; Yad,
Sekhirut 6:9 You have no greater right in this house than I
do), but it frequently bears other meanings, whether those
related to the world of law or those outside it. Thus, for example, the word zekhut may be used in the sense of permission (as in the legal term, zekhut yoz erim, copyright), or
in the sense of merits or good deeds chalked up to mans
credit. The term zekhut avot ancestral merit is used to
denote the special treatment a person enjoys because of his
parents or his lineage (M. Avot 2:2) Similarly, Every person
has merits (zekhuyyot) and sins: one whose merits outweigh
his sins is a righteous man; and one whose sins outweigh his
merits is evil; half and half mediocre (Maim., Yad, Hilkhot
Teshuvah 3:1). Another aspect of the term zekhut in the legal
context relates to arguing on behalf of a person and defending his actions: All are allowed to argue for acquittal, and
not all may argue for conviction (M. Sanhedrin 4:1); Always
judge a person leniently (M. Avot 1:6). In yet other sources,
the term is used to denote an advantage or benefit: A slave
benefits from gaining his freedom (BM 19a).
In like fashion, the terms h erut (liberty) and h ofesh (freedom) bear a number of different meanings in different contexts, which in any case are not identical to the modern term
freedom. On the contrary: according to different sources in
Jewish law, mans freedom does not express the fact that he is
free of all obligations and responsibilities, but rather that he is
subject to a system of obligations and precepts. This is clearly
evident in the Mishnah, which states that No one is free but
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
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rights, human
opted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948),
and civil rights, only granted to the citizens of a state per se
(such as the right to vote and to stand for election). There is a
similar tendency to distinguish between primary rights, such
as a persons right to life, and political rights (freedom of
expression, freedom of association, freedom to demonstrate,
assemble and march, freedom of movement, etc.; see below),
whose power and scope is wider, and secondary rights (such
as some of the social rights), whose scope is more limited.
A similar, though not identical, distinction exists in Jewish law. Notwithstanding that it is a universal legal system,
applying and operating throughout the world and not only
within the borders of particular country (as is the case with
modern territorial legal systems, which only apply within the
territory of a given country, within defined borders), Jewish
law also recognizes the distinction between what are known
today as human rights, applicable to all human beings as
such, and rights with less force and scope, afforded to a more
limited group. Thus, for example, the right to vote and stand
for election (see below) is not afforded to all residents, but only
to those who meet certain conditions of competency.
The Source of the Rights
In Jewish law, mans rights and liberty stem from the fact that
he was created in Gods image, as described in the book of
Genesis (Gen. 1:27). From Adam on, this theory developed
and was also introduced into the laws of nations.
Mans uniqueness, and his resultant obligations, are emphasized in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 38a): Accordingly man
was created as an individual, to teach us that whoever destroys
a single soul, is as if he destroyed an entire world; and to ensure peace among men, so that no person can say to another,
[My] father is greater than your father! and to praise the
greatness of the Holy One blessed be He, for when a man
mints a number of coins from the same material, they are all
identical to one another, whereas the King of Kings, the Holy
One blessed be he, created all men in the image of the first
man and yet not one of them is identical to another. Therefore
each and every one must say the world was created for me.
Another source of great importance for human rights
and the liberty that goes with them is the Exodus from Egypt,
which served as the basis for the formation of Jewish culture and Jewish law, particularly with regard to mans freedom (see *Imprisonment; *Imprisonment for Debt, and see
R. Hirschs Commentary on Exodus 22:20, Gateshead (1973),
vol. 2, p. 373).
Alongside those rights explicitly mentioned in the Bible,
over the centuries, a theory of human rights developed in Jewish law. Scholars of the Mishnah and Talmud, followed by the
geonim and the earlier and later authorities in all of Israels
Diasporas, developed and cultivated a defense of the different rights, and by means of various legal tools (such as regulation and custom, explication and rulebooks) created a broad
system of rules and norms intended to protect human rights.
In the sub-sections below examples are given from different
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rights, human
alone in the world, to teach us that one who destroys a single
soul in the world, is as if he has destroyed the whole world, and
one who saves a single soul in the world is as if he has saved the
whole world. For all those who come into the world are created
in the form of Adam, and the face of no man is the same as that
of any other. Accordingly, each and every one can say: the world
was created for me. This is man, and this is his uniqueness.
Who can dare say such a thing about a book or about a safe?
(Cr.A. 1742/91 Ami Popper v. State of Israel, 51 (5) PD 305; and cf.
Cr.A. 6841/01 Yosef Biton v. State of Israel, 56 (6) PD 800; C r.A.
6535/01 Kusirov v. State of Israel, 57 (3) PD 565; C r.A. 9804/02
S.S. v. State of Israel, 58 (4) PD 462; FTA (Tel Aviv-Jaffa) 1137/02
State of Israel v. Nasser Mahmoud, unpublished).
The creation of man in Gods image also served as the foundation for a National Labor Court ruling (NLC 26556/04 Shimon
H assid v. The National Insurance Institute, unpublished), in
which the court accepted the claim of a homeless person that
the National Insurance Institute should give positive consideration to awarding an income allowance to him and others
like him, giving a broad interpretation to the law intended to
ensure that the indigent have the right to live in dignity (see
below). Similarly, the biblical description of the creation of
man, both male and female, served as the basis by which the
Supreme Court, represented by Justice Cheshin, anchored,
among other things, the obligation to provide equal opportunities to both sexes when entering the workforce (HC 2671/98
The Israel Womens Lobby v. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, 52 (3) PD the 36), as well as with regard to the terms of
retirement from it (HC 6845/00 Itana Niv et al. v. National
Labor Court, 57 (6) PD 663).
THE RIGHT TO EQUALITY AND THE PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION. The right to equality derives from the creation of man, as described in the Torah, as a solitary individual
and a free man, from whom all of mankind has descended,
such that no man can say to his fellow, My father is greater
than yours (see above). An echo of this is found in the preamble to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which recognizes the inherent dignity and of the equal
and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.
Various expressions of the value of equality already appear in
Scripture. Thus, for example, the Torah commands: One law
shall be to him that is homeborn, and to the stranger that sojourns among you (Ex. 12:49; and see below, in the section
dealing with the equality of nations). Many expressions of the
value of equality are to be found in rabbinic literature. Thus,
for example, the tanna Ben Azzai, maintains that the value of
the equality of the sexes embodied in the verse, male and
female He created them (Gen. 1:27) is the greatest principle in the Torah, as opposed to the position of his colleague
Rabbi Akiva, who sees the verse, you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18) as the Torahs greatest principle
(TJ Ned. 9:4 (41c)).
The value of equality also finds expression in the words
of certain Sages with respect to specific issues. Thus, for example, two contradictory approaches are found in rabbinic
literature regarding Torah study. The one is patently nonegalitarian, awarding the right to education exclusively to
the children of the intellectual and economic elite (see below,
sub-section dealing with the right to education). In contrast,
there is an egalitarian approach that opens the gates of the
study hall to all: You might say that only the children of the
elders, the children of the distinguished, should study. Therefore, the verse states: For if you shall diligently keep (Deut.
11:22) teaching that all are equal in Torah. Similarly it says:
Moses commanded us a Torah, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob (Deut. 33:4). It is not written there: Priests,
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rights, human
Levites and Israelites, but rather Jacob. Similarly it says: You
stand this day all of you (Deut. 22:9) (Sifrei, sec. 48 (ed. Finkelstein, p. 112)).
The obligation of equality applies likewise to legislation
enacted by the king, which must be fitting and non-discriminating: Any law promulgated by the king to apply to everyone and not to one person alone is not deemed robbery. But
wherever he takes from one particular person only, not in accordance with a law known to everyone but by doing violence
to this person, it is deemed robbery (Maim., Yad, Gezelah
va-Avedah 5:14).
Alongside such statements, Jewish Law contains no small
number of laws that appear to violate the principle of equality and seriously discriminate on the basis of sex, race, nationality, age, or some other factor. In many, but not all such
cases, the discrimination can be explained as a permissible
distinction based on the principle that there are no absolute
rights, and that even the value of equality is set aside by other
values, and that the discrimination is for an appropriate
purpose and to an extent no greater than is required (Section 8, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom). Thus, for
example, the preferred status of the priests and Levites is explained by historical reasons (their non-participation in the
sin of the Golden Calf), or by their unique role as officiants
in the Temple. Similarly, the disqualification of women for
positions of public authority, and the absence in Scripture of
their right to inherit (see *Inheritance) can be explained as
stemming from the different social role they play from that of
men (see at length the entry *Woman). Nevertheless, alongside the attempts, some clearly apologetic, to justify laws that
appear to be discriminatory, the Sages of Israel have over the
course of the generations made courageous attempts to mitigate the severity of these cases of discrimination to the point
of their total abolition. For example, the ruling that prevents
a non-Jew from serving in the Israeli Knesset or government,
based on the biblical prohibition, You may not set a stranger
over you, who is not your brother (Deut. 17:15), has effectively been abolished in the State of Israel. Similarly, the prohibition preventing woman serving in the Knesset or in any
other public role (see *Woman: The Judicial Perspective) has
in practice been abolished. Mechanisms have been established
allowing a woman to receive an equal share of an inheritance
(see *Inheritance, and see: R. Isaac Herzog, Teh ukah le-Yisrael
al pi ha-Torah).
The obligation of equality has ramifications in various
circumstances and contexts. Thus for example, it is stated
that a master/employer must provide his servant/worker
with living conditions similar to his own: He shall be with
you with you in food, with you in drink, with you in clean
clothing: you [= the master, employer] may not eat fine bread
while he eats coarse bread; you may not drink old wine while
he drinks new wine; you may not sleep on cotton-wool while
he sleeps on straw (Sifra, Behar, sec. 5). Special emphasis
was placed on the equal treatment of litigants in court (see
*Bet Din), this being a fundamental principle of natural jus-
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PLURALISM, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, AND THE PUBLICS RIGHT TO KNOW. In modern constitutional law, pluralism the multiplicity of views and the freedom to express
them has a most important place among human rights; some
see it as the queen of rights. This finds expression in various
constitutions (such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution) that have
established this principle and ascribed it supreme importance.
Freedom of expression includes not only the right to express
opinions, but also the right to hear them or, as it is usually
called, the publics right to know. The world of Jewish Law
contains many expressions of praise for pluralism and multiplicity of views (see *Majority Rule; and see below Pluralism
in the World of Halakhah). The great principle in this matter
is mentioned already in the words of the Sages with respect
to the controversy between the school of Shammai and the
school of Hillel, who disagreed for three years, these saying:
The law is in accordance with us, and these saying: The law is
in accordance with us. A heavenly voice issued forth and said:
Both are the words of the living God (Eruv. 13b). Nevertheless, on the practical level the matter was eventually decided:
And the law is like the school of Hillel (ibid.).
As part of the recognition of pluralism and its importance as a value in its own right, Jewish Law assigns a place of
honor to speech and to free speech, speech representing mans
rights, human
preeminence over the beast. This was given pointed expression in Onkeloss translation of the verse in the biblical account
of Creation: And man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7) leruah memalela, a talking spirit. Man is speech, and the freedom to speak is the breath of life. However, even though man
was given this freedom, he is commanded to use it wisely, for
in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking (Prov. 10:19),
and too much talk brings sin. If this is true regarding neutral speech, all the more so regarding talk that involves slander and gossip, about which it is stated: Guard your tongue
from evil, your lips from deceitful speech. Depart from evil,
and do good (Ps. 34:1415; and see above regarding mans
right to a good name).
Despite the great similarity in certain matters, Jewish
Laws conceptual starting point regarding freedom of speech
is different from that generally accepted in our day, and thus
its normative ramifications are also different. Modern law
tends to justify this right with various principles inherent
in it, including: clarifying the truth; strengthening democracy; letting off steam, which in the absence of freedom of
speech is liable to burst out in violent and undesirable channels; and self-realization. An examination of these principles
teaches that most if not all of them are compatible with the
principles if not necessarily the particulars of freedom of
expression in Jewish Law. Nevertheless, it should not be inferred from this that the normative rights stemming from
them, and especially its scope and application, are identical
to those of Jewish Law.
Whereas modern law is occasionally ready to retreat
from the truth in order to actualize freedom of expression
and allow freedom of false expression (HC 6126/94, Senesh
v. Broadcast Authority, PD 53(3) 817; HC 316/03, Bakri v. Film
Censorship Board, PD 58(1) 249), Jewish law has sharp reservations about such an approach, and commands a person to
distance himself even from that which contains the dust of
falsehood. The sole allowance for veering from the truth is
for the sake of peace, and even this is strictly limited (Yev.
65b; Maim., Yad, Gezelah va-Avedah 14:13).
In contrast to modern law, which sees freedom of expression as an important component of mans autonomy and
ability to achieve self-realization, various approaches in Jewish Law see speech as a necessity that should be limited. It is
against this background that one needs to understand the dicta
of the Sages in praise of silence (e.g., a protection of wisdom
is silence (M. Avot 3:13); a word for a sela (Talmudic measure of value), silence for two) (Meg. 18a).
Freedom of expression finds an anchor in Jewish Law
in the sharp criticism of the prophets of Israel, who severely
reproached both the authorities and private individuals. For
example, Your princes are rebellious, and companions of
thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards; they
judge not the fatherless neither does the cause of the widow
reach them (Isa. 1:26; and see H. Cohn, Zekhuyot Adam baMikra u-ba-Talmud; and the words of Justice Elon, EA 2/84
Naiman v. Chairman, Central Elections Committee, PD 39(2)
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rights, human
proach, as exemplified by the attempt of Joshua bin Nun, servant of Moses, to silence Eldad and Medad who were prophesying in the camp (Num. 11:27) and his request of Moses to
restrain them. In contrast, Moses cold response, Would that
all the Lords people were prophets (Num. 11:29), expressed
pluralism in the marketplace of prophecy, and prevented
their punishment, though halakhah has laid down that even
when prophecy existed in Israel, not everyone who so desired
was permitted to take the crown of prophecy for himself.
IN ISRAELI COURTS. The issue of freedom of expression in
Jewish Law has been raised by the Israeli courts in various contexts, both in connection with libel suits (see *Slander) and
in connection with constitutional issues, such as the right to
run for office in the Knesset, which is part of the freedom of
political expression (see below, subsection dealing with the
right to vote and be elected), freedom of expression on gravestones, and other matters.
Two court rulings relate to the issue of freedom of expression on gravestones. The Israeli Supreme Court (per Justice
Elon) discussed the issue of freedom of expression in Jewish
Law at length, noting that, like other rights, this right is also
not absolute and can be set aside if its realization clashes with
other values, e.g., *human dignity and the sensitivities of other
people (CA 92/1482, Hager v. Hager, PD 47(2) 793; CA 294/91.
H evra Kadisha Kehillat Yerushalayim v. Kastenbaum, PD 46(2)
464). The Supreme Court discussed this issue in another case
dealing with the inscription of a date according to the Gregorian calendar on a gravestone. Justice Englard based his minority opinion on sources in Jewish law that ban such inscriptions, and in such circumstances prefer to set aside freedom
of expression in favor of other values that conflict with it [CA
97/6024, Fredrika Shavit v. H evra Kadisha Rishon Le-Zion, PD
53(3)600]. Another ruling discussed the broadcasting of a film
on the Sabbath, where the main figures in the film, who were
religiously observant, objected to its broadcasting owing to
the Sabbath desecration profanation involved. Justice Dorner
(in a minority opinion) sided with the plaintiffs, basing her
opinion upon the views of those halakhic authorities who set
aside the principles of freedom of expression and the publics
right to know because of the Sabbath desecration that the realization of these rights would involve (HC 1514/01 Yaakov
Gur Aryeh v. Televisions and Second Television Authority, PD
55(4) 282). She reviewed the various opinions on the matter in
Jewish Law, and referred to the lenient approach that allows
an observant film producer to sell his films to the Broadcasting Authority even when he knows that they will be broadcast on the Sabbath (M. Elon R. David Setav, Z ulam be-Yom
H ol, Shudar be-Shabbat, in: Nekudah, 211 (1998), 52; and see
R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Shiddur Radyo H ozer be-Shabbat, in: Teh umin, 17 (1997), 13).
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rights, human
Sefarad, in: Shenaton ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri, 1819 (5762),
963.)
A study of the Bible and of early rabbinic sources reveals that actual election processes are hardly to be found,
and that the majority of elected representatives mentioned
there are actually appointed and not elected to their position
in a democratic process nor did the biblical king receive his
office through any actual process of election. Despite the fact
that from the literal meaning of the verse, you shall surely
set him as king over you (Deut. 17:15) it might be concluded
that there was indeed a democratic process here of election by
the people, the rest of the verse whom the Lord your God
shall choose shows that this is not the case. This passage
also shows us that the right to be elected was not given to everyone, but was limited only to the children of Israel: from
among your brethren shall you set a king over yourselves, you
may not put a foreigner over thee, who is not your brother
(ibid., and see above with regard to equality). Alongside this
limitation, a further restriction was added at a later stage, by
which no king may be raised first other than in accordance
with a court of 70 elders, and according to a prophet (Maim.,
Yad, Melakhim 1:3). This restriction ensured a kind of judicial review of the selection process.
Restrictions relating to the right to vote may also be
found in the sources of Jewish law. Thus, for example, it states
in the Frankfurt Rulebook from 1774 that anyone has who
has not paid his taxes that year may not take part in the elections, and the same is true of one regarding whom at least
two years have not passed since his wedding (Rabbi R.D.
Dessler, Shenot Dor ve-Dor (Jerusalem 2000), p. 413). A similar restriction existed in the Mantua community in Italy,
where only people who had paid all their dues to the congregation and had lived within the city for a long time, at
least 25 years, could participate in elections (S. Simonson,
Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Dukhasut Mantova (Jerusalem 5723),
p. 240).
Various restrictions were also placed on the right to
stand for election, clearly reflected in the *Takkanot ha-Kahal
(communal enactments). Thus, for example, in a number of
towns of Europe there was a regulation preventing a doctor
or a broker from standing for election as trustee of the congregation, because these occupations were considered to be
of low rank and were likely to undermine the publics faith
in its leadership (Y. Baer, Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Sefarad haNoz erit (Tel Aviv 1965), 256). The regulations of the Frankfurt
congregation included a rule stating that a person standing
for appointment as a community leader must have been married for at least nine years; for the position of community
dignitary at least six years; and for the position of gabbai
(manager of synagogue affairs) at least three years (Dessler,
ibid., p. 413). Another community rule enacted in Frankfurt
states that only a person with considerable financial capital
may be elected to the community committee (Y. Heilperin,
Zion, 21 (1956), 64). This requirement apparently arose from
the need to ensure the financial independence of the elected
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rights, human
Freedom of Demonstration, Assembly, and Procession
Freedom to demonstrate, assemble and march is an aspect of
freedom of expression. In a modern, democratic country this
freedom is one of the most important expressions of freedom
of political expression, which differentiates a totalitarian regime from a democratic regime. A considerable portion of
rules of Jewish law originated in entirely different political
realities, which did not necessarily operate according to the
democratic rules accepted today. But notwithstanding the differences, many democratic principles can be found which are
similar, if not always identical, to the generally accepted rules
today. Thus, for example, Jewish law provided a real possibility
for those in disagreement with the leadership to express their
opinions, and even to make use of the public domain for this
purpose. Nevertheless, attempts can be seen on several occasions in the sources of Jewish law to silence these protesting
voices attempts which are not always successful. An early
manifestation of this can be seen in the figure of the biblical
prophet, crying out in public against various injustices, such
as the strong words of the prophet Isaiah (1:2123): How is
the faithful city become a harlot! She that was full of justice,
righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Your silver is
become dross, your wine mixed with water. Your princes are
rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes,
and followed after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come before them.
One of the wonderful expressions of the right of the individual to demonstrate and protest against an injustice that
has been done is the custom of delaying [prayer] services
(alternatively referred to as: canceling prayers, cancellation of regular prayers, delaying the public reading of the
Torah). This custom originated in the Jewish congregations
of the Middle Ages, and it is used even today as a demonstrative sanction by a person who wishes to protest against an injustice he has suffered. The delayer is given permission to
stop the prayers or the Torah reading, and will not allow the
congregation to continue until his complaint has been heard.
The responsa literature has preserved fascinating answers illustrating the considerable power of protest of this custom,
often leading to a solution of the dispute that was the cause
of the protest. (Teshuvot Maimuniyyot, Nashim #25; Maharam
of Prague, 249; Or Zarua, 1 no.52; and see also: A Grossman,
Reshito ve-Sodotav shel Minhag Ikuv ha-Tefillah, in: Millet,
1 (1983), 199219; M. Ben-Sasson, Ha-Z aakah le-Z ibbur beBeit ha-Knesset be-Araz ot ha-Islam bi-Ymei ha-Beinayim, in:
S. Elitzur et al. (eds.), Knesset Ezra (Jerusalem, 1994), 327350;
Y. Ta-Shma, Minhag Ashkenazi ha-Kadum, 303 and note 13; S.
Golden, Ha-Yih ud ve-ha-Yah ad, 15761).
means of the establishment of a corporation, non-profit association, cooperative society, or the like (see *Partnership;
*Legal Person), but principles relating to the right of association are already found in various contexts within Jewish Law.
Thus, for example, already in the tannaitic period (first and
second centuries C.E.) enactments were made recognizing the
right of members of a particular profession to join together
to organize work relations between them enactments reminiscent of those ordained by the members of the medieval
guilds: The wool dealers and dyers may declare: We shall be
partners in all merchandise that comes into the town. The
donkey drivers may declare: We will provide another donkey
to anyone whose donkey dies. The boatmen may declare:
We will provide another boat whenever anyones boat is lost
(Tosefta, BM, 11:2426). Similar ordinances were established
in the modern period. Thus, for example, R. Moses Feinstein
ruled that workers are permitted to organize in trade unions
and to enact ordinances that are binding upon all of their
members (Resp. Iggerot Moshe, vol. 2, h M, no. 58).
Responsa literature contains many testimonies to attempts to reduce infringement upon the freedom of association. This is sometimes accomplished through narrow interpretation of a rabbinic or communal enactment that clashes
with freedom of association, and at times even through the
nullification of the enactment owing to its clash with that
freedom. Thus, for example, communal enactments that attempted to prevent individuals from establishing their own
synagogues, that would give expression to their special customs, were reduced to a minimum. Such enactments were
particularly common in the lands of the Ottoman Empire, following the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal, when
they established new congregations in many cities. The native residents saw the expansion of these congregations as
posing a threat of the establishment of unbridled opposition
and a breakdown of the social structure that had enormous
economic importance. On the other hand, sweeping prohibitions limiting the right of association violated the freedom of
the residents, and therefore they were interpreted narrowly,
out of a desire to prevent such violation to the extent possible, unless it was done for a worthy cause. Thus, for example, R. Samuel de Medina narrowly interpreted a communal
enactment that indiscriminately prohibited the establishment of new synagogues in Salonika (Resp. Maharashdam,
YD, no. 152).
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT: In modern law, freedom of movement is perceived as among the most basic of all human rights.
Mans liberty is manifested, among other things, in his ability to move freely from place to place, to live wherever he
chooses, to leave the country and to enter it. In the modern
discussion of rights, this right is an additional expression of
the autonomy and liberty of the individual. Like other rights,
this right is not absolute and must be balanced against such
other fundamental rights as security of the state, public order,
property rights etc.
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rights, human
Limitations on freedom of movement are divided into
many stages: the most severe restriction of freedom of movement and the right to liberty is locking a man in prison, under an arrest warrant or detention order, and restricting him
to movement within the prison walls. Of lesser severity is restricting freedom of movement to a particular place of residence, an alternative to imprisonment making the accuseds
release contingent upon his remaining at a particular address,
known as house arrest. A less severe measure is the restriction of his movement to a particular city, and even less severe
is the restriction of freedom of movement by prohibiting a
person from leaving the country, or prohibiting an accused
from leaving the country, or curtailing the freedom of movement of a debtor which conflicts with the desire of society and
the legislator to protect the property rights of his creditor and
to enable him to collect the debt. An even less severe measure
is a prohibition against a person from entering a certain country, such as prohibiting visits to an enemy state. In addition to
the general restrictions mentioned above, there may at times
be restrictions on freedom of movement in specific cases, both
by force of legislation or by force of a court decision. Thus,
for example, in the case of a demonstration or visit by a state
personage, there may be restrictions on movement in certain
areas for a limited time period in order to maintain public
order and ensure the safety of the participants. Needless to
say, the freedom of movement of an individual in the public
domain is restricted by virtue of the wish to maintain public order and security. In certain cases (such as closing roads
to traffic on the Sabbath), freedom of movement is set aside
in favor of freedom of religion or the wish to avoid harming
religious sensibilities.
Jewish law rejects limiting freedom of movement and
justifies it only for an appropriate purpose and insofar as it
does not exceed the minimum required. The emphasis on
freedom of movement as a significant component and basic
principle of human freedom is expressed in the verse relating
to the precept of the Jubilee year (also inscribed on the American Liberty Bell): And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and
proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof (Lev. 25:10). The Sages took note of the special use
of the word deror (liberty), which only appears this one time
in the Torah and not in other places, where the word used is
usually h ofesh [freedom]. They interpreted this as referring
specifically to freedom of movement and the right to live anywhere, and said that liberty [deror] is the language of freedom [h erut] like a person who lives everywhere and carries his merchandise to every country (Rosh Hashanah 9b).
Rashi adds (ad loc.) one who lives wherever he wants, and is
not subject to others.
On the other hand, even in the Bible there are already a
number of restrictions on freedom of movement of a person or
a group of people in various circumstances. Thus, for example,
freedom of movement in or around holy places was restricted.
At the time the Torah was given, the children of Israel were
forbidden to even approach Mount Sinai (Exod. 19:12). There
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punishment. Another restriction was imposed in Lithuania
on the freedom of movement of wandering beggars. As it appears from this regulation, the increasing number of itinerant beggars wandering from town to town harmed the local
poor and opened the way to acts of fraud. Accordingly, the
Lithuanian rulebook (p. 17, #88) states that it is prohibited to
allow indigents from other cities to set foot in the towns /
cities of Lithuania and Russia unless they have relatives in
town. Similarly, a woman can prevent her husband leaving
for another country if there is a suspicion that he will not return and will leave her as an abandoned woman (see *Agunah). In such a case, the appropriate purpose of preventing
a womans abandonment takes precedence over his freedom
of movement. This restriction is also anchored in Regulation
96(d) of the Rules of Procedure for the Rabbinical Courts:
the Court may discuss an application to prevent a man from
leaving the country on the grounds of fear of abandonment.
At the same time, if the man deposits a get (religious divorce
papers), or even a conditional get (one that comes into force
only if he does not return within the stated period of time), the
appropriate purpose of preventing the womans abandonment
is achieved, and in this case the man may realize his freedom
of movement (Sh. Ar., EH 154:8). The same holds true if there
is a ruling that does not impose the obligation of a get on the
man: in that case, the woman is not entitled to a divorce and
the mans freedom of movement takes precedence. Consequently, if the man deposits a guarantee ensuring his return,
there is no reason for denying him the freedom of movement.
The Supreme Court in Israel has adopted this, among its other
considerations, as a possible basis for refusing to extradite a
criminal abroad if this is likely to leave his wife in a state of
abandonment (see *Extradition).
A prohibition in principle against denying a womans
freedom of movement, alongside a recommendation severely
limiting her freedom for reasons of modesty (apparently under the influence of Islam) is mentioned by Maimonides (Yad,
Ishut 13:11):
At the same time, as we can see from contemporary historical sources, as well as in later periods, this suggestion to restrict womens freedom of movement was almost certainly influenced by what was customary in the surrounding Muslim
society, and was not upheld in practice: One who imposes a
vow upon his wife that she not go to the house of mourning
or to the house of feasting, must give her a divorce and pay
her ketubbah money, for he locks her in; but if he does so be-
FREEDOM OF OCCUPATION. In modern law, freedom of occupation means mans right to engage in any occupation,
profession or trade (Section. 3, Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation). According to the democratic understanding, this
right is intended to allow a person autonomy in choosing his
occupation, and assist him in fulfilling himself, but it does
not obligate him to engage in any particular occupation, nor
indeed to work at all, but leaves the decision to his individual judgment.
Following from Jewish Laws fundamental approach (see
above), occupation is understood by Jewish Law not only as a
right or a freedom, but also as an obligation and duty. Whereas
modern law allows a person to engage in any profession, but
does not obligate or command him to do so, Jewish Law commands a person to work and toil in some occupation that contributes to the promotion of civilization. Like any other right
in law in general, and in Jewish Law in particular, freedom
of occupation is not an absolute right. Over the course of the
generations, various limitations were imposed upon it, some
of which stemming from religious laws, others from public interests, and yet others from private interests. The various limitations set upon freedom of occupation may be divided into
sub-groups: absolute limitations on certain occupations (e.g.,
commerce in articles connected to idolatry, lending at interest); conditional limitations that restricted the right to engage
in a particular occupation to those who had received a license
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or authorization (e.g., ritual slaughter); limitations imposed
upon members of a certain class (e.g., limitations imposed
upon a Torah scholar or a judge not to engage in occupations
deemed demeaning in the eyes of the public (or in order to
free to study Torah and fulfill the commandment, And you
shall meditate therein day and night (Josh. 1:7)); limitations
on the times of certain occupations (e.g., on the Sabbath and
festivals, during the *sabbatical and *jubilee years, and during
a period of mourning); and limitations dependent upon time,
place, and circumstances (e.g., the prohibition of monopolies
and encroachment).
Some of these limitations were imposed through *takkanot (enactments) or *takkanot ha-kahal (communal enactments). Thus, for example, the Talmud records enactments
legislated by Joshua and his court, one of which relates to
freedom of occupation with respect to fishing in the lake of
Tiberias. Anyone may catch fish in that lake, provided he uses
only a fish-hook, so as not to interfere with the movement
of boats. But only members of the tribe of Naphtali, in whose
territory the lake is located, may catch fish by spreading a net
or keep a boat there (BK 80b; Maim., Yad, Nizkei Mammon
5:3; and cf. M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri, 1452; Jewish Law,
vol. 2, p. 552). Similarly, limitations were imposed upon merchants who wished to compete unfairly with their colleagues
or in cases where they were liable to deprive them of their
livelihood (see *Hassagat Gevul). So too, a prohibition was
imposed upon the formation of a maarufyah (a form of private monopoly), cartel, or monopoly that would be injurious
to the public interest (Or Zarua, BM 10a, no. 28; Resp. Geonim
Kadmonim, and elsewhere). Limitations were also placed on
freedom of occupation for the purpose of preventing profiteering (see *Hafkaat Shearim).
Various testimonies may be found in the sources of Jewish Law regarding agreements that were reached to limit the
freedom of occupation of members of a particular group of
people, such as those who engaged in a particular occupation.
Thus, for example, the Talmud tells of an arrangement made
by an association of butchers, dividing the work days among
its members, and imposing a penalty upon those who violated
the agreement (BB 9a; and see M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri,
1:608; Jewish Law, vol. 2, p. 752). In the case under discussion,
the agreement had been reached by way of an enactment of
all the townspeople, and nothing may be inferred from it
regarding the law applicable to parties who reach a similar
arrangement as individuals. Various testimonies regarding
similar arrangements that were made as part of an agreement between individuals are found in the responsa literature,
where the arrangements are called restraints of trade (ketav
issur). The halakhic authorities issued various rulings regarding the validity of such arrangements (see, for example, Resp.
Divrei Malkiel, vol. 3, no. 153; Resp. Maharsham, vol. 2, no. 22;
Resp. H avalim ba-Neimim, vol. 3, YD, no. 38). Such stipulations
were prevalent in employment contracts, where the employer
wished to prevent his employee from exploiting knowledge
gained during his employ for his own future advantage or for
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As with regard to other rights (see above) Jewish Law defines this not as a right, but as an obligation: an obligation is
incumbent upon the individual and upon society not to violate the property or proprietary rights of another person. The
most striking command on this matter already appears in the
Ten Commandments, You shall not steal (Exod. 19:13) (see
*Theft), alongside of which there are dozens of other rules and
commandments, e.g., the prohibition of theft applying to all of
mankind (see *Noachide Laws), the prohibition of unlawful
encroachment (see *Hassagat Gevul), and many others. Theft
and robbery that violate the property rights of an individual
are severely forbidden even when the offender intends to restore the property to its lawful owner (Maim., Yad, Genevah
1:2; see also *Theft and Robbery).
Based on the obligation to protect the property of another person, Jewish Law set down an important principle,
according to which, in certain situations, even public interest
may be set aside by the property rights of an individual. This
principle is already anchored in the Talmud, which asks the
rhetorical question, Is the community a band of robbers?
and forbids the community to encroach upon the property of
an individual in order to build a road (BB 100a).
Like other human rights, the right of possession is not
absolute. In certain situations, permission is granted to violate
the property of an individual in punishment for an offense that
he had committed, for which purpose it was stated property
declared ownerless by the court is ownerless (Git. 59b; Git.
36b; TJ Peah 5:1; and see *Hefker). It was similarly established
that the king is vested with the power to violate the property
of individuals and to expropriate fields and their produce
for the needs of his kingdom. This authority is based on the
kings law found in Scripture (1 Sam. 8:11), echoes of which
are heard in the story of Naboth and King Ahab (I Kings 21). It
is similarly established in the Mishnah that a king may breach
a fence for the purpose of road-building, even when such action violates the property rights of an individual, and even to
build the kings road that has no measure (M. Sanh. 2:4). The
medieval halakhic authorities disagreed about the scope of this
authority. Some, such as Rashi, greatly expanded it, explaining that the king is vested with this authority even in times of
peace, and that he may violate the property rights of an individual even for the purpose of his own convenience (e.g., to
provide himself with a shorter path to his fields; Rashi, at Yev.
76b). Other commentators severely restricted this authority,
limiting it to an appropriate purpose, where the king has no
alternative, and only as an emergency measure. In addition,
an obligation was placed upon the king to compensate the individual for damage caused to his property (Yad Ramah, Sanh.
20b; Maim., Yad, Melakhim 4:6).
Regarding the expropriation of private property for public purposes, an obligation was imposed upon the ruling authority (the king, the community) to compensate the titleholder with money or alternative property (see I Kings 21:2).
Similarly, the tendency was to limit the cases in which private
property may be expropriated (Tosafot, Sanh. 20b, s.v melekh).
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and values. Thus, for example, sec. 13 of the Secret Monitoring Law states that, while evidence attained through secret
monitoring is generally inadmissible in court owing to the
infringement upon privacy that is involved, in exceptional
cases, for example, in a criminal proceeding regarding a serious felony, the court is authorized to rule that the evidence
is admissible after having been persuaded, for the special reasons that it spells out, that in the circumstances in question,
the need to arrive at a clarification of the truth outweighs the
need to protect privacy.
This approach of balancing among the various values is
firmly rooted in the world of Jewish Law. Thus, despite the extreme caution that Jewish Law takes regarding a persons right
to privacy, this is set aside by the right to protect the health
and welfare of the community. For that reason, a physician is
permitted to publicly disclose that a certain person is suffering from an infectious illness, when the disease is liable to
spread and endanger the health of the community. Similarly,
despite a persons right to life and the wholeness of his body,
Jewish Law did not refrain from administering corporal punishment and judicial execution. A persons right of property is
also set aside by the various monetary penalties that may be
imposed upon him (see *Punishment, *Capital Punishment),
Similarly, a persons right to freedom of movement does not
preclude the use of arrest or imprisonment, provided that
these steps are taken for appropriate cause and not in excess
of what is necessary (see *Imprisonment). So, too, the right of
property may be set aside by the right of the public authority,
in certain cases, to expropriate private property for purposes
of the public needs.
On the basic level, this balance of interests is evident in
all legal systems, but the method of balancing and its operation in specific cases differs from one system to the next. Inasmuch as it is a religious legal system, Jewish Law establishes
a balance different from that found in modern legal systems.
Thus, for example, in contrast to American and Israeli constitutional law, Jewish law assigns priority to the value of life over
that of personal autonomy (Shefer ruling; see also *Medicine
and Law; Euthanasia), and in certain cases prefers a persons
right to a good name and his right to privacy over the publics
right to know and freedom of expression.
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those cases where the goal is the thwarting of a serious felony
or the promotion of the direct goal of the law the eradication of secret monitoring by the prosecution of those who engage in it. The Protection of Privacy Law allows the deviation
from the exclusionary rule at the request of the injured party
or at the discretion of the court.
Protection of Privacy in Jewish Law
Based on the consecutive placement of two verses in the
Torah, the Midrash derives the teaching that a person
shall not enter anothers home unless [the other] says to him:
enter (Midrash Lekah Tov (Pesikta Zutra), Vayikra, 1). The
Talmud (Pesah im 112a) relates that Rabbi Akiva instructed
his son Rabbi Joshua as follows: My son do not enter your
own home suddenly, and all the more so anothers home. In
other words, there is a moral obligation to safeguard privacy,
not only with respect to another person and his domain, but
even in ones own home shared with ones own family. This
respect of privacy became a binding norm during the period
of the Talmud. Regulations were promulgated and prohibitions established to protect a person from the invasion of his
privacy by others, with the goal of creating an orderly society
in which people would be able to live together (see in detail,
Menachem Elon, Human Dignity and Freedom in the Execution of Court Decisions: The State of Israels Values as a Jewish
and Democratic State (2000), p. 32 n. 88). We will present examples below of protection of privacy in Jewish Law, which
served as a basis for the decisions of the Israel Supreme Court
in general, and of the Deputy President, Justice Menachem
Elon, in particular.
permitted them in one situation: regarding a person who instigated and led others astray to perform idolatry. What characterizes this exceptional situation is the threat to the integrity of Jewish society inextricably entwined in this offense.
The inducement is designed, not to reveal the opinions of the
criminal for their own sake, but rather to prevent him from
leading others astray to follow his path and thereby damage
the character of Jewish society (see below).
SLANDER. The duty to protect the individuals rights to dignity, a good name and privacy, are expressed in the legal realm
in the laws of slander and gossip. Rabbi S.R. Hirsch (Horeb
(1965), 25359) explains the rationale and principles underlying of these laws. He claims that the prohibitions against slander and gossip are meant to protect the image that a person
creates for himself in society, an image that is important for
his happiness and self-fulfillment. According to Rabbi Hirsch,
a society in which there is no protection of the values of human dignity and privacy is one that will bring upon itself an
eternal destruction of human life, and a bane of justice and
integrity, happiness and peace (see above on the right to a
good name). In a case involving slander, Jewish Law gives
the court authority to order, in addition to the punishment,
destruction of the slanderous material or a prohibition on its
distribution (see Resp. Devar Moshe, Pt, 2, no. 91, and see at
length *Slander).
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punish those who transgress as it sees fit (Maharhash, Torat
H ayyim, Pt. 3, no. 47, and Resp. Beit David, YD, no. 158). On
this basis, Rabbi Sherman, a dayyan of the Rabbinical Court
of Appeals of the State of Israel concluded that it is clear
that there is a halakhic prohibition on secret monitoring and
a boundary must be established and those who transgress
should be punished.
MEANS OF COLLECTING A DEBT. The fashioning of means
for debt collection in Judaism was influenced by the right
to privacy (see in detail *Imprisonment for Debt; *Execution, Civil; and the opinion of Justice M. Elon in HC 5304/92
Perah 1992 Siuah le-Nifgaei H ukim ve-Takkanot le-Maan
Yisrael Ah eret Amuta v. The Minister of Justice, 47(4) PD
715, pp. 73443; M. Elon, Kevod ha-Adam ve-H eruto be-Darkhei ha-Hoz aah le-Poal (2000). Regarding the relationship between creditor and debtor, Jewish Law establishes a clear and
unambiguous position (Deut. 24:1011): When you lend your
brother anything, you shall not go into his house to fetch his
pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you
lent shall bring out the pledge to you. These verses embody
the halakhic ideal honoring the fundamental right of the
debtor to privacy and personal freedom. The creditors right
to receive his money and to take the law into his own hands
was limited, in that he was prohibited from entering the debtors house. However, this arrangement did not stand the test
of reality in the face of the socio-economic necessity to guarantee the payment of debts. Jewish Law takes the stand that a
persons privacy in his own home is a right which deserves to
be defended by law; however, it may not be exploited to impinge upon the rights of others and to obstruct the execution
of the law. Thus, from the talmudic era, there is a balancing
of the biblical injunctions while preserving privacy by means
of transferring the authority and discretion to the judicial
authority, so that only an emissary of the court may impinge
upon an individuals privacy.
VISUAL TRESPASS. The Babylonian Talmud praises the people of Israel for protecting and guarding the privacy of the individual (Baba Batra 60a; for more detail on the subject see
under Hezek Reiyah, in: Encylopedia Talmudit, 8:659): Rabbi
Johanan said And Bilam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel
abiding according to their tribes (Num. 24:2). What did he
see? He saw that the openings of their tents were not facing
one another. He said: These [people] are worthy of having the
Shekhinah dwell among them. This custom constituted the
moral basis for enactment of the regulation regarding protection from hezek reiyah (visual trespass; see *Nuisance) that
constitutes an important element in the protection of personal
privacy in Jewish Law. According to the Torah law, a person is
only liable for compensation to another for damage if he performed a positive action. However, the Sages included within
the prohibition of causing injury even that which stems from
impingement on ones privacy visual trespass; i.e., the damage caused by one person looking to another persons property. This damage is derived both from common sense and
INFRINGEMENT OF PRIVACY IN MARITAL RELATIONS. Jewish law preserves the autonomy and privacy of each spouse in
a marital relationship. This is true in the personal as well as
in the monetary sphere. Jewish Law recognizes that the wife
is entitled to respect, privacy and to autonomy over her body.
These rights of the wife are at the basis of the halakhahs prohibition of coerced cohabitation. The Talmud (Eruvin 100b)
states: Rami bar H ama said in the name of Rav Assi: A man
may not force his wife to perform a mitzvah This opinion is
the authoritative position, accepted by all Talmudic authorities
as well as by the later halakhic codifiers. From this we learn
that, despite the fact that a wife is obligated in the marriage
agreement to cohabit with her husband, and despite the fact
that non-fulfillment of the obligation may constitute grounds
for the husband to breach the agreement and to declare the
wife a moredet (rebellious wife), none of this serves as license
for the husband to perform an act that infringes upon her
body, her dignity, her freedom, and her privacy. There is no
doubt that married couples are expected to behave openly with
one another and to live together with love, harmony and fellowship, but the obligation of openness in the couples relationship does not allow one party to infringe upon the privacy of
the other, even when the obligation of fellowship is breached
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(see: N. Rakover, Yah asei Ishut bi-Kefiyyah bein Baal le-Ishto,
in: Shenaton Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri, 67 (19791980), 295).
The status of the obligation and they will not hide
them from one another, contained in the prenuptial agreement (tenaim) (Nah alat Shiva, no. 10) is a point of disagreement among the halakhic decisors. According to Rabbi Joseph
Colon (Resp. Maharik no. 57), this portion of the prenuptial
agreement has a normative binding status. On the other hand,
Rabbi Shlomo Kluger (Resp. Tuv Taam ve-Daat (3rd ed.), No.
181) is of the opinion that this portion of the agreement does
not have the status of a normative binding provision, but is
rather considered as part of the opening comments. Rabbi
Dikhovsky of the Rabbinical Court of Appeals of the State of
Israel (S. Dikhovsky, Haazanot Seter, in: Teh umin, 11 (1990),
299ff., at 303) expands the applicability of this condition to
personal obligations and not just to monetary obligations.
SEARCHING A PERSONS BODY. The question of conducting
a search on a persons body arose in Jewish Law in the context of one who entered the Temple chambers to contribute
his shekalim. According to one opinion (Tosef. Shekalim 2:2),
it was customary to search the body and clothing of one entering the chamber, in order to preempt a claim, in the event
that money was found in his possession on his way out, that
he had brought his own money with him. According to another opinion (M. Shekalim 3:2), one who enters should not
be humiliated by a search of his clothing and his body, and it
is sufficient that he take care not to enter the chamber with
clothing or possessions that would be likely to cast suspicion upon him. The Tosefta, supra, explains this difference of
opinion as follows: The opinion that no search of a persons
clothing should be made is the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, who
states: And you shall do that which is right and good in the
sight of the Lord (Deut. 6:18) good in the eyes of Heaven
and right in the eyes of man. In other words, indeed a person has to do what is good in the sight of the Lord and to be
clean in the eyes of Israel as well, that is, not to bring suspicion
upon himself, but he must also take care to do what is right
in the sight of man, and therefore not to be humiliated by a
search, because conducting a search on a persons body is not
right in the sight of man. (See M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri
(19883), pp. 51215; Jewish Law, (1994), 62428, and the notations there.) On the other hand, Rabbi Ishmael follows the first
opinion, that doing what is right refers to what is right in the
sight of the Heavens (Tosefta, supra) in other words, that
both the good and the right refer to the good and the right in
the sight of Heaven, and what is good and right in the sight
of Heaven will be so in any event in the sight of man and
therefore a search should be conducted in order to ascertain
that he did not embezzle money belonging to the Chamber.
The law was decided according to Rabbi Akiva, that a search
not be conducted (Yad., Shekalim, 2. 10; and see Ha-Mishpat
ha-Ivri, supra, 51213; Jewish Law, 62425).
The preservation of human dignity and the prohibition
against humiliating people is applicable, not only to innocent
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disagreement between the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud, as set forth in the commentary of R. Elijah of
London, according to which one of the amoraim is of the opinion that human dignity supersedes even a prohibition of the
Torah (Perush Rabbenu Eliyahu mi-Londrish, ed. M.J.L. Zaks
(1956), p. 2). A brilliant explication of this is given in the rulings of the Rosh, where it is stated: Regarding kilaim (mixtures) that are prohibited by the Torah clearly if one finds
kilaim in his clothes, there is no wisdom or understanding
against the Lord and he must remove the garment even in the
marketplace. But if a person sees kilaim in anothers garment,
and the one wearing it is unaware, he should not be told in
the marketplace until he arrives at his home, and he should
be silent for the sake of his dignity and not require him [immediately] to cast off an inadvertent transgression.
to carry out entrapment in other exceptional cases, and he argues that under special circumstances secret monitoring is a
mitzvah, such as in order to create evidence in a case of serious crime (incitement and enticement), and that it is permitted in order to create evidence regarding any criminal activity
whatsoever (see Rabbi Joseph Babad, Minh at H inukh, on the
Sefer ha-H inukh 462). Justice Elon also relies on the halakhah
that permits opening another persons letter where there is
basis for suspecting that the one who wrote the letter intends
to defraud the addressee of his money, and that the situation
may be clarified by opening and reading the letter (see Rabbi
H ayyim Palaggi, Resp. H ikekei Lev, Pt. I, YD 49; Rabbi Joseph
Colon, Resp. Maharik, no.110; Haggahot Rema to YD 228.33;
cf. Justice Menachem Elons opinion in FH 9/83 Military Appeals Tribunal v. Vaknin, 42(3) PD 837, para. 9.).
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conducted in such a manner that the persons dignity is respected, so that the image of God within him not be debased
and humiliated.
The Attitude to Non-Jews
In the Naiman case (EA 3, 2/84, Naiman v. Central Elections
Committee, Chairman; Avneri v. Central Elections Committee,
Chairman, 39 (2) PD 225), the deputy president of the Israeli
Supreme Court, Justice Menachem Elon, stated (at p. 298)
that:
One of the fundamental principles in the world of Judaism is
the idea of mans creation in the Divine image (Gen 1:27). This
is how the Torah begins, and from it the halakhah derives basic
principles regarding the value of the human being every human as such and the right of every person to equal and loving treatment. He [R. Akiva] would say: Beloved is man, for
he was created in the image [of God]; it was an act of greater
love that it was made known to him that he was created in the
image [of God] in that it is stated In His image did God make
man [Gen. 9:6] (M. Avot 3:18).
There is a highly instructive dispute between two of the
leading tannaim regarding the essence of the most fundamental
principle in the realm of mans relation to his fellow man: You
shall love your neighbor as yourself [Lev 19:18]. Rabbi Akiva
said: This is a fundamental rule of the Torah. Ben Azzai said:
This is the book of the generations of man [in the day that God
created him in his image] [Gen. 5:6]. This is even more fundamental than the former (Sifra, Kedoshim 4:10). According to R.
Akiva, the highest value in inter-personal relations is the love of
man and of ones fellow human being; while according to Ben
Azzai, the greatest value is human equality, stemming from the
creation of every person in the image of God.
23:9; Lev. 19:30; 22:20; 23:9; and passim). Moreover: You shall
not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in his land
(Deut. 23:8). Racism, which has to this very day claimed so
many victims over the course of human history, is unknown
in the world of Judaism, and totally rejected thereby.
The Book of Leviticus (19:3334) states, and when a
stranger dwells among you in your land, you shall not oppress
him. Like a sojourner among you shall be the stranger who
lives with you, and you shall love him like yourself, for you
were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
In the Book of Exodus (22:20), the prohibition is couched in
somewhat different language: You shall not wrong or oppress
a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. The
prohibition against oppressing the stranger is addressed both
to the individual in his relations with others and to governmental authorities and the general public. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch saw the use of the singular as addressed to the
state as a body, while those verses phrased in the plural were
addressed to the nation as a whole, also as an aggregate of
individuals (see Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, Commentary to the Pentateuch, on Exod. 22:20). The Torah emphasizes the prohibition
against oppressing the stranger in order to express the value
of equality in society, specifically with regard to members of
other religions, and to warn man repeatedly not to surrender
to the temptation of exploiting the weakness of those lacking
in power or influence, as expressed well by Hirsch in his Commentary (ibid., from the English translation of I. Levy (Gateshead, 1973), vol II, p. 373):
It is not race, not descent, not birth or country or property,
altogether nothing external or due to chance, but simply and
purely the inner spiritual and moral worth of a human being,
which gives him all the rights of a man and of a citizen. This basic principle is further ensured against neglect by the additional
motive, [that you were strangers in the land of Egypt] Your
whole misfortune in Egypt was that you were gerim, foreigners, aliens there; as such, according to the view of other nations, you had no right to be there, had no claims to rights of
settlement, home, or property. Accordingly, you had no rights
in appeal against unfair or unjust treatment. As aliens you were
without any rights in Egypt, out of that grew all your.. slavery
and wretchedness. Therefore beware, so runs the warning,
from making rights in your own State conditional on anything
other than on that simple humanity which every human being
as such bears within him. With any limitation of these human
rights the gate is opened to the whole horror of Egyptian mishandling of human beings.
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hibition, whether in Exodus, Leviticus, or Deuteronomy: for
you were strangers in the land of Egypt. The Israelites were
certainly not righteous proselytes in Egypt, for they did not
go there to settle permanently, but to reside their temporarily until the famine would pass, as confirmed by the fact that
they did not assimilate within the Egyptian people. Hence,
there were those who interpret the Torah as prohibiting the
oppression of the stranger who lives among us, even if he did
not accept Torah and mitzvot. And indeed, it was thus that
Ibn Ezra interpreted it (in his shorter commentary, to Exod.
22:20): And the phrase you shall not oppress the stranger refers to the resident stranger, because there is no one to help
him from his own family, and any of the residents can deprive
him of his wealth or of his home, and also bring pressure upon
him by testimony, as Scripture says, you shall not oppress your
neighbor (Exod. 20:12).
Who then are these resident strangers (gerei toshav)?
Rav Kook thought that the Muslims living in the Land of Israel
fall under the rubric of ger toshav (see Resp. Mishpat Kohen,
no.58), and Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog ruled similarly in his
wake, emphasizing that even though they were not formally
accepted before a Jewish court, and even though we do not
accept a person as a ger toshav in this era an entire nation
that took upon itself the seven [Noachide] mitzvot, even today, are subject to the rule of ger toshav (Resp. Heikhal Yiz h ak,
EH, Pt I.12). This rule also applies to the Christian Arabs in
Israel (see Rabbi I. Herzog, Minority Rights According to
the Halakhah, in: Teh umin, 2 (1981), 172 (Heb.); on the issue
of Christian faith and the seven Noachide commandments,
see Rabbi Y. Harlap, Idolatry through Shituf Among Noachides (Hebrew), Teh umin, 19 (1999), 148). Above and beyond
the halakhic discussion regarding the status of the resident
stranger the attitude towards non-Jewish minorities and
their freedom of religious practice is established by the principle in Jewish law of ways of peace. As noted by the Talmud
(Gittin 61a): Our Rabbis taught: One provides sustenance to
the poor among the non-Jews together with the poor among
the Jews, and one visits the sick of the non-Jews together with
the sick of Israel, and one buries the dead of non-Jews together with the dead of Israel, because of ways of peace (see
Rabbi Judah Gershuni, Minorities and Their Rights in the
State of Israel in Light of the Halakhah, in: Teh umin, 2 (1981),
180, 192 (Heb.)). Hence, Jewish law recognizes the option of
appointing a non-Jew to public office; this, because, despite
the original prohibition against doing so was because of the
dominion they might exert over the public. Today, when the
power of office derives from the people, it does not present
a problem (see Elisha Aviner, The Status of the Ishmaelites
in the State of Israel in Light of the Halakhah, in: Teh umin, 8
(1987), 337, 358 (Heb.)).
One should note, vis--vis the freedom to practice their
own religion on the part of the minorities living in the land,
that the Hebrew nation does not engage in missionizing in
order to add members of other peoples to its own ranks (see
Micah 4:5; Yad., Melakhim 8:10). This fact expresses, among
329
The national minority of a member of another people is defined in the halakhah as having the status of a resident alien (ger
toshav), the only requisite demanded of him is to abide by the
Seven Noachide Laws the elementary rules of a legal order
which the members of all civilized nations are commanded to
observe, and which the Sages saw as a kind of universal natural
law (Yad, Issurei Biah 14:7 and cf. Melakhim 8:1011; Sanhedrin
56a; Ramban, Commentary on the Torah to Gen. 34:13; and cf.
M. Elon, op cit., 183ff.). The national minority is entitled to all
of the civil and political rights of the other inhabitants of the
country: though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may
live with thee (Lev. 25:35). A ger toshav is to be treated with
the same respect and kindness accorded a Jew, for we are commanded to let them live and since one is obligated to let the
ger toshav live he must be given medical treatment without
charge (Yad, Melakhim 10:12; ibid., Avodat Kokhavim 10:2).
And the Sages further said: One does not settle a ger toshav
on the frontier, or in an undesirable dwelling, but in a desirable dwelling in the center of the Land of Israel, where he may
practice his trade. As is said, He shall dwell in your midst, in a
place which he shall choose in one of your gates [settlements]
in your midst, wherever he pleases, you must not oppress him
[Deut 23:17] (Masekhet Gerim 3:4) Jewish rule and dominion not in order to rule over the world, nor in order to dominate the Gentiles, but so that Israel will not be subject to any
oppressor, but will engage in Torah and wisdom, and the land
will be filled of knowledge. In these great words of the leading
Sages of Israel are encapsulated the destiny and image of the
Hebrew state.
ISRAELI LAW. The law does not explicitly mention the prohibition against oppressing the convert (ger), the foreigner or
member of a minority group, but he does enjoy special protection under the provisions of a number of laws, such as the regulation that a work contract with a foreign worker must be in
a language that is known to him and must include many of the
details that are fixed in the law, including the employers obligation to provide the foreign worker with medical insurance
and suitable living accommodations (Section 1C of the Foreign
Workers (Illegal Employment and Assuring Suitable Condi-
rights, human
tions) Law 5751 1991. For the prohibition against withholding the passport of a foreign worker, see Section 376. of the
Penal Law 5737 1977, and the remarks of Judge Arad in AA
1459/02, Butcheman v. Best Yizum u-Benyah (unpublished)).
It also states that information about available positions in the
State service, tenders of public bodies, and criteria for receiving subventions from the government budget must be made
available to the Arab public, through their publication in Arabic (see: Amendment 15(b) to the Obligation of Tender Regulations 5753 1991, sec 6:1, for the procedure for submitting
requests for support from the government budget in public
institutions and discussion thereof, as amended in Official
Publications (Yalkut Pirsumim) 5760, 3264). Similar rules were
introduced in recent years requiring suitable representation in
the government service and in the directorates of government
companies and public corporations (sec 15a of State Service
(Appointments) Law, 5719 1959, and Section 18 (a I) of the
Government Companies Law, 5735 1975).
The issue of oppression of the proselyte in Israeli law was
discussed in a ruling, when Shoshanah (Susan) Miller, who
had immigrated to Israel from the United States after converting to Judaism within the framework of the Reform Judaism,
asked to be registered in the population registry as a Jewess.
The Minister of the Interior, following legal consultation, ruled
that there was no way of avoiding her request, but that hereon
in, in similar cases, there would be a notation in the section for
religion and nationality on the identity card: Jew (converted).
The President of the Supreme Court, Justice Shamgar, ruled
that the registration official had no power to add anything to
the accepted form of registration in the sections of religion and
nationality, and therefore accepted Millers appeal and ordered
that she be registered as a Jew without further addition. Justice Elon added the following to his words: (HC 230/86 Miller
v. Interior Minister et al, PD 40(4), pp. 44748):
In my opinion, this parenthetical addition, intended as a completion or description in every case of conversion, following
the word Jew, also has absolutely no place or source in terms of
the halakhah. There is no person concerning whom the Torah
warns us so frequently in 36 separate places as it does regarding the oppression of the proselyte, whether in speech, in
action, or by way of halakhic-legal statements and notations
One does not mention to a proselyte his previous status and
deeds, one does not treat lightly the respect due to him. One
of the recent halakhic sages said the following: Every person
whose behavior towards the proselyte differs from his behavior
to any other Jewish person violates this positive commandment, as is written: He shall be a sojourner among you and
you shall love him as yourself (Rabbi Jeroham Fischel Perlas
Commentary to R. Saadiah Gaons Sefer ha-Mitzvot, no. 82).
And there is no doubt that, by adding the word converted in
parentheses which is not done regarding a regular Jew we
are not behaving in the same manner as we do regarding every
other Jew; hence we are prohibited from doing so.
330
rights, human
gious-halakhic-and philosophical dimension. We related to
this phenomenon, to a certain extent in the entry *Majority
Rule, and will devote some additional comments in the current context. There seems to be no more apposite expression
of this than the statement made by the Sages regarding the
controversy between the School of Shammai and the School
of Hillel that these and these are the words of the living God
(Eruvin 13b; TJ Berakhot 1:4; TJ Yevamot 1:6). Despite the fact
that, in terms of practice and obligatory norms, the halakhah
generally follows the School of Hillel, the opinions of the
School of Shammai continue to constitute a legitimate and
substantive opinion in the world of halakhah. This approach
was one of the basic features of the halakhah. The rebellious
elder, even after the Sanhedrin the High Court of the nation had ruled against his opinion, was permitted to adhere
to his own view and to adhere to his own opinion, provided
only that he did not rule thus for others in practice (M. Sanhedrin 11:2; TB Sanhedrin 86b). Moreover, the opinion of the
minority, which is not followed in practical life, may at some
future time have its day and become the accepted view according to which people will behave. R. Judah said: The [dissenting] opinions of individuals are only mentioned among
those of the majority, so that if some day they are needed, they
may be relied upon (Tosef., Eduyyot 1:4 (ed. Zuckermandel)).
And the same teaching appears in M. Eduyyot 1:5; as stated in
the commentary of R. Samson of Sens, ad loc: Although the
view of a single person is not accepted at first, and many disagree with him, at another time the majority may accept his
reasoning and the law be decided accordingly, for the entire
Torah was so given to Moses at times to forbid and at times
to permit, and when he was asked: until when shall we deliberate? he answered: follow the majority; however both
are the living word of God (cf. M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri
(1988), 870878; Jewish Law (1994), 10611072). This plurality
of views is not a negative phenomenon or defect, but is substantive to the world of the halakhah. There is no instability
or shortcoming, such as to say that he causes more than one
law to exist, Heaven forbid! On the contrary such is the way
of the Torah, and both are the words of the living God (R.
H ayyim ben Bezalel, introduction to Vikkuah Mayim H ayyim
(Prague, 16t century); and see in detail Elon, Ha-Mishpat haIvri at 11451149; Jewish Law, 13751379). Moreover, plurality
of views and approaches has the power to create harmony and
unity out of difference. As the last of the codifiers, R. Jehiel Michal Epstein, said at the beginning of the 20t century (Arukh
ha-Shulh an, H oshen Mishpat, Introduction):
All the disputes of the tannaim and the amoraim, of the geonim
and the codifiers, are truly the words of the living God, and all
are aspects of the halakhah. Indeed that is the glory of our pure
and holy Torah, the entire Torah is a song, and the glory of a
song is when it is sung in different voices. And this is the essence of its pleasantness.
Indeed this basic conception that both are the words of the
living God has at all times exerted a decisive influence on the
mode and substance of halakhic codification as well as deciENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
sion. I have dealt elsewhere with the subject and need not expand upon it here (Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri at 870, and the
references in Jewish Law, 1061 n. 94).
In the Naiman case, Justice Elon noted that the plurality
of views plays a material and fruitful role generally in the life
of a just society. The rabbis even composed a special benediction to fit the secret encompassed in this notable phenomenon
of a plurality of views in society: If one sees a large crowd of
people, one should say: Blessed is He who is wise in secrets;
for neither their faces nor their thoughts are alike (Tosefta
(Zuckermandel), Berakhot 7:5; and see Berakhot 58a). This is
a blessing for wisdom and creativity: Just as the nature of
creation still renders the countenances of all people different,
so also are we to believe that wisdom is still shared by men
each differing from the other (Vikkuah Mayim H ayyim (introduction)). Such a plurality of views should be respected by
our leaders and government, as the following midrashic comments instructively indicate (Numbers Rabbah, Pinh as 21:2;
Tanhuma, Pinh as 10):
Just as the countenances (of people) are not alike, so also their
views, and each person has his own opinion Thus on the
point of death Moses begged of God: Master of the Universe,
the views of every one are well known to you and your childrens
views are not all alike. When I depart from them, I pray, appoint
them a leader who will be tolerant of each persons view.
331
Thus, regarding that issue, Justice Elon did not allow the
Women of the Wall to worship at the Western Wall Plaza, and
said the following: It is obvious and self-evident that the petitioners are entitled to pray in their way in their own communities and synagogues, and no one will prevent them from
doing so. The petitioners freedom of worship remains as it always was. But due to the uniqueness of the Western Wall and
the great sensitivity of this holiest place for the Jewish people,
prayer must be conducted in this unique and special place according to a common denominator that allows the prayer of
every Jew as such; and this means that the custom of the place
as it has existed for generations must be maintained.
[Menachem Elon (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: HUMAN RIGHTS: M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat
ha-Ivri, 3:139192; idem, Jewish Law (1994), 165859, 1705, 177274,
1781, 1784; idem, Jewish Law (Cases and Materials) (1999), 53943; S.
Arieli, Mishpat ha-Milh amah (1972), 3536, 5290; S. Goren, Torat
ha-Shabbat ve-ha-Moed (1982), 36979; Y. Cohen, Giyyus ka-Halakhah (1993); A. Hacohen, Al H ovat ha-Shivyon be-Sherut ha-Z evai,
in: Daf Parashat ha-Shavua, 74 (Iyyar 2002). RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS: M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri (1988), 13191629; idem, Jewish Law (1994), 15751946; idem, Jewish Law (Cases and Materials)
(1999), 429537; idem, Maamad ha-Ishah, 53, 163164, 173, 210, 213; A.
Hacohen, Parshanut Takkanot ha-Kahal, 21820; idem, Ha-Mishpat
ha-Ivri ve-H erut ha-Bittui, in: Daf Parashat ha-Shavua, 205 (2005);
M. Vigoda, Z inat ha-Perat ve-H ofesh ha-Bittui, in: Daf Parashat
ha-Shavua, 129 (2003); idem, Bein Zekhuyot H evratiyyot le-H ovot
H evratiyyot be-Mishpat ha-Ivri, in: Y. Rabin and Y. Shani (eds.),
Zekhuyot Kalkaliyyot, H evratiyyot ve-Tarbutiyyot be-Yisrael (2004),
233; M.R. Konvitz (ed.), Judaism and Human Rights (20012). RIGHT
TO PRIVACY: M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri (19883); idem, Jewish
Law (1994), 185660; idem, Jewish Law: Cases and Materials (1999),
54566, 27; N. Lamm, Privacy in Law and Theology, in: Faith and
Doubt (1986), 290; E. Rackman, Zekhut ha-Peratiyyut u-Kefiah Datit
be-Yahadut, in: G. Firshtik (ed.), Zekhuyot Adam be-Yahadut (1992),
255: N. Rakover, Ha-Haganah al Z inat ha-Perat, in: Jewish Law, 3
(1970); S. Dikhovsky, Haazanat Seter, in: Teh umin, 11 (1990), 299;
idem, Haazanat Seter, in: Torah she-Beal Peh, 36 (1999), 58; Duah
ha-Vaadah le-Haganah bifnei Pegiah Z inat ha-Perat (Jerusalem, 1978).
THE ATTITUDE TO NON-JEWS: M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri (1988),
1:9, 13f., 19, 23, 26, 32f., 46, 56, 86, 120, 416, 432ff., 516, 542f., 555, 575,
600, 602, 633ff., 641f., 646f., 649, 651, 654ff., 660, 663, 717, 885, 1223,
1247, 1256, 1322ff., 1374, 1606f.; idem, Jewish Law (1994), 5557, 6274,
786, 803, 806, 95456, 959f., 97172, 168890, 191417; idem, HaAh er ba-Mishpat ha-Ivri u-be-Pesikat Bet ha-Mishpat ha-Elyon, in:
Madaei ha-Yahdut, 42 (2004), 3194; Y. Bar-Asher, The Right of Muslims to dwell in the Land of Israel, in: Zekhuyot ha-Adam be-Yahadut
= Takdim 34 (Winter 1992), 113 (Heb.); A. Hacohen, Christianity
and Christians in Rabbinic Eyes in the Modern Period: From Rabbi
Kook to Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef (unpublished). PLURALISM IN THE
WORLD OF HALAKHAH: M. Elon, Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri (1988), 227ff.,
229ff., 87072, 87579f., 947ff., 965, 101618, 1212, 1465, 1553ff.; Jewish
Law (1994), 106472, 137879, 184850; Cases and Materials (1999),
52338, 25; H.H. Cohn, Ha-Mishpat (1992), 53339; idem, Al H ofesh
332
ha-Deah ve-ha-Dibbur be-Masoret Yisrael, in: Zekhuyot Adam be-Yehadut, Takdim, 34 (1992), 179.
rimmon
with Italian citizenship were subject to discrimination, and
foreign Jews were to be interned in camps. Giovanni Palatucci, head of the foreigners section of the Fiuman police,
procured Aryan papers for Jews and sent many Jews to his
uncle, a bishop in southern Italy, and later to institutions for
people rendered mentally incompetent by the war. After the
conquest of Yugoslavia by the Germans in April 1941, the Italian Second Army occupied Dalmatia and some other parts of
the quisling Independent Croatian State. Some Italian officers collaborated with Palatucci and his group, sending to him
some 500 Jewish refugees from Croatia who were thus saved.
When Italy capitulated to the Allies in September 1943 and
Germans occupied all Italian territories, Palatucci remained at
his post, destroyed his files, and warned the Jews of their imminent arrest. Most of them survived. Palatucci was arrested
in September 1944 and died in Dachau in 1945.
Contemporary Period
When Rijeka became part of Yugoslavia in 1945, many Italian-speaking Jews left for Trieste and Italy; in 1947 there were
some 170 Jews in Rijeka and the surrounding area. The community numbered 99 in 1969. Following the evacuation of
Bosnian Jews from the war zone in 1992, around 60 families
reconstituted the community, but many subsequently left for
Zagreb and other localities in northern Croatia, leaving fewer
than 100 Jews in 2004.
Bibliography: Roth, Italy, 133, 176. Add. Bibliography:
T. Morgani, Ebrei in Fiume ed in Abbazia 14411945 (1979).
[Zvi Loker (2nd ed.)]
Beverly Hills estate of film legends Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. They generated a wave of criticism when they
demolished the Hollywood landmark and rebuilt it to three
times its size.
Riklis has been prominent in many Jewish institutions
and active in the United Jewish Appeal. He was a generous
supporter of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America,
Brandeis University and of Martin Luther Kings institutions
as well as many public institutions in lsrael.
Bibliography: O. Schisgall, The Magic of Mergers: The Saga
of Meshulam Riklis (1968). Add. Bibliography: I. Barmash, For
the Good of the Company: The History of the McCrory Corporation
(2003).
[Joachim O. Ronall / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
333
rimmon-perez
(1914), 4446; U. Cassuto, in: EM, 1 (1955), 322; B. Mazar, in: A. Malamat (ed.), The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (1961), 143 (Heb.).
[Chayim Cohen]
RIMMONPEREZ (Heb. ) , an encampment of the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai, situated between Rithmah
and Libnah (Num. 33:1920). The location of the camp depends upon the view taken of the route of the *Exodus. Those
following the traditional southern route locate Rithmah at Bir
al-Ratama and Libnah at Bir al-Bayd (Ar. Bayd and Heb.
Libnah (livnah) white). Rimmon-Perez would then be situated near a well in the Wadi Mayayn, close to the Naqb alBiyr, one of the main passages through the eastern mountains
of Sinai, about 19 mi. (30 km.) west of Akaba. On the other
hand, those who see a northern route look for some site east
of Hazeroth (Ayn Hasra?) near Jebel Hall.
Bibliography: Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 214; Jarvis, in: PEQ, 70
(1938), 24ff.; Gray, in: VT, 4 (1954), 14854.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
RIMON, JACOB (19021973), Hebrew writer. Born in Poland, he was taken to Palestine in 1908 by his family. From
1921 he worked for the communal council of Jaffa-Tel Aviv and
later became secretary of the social welfare department. He
was among the founding members of *Ha-Poel ha-Mizrachi
and the *Torah va-Avodah movement. He published poetry,
prose, and childrens stories.
His books of poetry are Hishtappekhut (1926), Arz i
(1928), Seneh (1946), Ke-Leket Shibbolim (1966), and Bi-Shevilei he-Amal (1968). Rimon is one of the few Orthodox Hebrew poets, and his poetry is imbued with a deep religious
faith. His novels include Arz enu ha-Kedoshah (1935) and
H ulyot be-Sharsheret (1957). Among his other works are
Yehudei Teiman be-Tel Aviv (Yemenite Jews in Tel Aviv,
334
ringelblum, emanuel
town to town, followed by a plunder-hungry mob, exhorting the burghers to annihilate the Jews. A wave of massacres
swept through Franconia, Swabia, *Hesse, *Thuringia, and
finally Heilbronn (Oct. 19, 1298). The protector of the Jews,
Emperor Albert I of Austria, was preoccupied with warfare,
and only after vanquishing his rival, Adolf of Nassau, did he
proclaim a Landfriede (peace of the land), warning against
further attacks. This proclamation was barely heeded, and
Jews continued to be massacred at *Gotha (1303), Renchen
(1301) and Weissensee (1303). The Jewry of *Augsburg was
saved through the steadfast protection of the municipality,
as was that of *Regensburg. In *Nuremberg, 728 Jews were
slaughtered when a mob stormed the castle in which they
had sought to defend themselves with the aid of the garrison.
Among the victims of Nuremberg were *Mordecai b. Hillel,
his wife, and children. The council thereafter banished 20 persons in perpetuity. A number of kinot and selih ot were composed in commemoration of the tragedy, which was most fully
recorded in S. Salfelds Das Martyrologium des Nuernberger
Memorbuchs (1898).
RINGELBLUM, EMANUEL (Menahem; 19001944), historian of the Warsaw ghetto. Born in Buczacz, eastern Galicia, Ringelblum graduated from Warsaw University and subsequently taught history at a high school. He published a
335
ringer, alexander L.
to the West. His efforts led to the first word of the killings at
Chelmno and the deportations of Warsaw Jewry. After the
massive deportation of the summer of 1942, Ringelblum became a believer in armed resistance. After the great deportations, he worked with renewed urgency; no longer dealing in
details, he sought to grapple with the larger issues of ghetto
life in an attempt to comprehend what was happening. He
created biographical notes on some of the great figures in the
ghetto. Before the ghetto was destroyed, collections of material were put in containers and buried in three or perhaps
more caches.
Ringelblum left the ghetto with his wife and young son
and returned to the ghetto alone during the Uprising. What
precisely happened to him is not known but he was arrested
and found in the Trawniki camp. Two people arranged for his
escape and he was brought to Warsaw, where he was hidden
with other Jews.
He worked to the very end. This work even continued in
the Aryan district after the destruction of the ghetto. In hiding he composed his master work on PolishJewish relations
during World War II. The Gestapo discovered his hiding place
in the Aryan district on March 7, 1944, and he and his family
were arrested and murdered.
After the war, only two caches were recovered from the
ruins, the third never coming to light. The material discovered became the property of the *Jewish Historical Institute
in Warsaw (there are photocopies in *Yad Vashem, Jerusalem,
and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). In the
1990s extensive efforts were made to preserve this documentation and to translate and publish this invaluable material. The
Oneg Shabbat material is the main source for research into the
history of Polish Jewry under German occupation.
Ringelblums own notes, summaries, and essays, written
during the occupation, were published after the war in Ksovim fun Geto (2 vols., 196163; Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto,
ed. and tr. by J. Sloan, 1958). He also wrote Kapitlen Geshikhte
fun Amolikn Yidishn Lebn in Poyln (1953) and Di Poylishe Yidn
in Oyfshtand fun Kociuszko 1794 (1937).
336
rio de janeiro
To have combined their surnames, Rosenberg said, would have
sounded too much like a firm of Jewish dressmakers.
At the time, the German advertising industry was booming and the team gained a reputation for innovative work.
They also came to know and photograph leading cultural
figures, such as Bertolt Brecht. Despite the commercial nature
of their commissions, Ringl+Pit played with form and perspective to demonstrate the influence of Surrealism, as in their
use in 1930 of a mannequin with a real hand to sell hair tonic.
The firm was widely used by mainstream manufacturers to sell
cigarettes and motor oil but in 1933, shortly after one of their
still-life collages won first prize at an international photography exhibition in Brussels, they decided to leave Germany.
Stern, who had a small inheritance, went to England and lent
Auerbach money to go to Palestine. She was accompanied by
her future husband, Walter Auerbach, a theater designer. They
opened a childrens portrait studio in Tel Aviv (a strong image
of an Arab boy, snapped in the street in Jaffa, survives from
1934) and she took photographs for the Womens International
Zionist Organization. Auerbach soon went to London and set
up a studio but was unable to get a work permit. She then went
to the United States and Stern to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in
1935. Relatively few examples of Ringl+Pits work of the period have survived but they have become eagerly sought by
museums and collectors. Politically, Walter Auerbach was an
active leftist but his wife stayed out of politics, although she
socialized with many left-wing artists. One of her more startling images shows Brecht at his typewriter with a light bulb
sprouting from the back of his head. The Auerbachs, who had
no children, divorced in 1945. Ringl+Pit were separated for ten
years by World War II. They never worked together again but
they remained lifelong friends.
In the United States, Ellen Auerbach took a number of
powerful images of children but she never recaptured her professional status. Her growing interest in children led her to become a therapist, working with learning-disabled children, a
career she pursued from 1965 until 1986, when she was 80. The
rediscovery of her work was helped in part by the publication
of two books of photographs, Mexican Churches (1987) and
Mexican Celebrations (1990), which she had originally taken
on a long journey in 1955 with a fellow photographer, Eliot
Porter, brother of the artist Fairfield Porter.
In Argentina, Stern brought the idea of modernist photography to the country and was an important influence on
the development of photography there. She made a long series of photomontages such as Nio Flor (Flower Child) in
1948 and Made in England in 1950 to illustrate a number of
articles about psychoanalysis and dreams. She was also a portraitist, taking pictures of Brecht and Jorge Luis Borges, as well
as documenting Argentine cities and regions.
In 1996 a documentary about Ringl+Pit won a number of
awards and was shown in Berlin, Tel Aviv, London, and New
York and on public television in the United States. Stern died
in Buenos Aires, Auerbach in New York.
[Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)]
337
rio de janeiro
Damas Israelitas (Jewish Womens Association Froein Farein, 1923); Lar da Criana Israelita (Jewish Childrens Home,
1923); Policlnica Israelita (1937, that later became a hospital);
and Lar da Velhice (Old Age Home, 1963), created by Sociedade das Damas Israelitas). Jewish women prostitutes founded
in Rio de Janeiro the Associao Beneficente Funerria e Religiosa Israelita (Beneficient, Funeral, and Religious Jewish Association) that functioned from 1906 to 1968.
During World War II the Jewish community was active
and founded the Comit Hebreu-Brasileiro para as Vtimas
da Guerra (Jewish Brazilian Committee for War Victims) and
the Comit de Socorro aos Israelitas Vtimas de Guerra (Aid
Committee for Jewish War Victims). The writer Stefan *Zweig
immigrated to Brazil in 1936, joined the Jewish community,
and wrote a famous book about the country: Brasil, pas do
futuro. His suicide in 1942 (together with his wife, Lotte), in
the countryside city of Petrpolis, was a notable event in the
life of the Jewish community and Brazilian history.
The community had its social and cultural center in the
Praa Onze, close to the downtown area and the port, where an
atmosphere of Yiddishkeit was present in daily life until the
1950s, when the Jews moved to other neighborhoods. The writer
and Zionist leader Samuel Malamud is the main narrator of the
memories from Praa Onze and of Jewish life in Rio de Janeiro.
In Praa Onze, also the center of the local Carnaval and a cultural and social meeting point for black people, almost 3,000
Jews frequented the socialist club Cabiras, the parties of the
Azul e Branco Club, and other local non-Jewish institutions.
The Zionist movement and the socialist groups were both
very active in Rio de Janeiro. The First Zionist Congress in
Brazil took place in 1922 with the participation of four different movements, including Tiferet Sion (1919). In 1921 a Brazilian delegate took part in the 12t Zionist Congress in Karlsbad.
In 1929 a Brazilian delegate to the 16t Zionist Congress was
elected by 1,260 votes. In 1934 the elections drew 2,647 voters.
In 1927 the Central Committee of the Poalei Zion Party was
founded and later the Grmio Hebreu-Brasileiro (HebrewBrazilian League).
Many Jewish leftist movements and parties were very active in Rio de Janeiro, among them socialists, communists,
and the Bund, in the Biblioteca Israelita Brasileira Scholem
Aleichem (Jewish Brazilian Sholem Aleichem Library, 1915),
Colgio Israelita Brasileiro Scholem Aleichem (Jewish Brazilian
Sholem Aleichem School, 1928), Sociedade Brasileira Pr-Colonizao Judaica na Unio Sovitica Brazkor (Brazilian Society for the Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union, 1928), and
Centro Operrio Morris Vinchevsky (Morris Vinchevsky Labor
Center, 1928). The last two organizations founded a workers
school (Arbeter Shule) and edited the newspaper Der Onheib.
Other leftist organizations were the Unio Cultural Israelita
Brasileira Ikuf, Clube dos Cabiras (194150), the Associao
Feminina Israelita Brasileira Vita Kempner, and the Associao
Kinderland. In 2005 the Associao Scholem Aleichem (ASA)
was an active political and cultural center and edited the Boletim da ASA, the sole Jewish leftist publication in Portuguese.
338
Later Developments
The Jewish community of Rio de Janeiro is the second largest
Jewish community in Brazil, after So Paulo. The community
has a solid network of institutions and a very active religious,
social, political, and cultural life and is well integrated in the
citys and the states social and cultural life.
In 2005 there were 80 entities affiliated with the Federao Israelita do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Jewish Federation of the State of Rio de Janeiro FIERJ, founded in 1947),
among them 30 synagogues, five schools, four other non-formal educational institutions and youth movements, Zionist
womens organizations, beneficent and social assistance entities, sport and cultural associations. These institutions include:
Organizao Sionista, Bnai Brith, Sociedade Beneficente das
Damas, Lar da Criana Israelita, Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Hospital Albert Einstein, Hebraica, Monte Sinai, and
Clube Israelita Brasileiro. In 1979 a Jewish industrialist, Israel
Klabin, became the mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro. FIERJ
has a weekly TV program and is very active in political issues
concerning the Jews in Brazil.
According to official numbers of FIERJ, 3,000 students
attended the Jewish day schools: Eliezer SteinbergMax Nordau, Colgio Israelita Brasileiro A. LiessinScholem Aleichem,
Bar Ilan (Zionist religious), ORT, and the Machan Or Isreal
and Beit Menachem (both non Zionist Orthodox).
Rio de Janeiro has a variety of synagogues, from ultraOrthodox to Reform-Liberal, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, with
imposing edifices and tiny shtibels. The Associao Religiosa
Israelita (ARI) was founded by German Jewish immigrants in
1942 and follows a Liberal tradition. With a membership of
850 families, ARI supports Lar Unio Associao Beneficente
Israelita (founded in 1939) and the youth Zionist movement
Chazit. ARI is the first synagogue in Brazil to have a woman
as a rabbi and is very active in inter-religious dialogue and in
cultural events in the city.
Congregao Judaica do Brasil (CJB) is a small Reform
synagogue. Under the guidance of Rabbi Nilton Bonder, CJB
was the most active Jewish presence at the NGO Global Forum during Eco-92, the United Nations ecological conference held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Bonder is the author of many books about Judaism that became bestsellers in
Brazil. There are programs for Jewish studies and Hebrew in
both the Federal University and the State University of Rio
de Janeiro.
Jewish Organizations in the Interior of the State of Rio de
Janeiro
Niteri has had an organized Jewish community since 1916.
Its activities include religious services, with a synagogue and
rishonim
RISHONIM (Heb.
; lit. the early authorities), a term
with many connotations chronological, literary, ethical, and
halakhic serving to indicate the standing and authority of
preceding scholars in relation to the scholars of the time in
the domain of halakhic ruling and interpretation of the Torah.
The distinction between rishonim and contemporaries is already found in the Talmud, which stresses the deterioration in
worth of the generations as they progressively become further
removed in time from Sinai; e.g., If the rishonim were as an-
339
a cemetery, and it maintains a local school and organizes cultural and social activities. Petrpolis is a resort city for the residents of Rio de Janeiro. Its community is small, but it nevertheless established a yeshivah to train rabbinical students. In
Nilpolis, situated on the route of the central railway of Brazil,
a Jewish community was organized in the 1920s with a Centro
Israelita (1936), the Sh. An-Ski complementary school, a synagogue, the Macabi club, Wizo, and a Yiddish theater group. In
1947, when Nilpolis became a city, there were 300 families,
but later all the members moved to other cities. In Campos,
the Sociedade Unio Israelita de Campos was established in
1929 by 4050 families.
Bibliography: A. Dines, Morte no Paraso. A tragdia de Stefan Zweig (2004); A. Wiznitzer, Os judeus no Brasil colonial (1960);
A. Milgram, O milieu judeu-comunista do Rio de Janeiro nos anos
30 (2001); B. Kushnir. Baile de Mscaras: Mulheres Judias e Prostituio. As Polacas e suas Associaes de Ajuda Mtua (1996); E. and F.
Wolff, Campos. Ascenso e declnio de uma coletividade (1986); E.
London. Vivncia judaica em Nilpolis (1999); S. Malamud, Documentrio. Contribuio judaica memria da comunidade judaica
brasileira (1992).
[Roney Cytrynowicz (2nd ed.)]
rishonim
scholars being held as greater than that of their successors. The
chief significance of the division into periods is psychological,
its importance being methodological and chronological and
valuable mainly as a conventional nomenclature.
From the point of view of literary history, the period of
the rishonim is differentiated from that of the geonim by a process of subdivision into separate literary genres; i.e., the composition of books with distinctive contents in distinctive literary forms in accordance with their contents, such as *ethics
and philosophy, and in the domain of halakhah, *tosafot, pesakim, *hassagot, *haggahot, *responsa, novellae (*H iddushim),
biblical exegesis, etc. This process which reached the zenith of
its efflorescence in the 11t century, brought in its wake an improvement in the means of expression. In consequence, works
belonging to the period of the rishonim cover a much wider
spectrum than was normal with the geonim. They contain
more extended discussions, an explicit reliance upon previous
scholars, and a marked desire to preserve local traditions and
customs. Apart from these general literary aspects, there are
no specific phenomena characteristic of the rishonim, since
there existed great individual differences between the scholars
of the east and the west, as well as between those of the west
itself, even with regard to such primary problems as the right
attitude toward the geonim, the degree of authority to be attributed to local regulations, and the authority of great scholars to
intervene beyond the borders of their own country.
A list of all the published works of the rishonim up to
1959 with subsequent addenda (the last in the Internet journal Jewish Studies, vol. 1, 2002, pp. 12980) was published in
Sarei ha-Elef (see bibl.).
monographs, and the like. This trend represents the publishers desire to reach the tens of thousands of youths who study
in the hundreds of yeshivot in Israel and the free world more
than the aim of meeting the need for historical and literary
research, in which field the number of scholars engaged is
still very limited.
340
rishonim
plete edition from manuscripts and printed sources of *Jacob
b. Ashers biblical commentary, Baal ha-Turim, has appeared.
A large new collection of halakhic rulings and responsa by
early Franco-German scholars of the 12t and 13t centuries is
about to be issued by the *Mekiz e Nirdamim.
SPANISH SCHOOL. An important achievement is the reissuing of the halakhic works of great Spanish scholars. Although
most of the works of *Nah manides have long been available,
the existing edition is very defective, both as regards mistakes
and omissions. About two years ago, Makhon ha-Talmud haYisreeli ha-Shalem began the comprehensive project of publishing a critical edition of all Nah manides novellae to the
Talmud, based on all extant manuscripts and printed editions.
Those to the tractates Makkot, Avodah Zarah, and Sanhedrin, with a monograph on Dinei de-Garme, have already appeared. A similar project in respect of the works of *Yom Tov
b. Abraham Ishbili, the Ritba, is being planned by Mosad haRav Kook. A sample page of Eruvin was published in Sinai, 67
(1970). Of Nah manides works, the following have been published for the first time: Tashlum Derashat ha-Rambam Torat
ha-Shem Temimah, the end of which was previously missing
(Tarbiz, 40 (1971)); supplements to his commentary on the
Torah (Ha-Mayan, 9 (1969)); the hitherto missing fragments
from the first 11 pages of Bava Mez ia (Mattityahu, Yeshivat
Netanyah (1972)); Kelalei ha-Ramban by S. *Abramson, published by Mosad ha-Rav Kook, a collection gathered from the
works of Nah manides, with some notes.
Works by other Spanish scholars published include a new
and critical edition, based on an excellent manuscript, of the
H ukkot ha-Dayyanim of Abraham b. Solomon ibn Tazarti, a
pupil of Solomon *Adret, the previous edition of which was
very faulty (two volumes, the Harry Fischel Institute); the
completion of the siddur of *Judah b. Yakar, the teacher of
Nah manides; the commentary of Rabbenu Perez ha-Kohen,
the teacher of *Nissim b. Reuben, on the tractate Nazir, and
to the same tractate by R. Todros b. Isaac of Gerona, early 14t
century; the important commentaries of Nissim b. Reuben
to tractates Eruvin and Pesah im; the commentary of *Aaron
b. Joseph ha-Levi of Barcelona to tractate Avodah Zarah and
the Nimmukei Yosef of Joseph *H abiba to the same (in the
Shitah Mekubbez et to that tractate); Shitah le-Vaal ha-Z erurot
to tractate Taanit by *H ayyim b. Samuel b. David of Tudela;
and fragments from the commentary by an anonymous pupil of Nah manides to tractates Yoma and Sukkah (S.K. Mirski Memorial Volume, New York (1971)); worthy of note are
the anonymous commentary to Kiddushin published under
the title Shitah Kadmonit and to Middah, by an anonymous
scholar of the school of Nah manides, published under the title H iddushei ha-Ra. Of the Bible exegetes from this school,
worthy of note are the commentary to Genesis and Exodus
attributed to a pupil of Nissim b. Reuben and the continuation of the commentary of Abraham b. Isaac *Tamakh on
Proverbs 31 (in the Mirski Volume) and on Lamentations 3
(Ha-Darom, 28 (1929)).
341
rishonim
Ha-Mikra be-Rambam. It is of exceptional value, and is the
first of its kind in comprehensiveness and quality. Of importance for textual research on the works of Maimonides is the
reissue of H asifat Genuzim mi-Teiman and the facsimile edition (by Makor) of the unique and important Constantinople (1509) edition of the Mishneh Torah. Among the works
of other Oriental scholars, note should be taken of the anonymous commentary to Bava Batra Perush Kadmon; of the
anonymous Hilkhot Erez Yisrael min ha-Genizah (in Kovez al
Yad, 7 (1968)), and of the small fragment of the commentary
of *Perah yah b. Nissim to Alfasis commentary on Shabbat
(in Seyata di-Shemaya (1970)). Important is the commentary
of *Hananel b. Samuel to the Alfasi on Kiddushin, printed in
the Shitat ha-Kadmonim to this tractate. Erez Israel halakhot,
dating from the pre-Moslem period, from Genizah sources,
which throw considerable light on the specific halakhah of
Erez Israel and clarify many hitherto obscure passages in the
so-called Sefer ha-Maasim (see p. 330) and including new
extracts from it from the literary legacy of Prof. Mordecai
Margaliot, collected by him over 20 years from all available
sources are now in the final stages of publication. Among
Bible commentaries, mention may be made of the commentary to Job by Meyuh as b. Elijah.
342
rishonim
rupted and left uncompleted; a project to issue the complete
novellae of Nah manides (see above). Mosad ha-Rav Kook
has sponsored the main work of Rabbi Y. Kafah , the issuing
of new Hebrew translations of all Maimonides Arabic works,
and the editing of many works by rishonim of which he possesses single, or unique, manuscripts. It is also about to begin
the printing of the series Ha-Ritba ha-Shalem on the Talmud
(see above). Worthy of note is the project Sanhedrei Gedolah
of the Harry Fischel Institute, which is reprinting all extant
rishonim to tractate Sanhedrin or those whose subject matter
refers mainly to that tractate. Hitherto four volumes have appeared and H ukkot ha-Dayyanim (see above). All the works
published by these institutes have introductions, source references and notes by the editors.
The work of these individual scholars is of equal importance to the planned series. Quite a number of these scholars
work according to their own private plan, e.g., Rabbi Ullman,
who has published the remainder of the hitherto unpublished
Tosafot ha-Rosh (without taking into consideration that some
other person may be engaged in the identical task), and Rabbi
Brizel, who has published the Aguddah with notes and source
references. It is a cause for satisfaction that editors who were
accustomed formerly to embellish their editions with an abundance of mostly superfluous notes have also recently begun
to regard their principal work as simply the provision of a reliable text. As a result, the literature of rishonim is gradually
returning to the original form in which it was always published in the past.
At present the editing of works by rishonim is wholly in
the hands of yeshivah scholars and students of the Torah who
are guided in their choice and in their work by the curriculum current in yeshivot. No work of any significance in this
domain is being done in academic circles, although among
them too are considerable numbers of rabbinical scholars.
Any work needed for research into matters connected with
rabbinical literature which does not fall within the curriculum of the yeshivot is still completely dependent on the possibilities (and the preferences) of the Mekiz e Nirdamim society, and on the very few publications, too fragmentary to
have permanent value, in a few periodicals. There exists a
great need especially for facsimile editions (either with or
without their parallel printed transcription), since these are
the foundations of all exact scientific research, relieving the
researcher from dependence upon the editors reading of the
photostat of the MSS. Because this task is not regarded as of
significance for study in yeshivot, such works are well-nigh
nonexistent. A praiseworthy exception is the Makor Publishing Company, which puts out excellent facsimile editions of
those manuscripts (see above).
Among the chief workers in the field (of complete works)
are: Rabbis Y. Kafah , A. Sofer, M. Herschler, M.J. ha-Kohen
Blau and Ch.D. Chavel who are veteran scholars of great experience; also S. Greenbaum, A.D. Pines, A.L. Feldman, I. haLevi Lipschutz and S. Ullman. Others, in alphabetical order,
are: A. Brizel, S.Z. Broida, K. Cahana, J. Cohen, M. Glazer,
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
343
rishon le-zion
RISHON LEZION (Heb.
, First in Zion), city
in central Israel, 7 mi. (12 km.) S.E. of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, founded
in 1882 by ten pioneers from Russia headed by Z.D. *Levontin.
The name Rishon le-Zion is based on Isaiah 41:27.
In acquiring the first 835 acres (3,340 dunams) of land for
their village, the settlers were aided by H ayyim *Amzalak, then
the British vice consul in Jaffa. It was the first settlement established by pioneers from outside Erez Israel. In the first year of
its existence, the population grew to 100 when *Bilu pioneers
joined the village after receiving some agricultural training at
*Mikveh Israel. Their experience, however, was still insufficient
and their sparse means were almost totally spent on the cost
of the land and on primary investments. They soon faced a
grave crisis. A particular difficulty was the lack of water, as attempts to find water in shallow wells had failed and drinking
water had to be hauled from Mikveh Israel in a camel-drawn
carriage. As a last resource, the settlers in 1883 sent an emissary, Yosef *Feinberg, to enlist the aid of Jewish communities
in Europe. He met Baron Edmond de *Rothschild, whose first
contribution, F25,000 (francs), was utilized to drill a deep
well. Subsequently, Baron Rothschild maintained the settler
families and after a review of the villages farming program,
introduced fruit growing, especially wine grapes, instead of
grain cultivation. He sent agronomists and administrators to
Rishon le-Zion, but a fresh crisis arose when the administrators regarded the settlers as hired workers and stifled their
initiative. The vine strains brought from southern France
proved unsuitable and the grapes had no market. Part of the
vineyards were therefore replaced by almond plantations. The
situation gradually improved after 1889, when the large Carmel Oriental wine cellars were installed by Baron Rothschild.
The worlds first Hebrew kindergarten and elementary school
were opened here in the 1880s. The moshavahs holdings gradually expanded to 3,225 acres (12,900 dunams) in 1907 with
a population of 500 in 1897, and 2,130 in 1917. Immigration
from Eastern Europe and *Yemen brought additional Jewish
laborers. Citrus groves became the principal farming branch.
During World War I, the Turkish governor, in appreciation of
the villages achievements in reclaiming formerly barren terrain, ordered an area of 5,000 acres (20,000 dunams) of sand
dunes stretching from Rishon le-Zion west to the seashore to
be annexed to its boundaries. This transfer was endorsed by
the British administration in 1921. Aside from the dunes, the
village area grew to 4,250 acres (17,000 dunams) in 1932. In
1922 the moshavah received municipal council status. In the
1930s, industrial enterprises (silicate bricks, beer, and razor
blades) were set up. By 1948 Rishon le-Zion had 10,500 inhabitants. Considerable land reserves, a rich groundwater table and the nearby Tel Aviv conurbation favorably influenced
Rishon le-Zions further expansion. In 1950, it was given city
status, and its population continued to increase rapidly, attaining 46,500 by 1970. By that time it had one of the countrys
largest municipal terrains with a total of 17 sq. mi. (44 sq. km.).
Industry expanded while farming still played a role in the
citys economy. By the mid-1990s, the population of Ris-
344
RISHPON (Heb. ) , moshav in central Israel N. of *Herzliyyah. Rishpon was founded in 1936, in the framework of
the Thousand Families Settlement Project (see *Israel, State
of: Settlement), by immigrants from Eastern Europe. In 1970
Rishpon had 447 inhabitants, increasing to 540 in the mid1990s and 794 in 2002 after expansion. Its economy was based
on citrus groves, fruit plantations, flowers, vegetables, poultry and horse stables. The name is assumedly historical, and
appears in the form Rishponah in an inscription of Tiglath
Pileser III dating back to the year 732 B.C.E. It may be connected with the Canaanite deity Reshef.
[Efraim Orni]
rittenberg, david
Among the many volumes published by him on halakhah, aggadah, biblical commentaries, sermons, and responsa
may be mentioned: Shaarei Zevah (1913), dealing with the laws
of sheh itah and treifah; Shaarei Shamayim (1937), a commentary on the Shulh an Arukh; and Torat ha-Kohanim (1948), an
exhaustive study of the laws pertaining to Kohanim.
Bibliography: B. Ayalon (ed.), Yizkor Book Meitshet (1973),
11920; S. Gottlieb, Ohelei Shem (1912).
RITTENBERG, DAVID (19061970), U.S. biochemist. Rittenberg, who was born in New York, was a member of the faculty of Columbia University from 1934 onward. He was professor of biochemistry at the universitys College of Physicians
and Surgeons until 1956 when he became executive officer of
the department of biochemistry. In 1965 he was appointed
chairman of the department. He was one of the pioneers in
the use of isotopes to label molecules and so trace their movements and chemical transformation in metabolism. By this
345
RIVA (di Trento), town on the Lake of Garda, N. Italy. A Jewish community existed there from the 14t century. Though
expelled in 1520 as the result of the Simon of Trent blood libel, Jews returned to Riva soon after, but they were compelled
346
RIVERA, JACOB RODRIGUEZ (17171789), U.S. merchant and a founder of Yeshuat Israel Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. Born in Spain, Rivera was naturalized in
New York in 1746, but soon moved to Newport. There during
the two prerevolutionary decades, Rivera became a distinguished merchant shipper, trading in numerous commodities,
including slaves, but his chief and quite possibly pioneering interest was the spermaceti candle industry. A charter
member in 1761 of the United Company of Spermaceti Chandlers, he led its efforts to regulate competition. His colleagues,
mostly non-Jews, esteemed him enough to forgo Saturday
meetings on his account. Around 1760, he took as his partner the Newport cultural leader, Henry Collins, a founder of
the Redwood Library, which Rivera also supported. Rivera is
best known for his association with his enterprising son-inlaw, Aaron *Lopez, and shared in many of Lopez ventures.
During the American Revolution, he accompanied Lopez to
Leicester, Massachusetts and took up farming there but, following Lopez untimely death in 1782, Rivera reestablished
himself at Newport.
Bibliography: AJHSP, 27 (1920), index; S.F. Chyet, Lopez
of Newport (1969); M. Gutstein, The Story of the Jews of Newport
(1936), index; J.R. Marcus, Early American Jewry, 2 (1953), index;
idem, American Jewry. Documents. Eighteenth Century (1959), index;
idem, Colonial American Jews (1969); Commerce of Rhode Island, 2
vols. (191415).
[Stanley F. Chyet]
rivers, larry
RIVERS, JOAN (1933 ), U.S. comedienne and actress. Born
Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian
immigrants, Rivers acted in school productions at Barnard
College, graduating Phi Betta Kappa with a bachelors degree in English in 1954. Post-college jobs included working
as a publicist for Lord and Taylor and as a fashion coordinator for Bond Clothing Stores, marrying the owners son at 21;
the marriage was annulled six months later. Rivers returned
home and pursued her dream of becoming an actress, mostly
working in off-Broadway plays. She soon shifted gears and
tried stand-up comedy, at first using the name Pepper January and then performing as Joan Rivers. After working small
East Coast clubs for seven years, she spent time in Greenwich
Village coffeehouses developing an act that was sexually provocative and self-deprecating. Critics panned Rivers, but comedian Lenny *Bruce encouraged her. From 1961 to 1962, she
was a member of the improvisational group Second City, and
then wrote material for Candid Camera and Phyllis Diller.
In 1965 she was booked on the Tonight Show and after a successful set was asked back. Rivers soon became a Las Vegas
headliner, and was named Las Vegas comedienne of the year
in 1976 and 1977. Rivers wrote and starred in the film Rabbit Test with Billy Crystal in 1978, and in 1983 she was named
Woman of the Year by Hadassah. That same year, the woman
known for her trademark line Can we talk? parlayed her frequent appearances on the Tonight Show into a regular guest
host slot. After Carson left the Tonight Show in 1986, Rivers
started her own talk show, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers
(198687) and published her first autobiography, Enter Talking.
Her second husband was suffering from chemical depression
due to heart medication at the time; he took the cancellation
of his wifes program personally and committed suicide a few
months later. Her husbands death tainted Rivers professionally, especially after her agent canceled her contract. Rivers
started performing in small clubs again, appeared in Neil Simons Broadway Bound (1986), and then took a regular spot
as the center square on the television game show Hollywood
Squares, which she held until 1989. She hosted her own syndicated talk show, The Joan Rivers Show, from 1989 to 1993,
and won an Emmy for it in 1990. Rivers returned to Broadway with a play she wrote about Lenny Bruces mother, Sally
Marr and Her Escorts (1994), which earned her a Tony nod
for best actress. Rivers and her daughter starred as themselves
in an NBC made-for-TV movie Tears and Laughter: The Joan
and Melissa Rivers Story (1994), and the mother-daughter team
has since become known for providing red-carpet commentary during the Oscars and other awards shows.
Bibliography: Rivers, Joan, in: Newsmakers, Issue 3 (2005);
Rivers, Joan, in: Contemporary Authors (Gale, 2005). Website:
www.imdb.com/name/nm0001672.
[Adam Wills (2nd ed.)]
347
rivista israelitica
RIVISTA ISRAELITICA, Italian-Jewish scholarly periodical
published in Florence between 1904 and 1915. Rivista Israelitica: Periodico bimestrale per la scienza e la vita del Giudaismo
(Bi-Monthly for the Science and the Life of Judaism) was
founded by Samuel Hirsch *Margulies. It appeared regularly
until 1913, and in 1915 a double number marked its last issue.
The journal provided a forum for the emerging research on the
history and culture of Italian Jewry, which in 1913 was marked
by the foundation of a Florence-based Societ per la storia degli ebrei in Italia (Society for the History of the Jews of Italy)
edited by Umberto Cassuto. The Rivista Israelitica separated,
for the first time in the history of the Italian Jewish press, a
scientific approach to Judaism from more general educational
goals, which S.H. Margulies pursued instead in La Settimana
Israelitica (published in Siena between 1910 and 1915). The
two journals eventually merged with Il Corriere Israelitico of
Trieste, resulting in the weekly Israel (191664), from which
later stemmed both Israel dei ragazzi (191838), a monthly for
the youth and La Rassegna Mensile di Israel (1925 ). Many
of the studies by the Italian and foreign contributors dealt
with the history and culture of Italian Jewry. In 190406 an
Italian translation of part of Abraham Berliners Geschichte
der Juden in Rom (Storia degli Ebrei in Roma; History of
the Jews of Rome) appeared in installments as an appendix.
Contributors included: Moise Finzi (president of the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano and professor of statistics and political
economy at the Istituto Tecnico of Florence), U. Cassuto, Elia
Samuele Artom, Raffaele Ottolenghi, Samuele Colombo, G.
Cal, G. Jar, C. Castellani, Aldo Sorani, Edgardo Morpurgo,
Giuseppe Levi, Israel Zoller and Aldo Cantone. The journal
also attracted distinguished Jewish scholars from other countries. H.P. Chajes and I. Elbogen, who taught at the Collegio
Rabbinico Italiano, contributed various studies.
[Tovia Preschel / Francesco Spagnolo (2nd ed.)]
348
Rivkes also wrote additions to the Shulh an Arukh and a commentary on the Mishnah, which were never published. In the
sphere of Jew-gentile relations, Rivkes favored tolerance and
mutual respect, condemning dishonesty toward non-Jews in
commercial dealings and stressing the duty of Jews to respect
Jews and gentiles alike, since Christians shared with Jews certain religious beliefs based upon the Bible. He was renowned
for his personal piety and was called he-H asid (the pious),
an unusual appellation for that time. In his ethical testament
he refers to his sons, Pethahiah, Joseph, and Judah, who died
in his lifetime, and to his sisters son, David Lida, rabbi of Amsterdam. Rivkes was an ancestor of Elijah Gaon of Vilna, who
was supported by a legacy established by him.
Bibliography: S.J. Fuenn, Kiryah Neemanah (19125), 97100;
I. Klausner, Toledot ha-Kehillah ha-Ivrit be-Vilna (1938), 15; Ch. Tchernowitz, Toledot ha-Posekim, 3 (1947), 1725; J. Katz, Exclusiveness and
Tolerance (1961); Yahadut Lita, 1 (1959), 253, and index; 3 (1967), 71,
and index.
[Itzhak Alfassi]
RIVKIN, BORUCH (pseudonym of Boruch Abraham Weinrebe/Weinryb; 18831945), Yiddish literary critic and essayist.
Born in Jakobstadt, Courland (Jekabpils, Latvia), the son of
a wagon driver, Rivkin became involved in the revolutionary
activities of the *Bund, although he was more inclined toward
philosophical anarchism. He suffered a years imprisonment in
1904 and fled to Switzerland, where he was active in anarchist
circles and published in Russian. Only after reaching London
(1911) did he begin to write in Yiddish. A year later he settled
in New York and was invited by the poet A. *Reisen to write
for his newly-founded literary weekly Dos Naye Land. Rivkin
became coeditor of its successor, Di Literarishe Velt, and also
assisted A. *Liessin in editing Tsukunft. He was on the staff
of the New York daily Tog (191719 and 194045). In the U.S.,
Rivkin was associated with Poalei Zion. He suffered poverty
and published only one booklet during his life. After his death,
his second wife, Yiddish poet Mina Bordo-Rivkin, collected
and published his essays in six volumes, which included: A
Gloybn far Umgloybike (A Religion for the Irreligious, 1947);
Yidishe Dikhter in Amerike (American Yiddish Poets, 1947);
Grunt-Tendentsn fun der Yidisher Literatur in Amerike (Main
Trends in American Yiddish Literature, 1948); and Undzere
Prozaiker (Our Prose Writers, 1951). Rivkin is primarily a literary critic, who holds that religion and art are identical and
that divine truth emanates from imaginative creation. Hence,
Torah is art and Jewish holidays are theatrical embodiments
of a drama of redemption. The Jewish man of letters can ennoble the Jewish people and direct its energies to messianic
goals. Rivkin propagated the idea that Yiddish literature could
serve as a spiritual territory for the Jewish people in the Diaspora. Messianism and spiritualism were two of Rivkins main
concerns. He was not a disciplined thinker but rather a passionate, dynamic critic who probed deeply into literary works,
occasionally emerging with flashes of original insight.
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 4 (1929), 3303; M. BordoRivkin, B. Rivkin: Lebn un Shafn (1953), incl. bibl.; S.D. Singer, Dikhter
rivlin
un Prozaiker (1959), 2914; A. Tabachnik, Dikhter un Dikhtung (1965),
45573. Add. Bibliography: LNYL, 8 (1981), 44851.
[Sol Liptzin / Eugene V. Orenstein (2nd ed.)]
RIVKIND, ISAAC (18951968), librarian and scholar. Rivkind was born in Lodz, Poland, and studied at the yeshivot
of Volozhin and Ponevezh. During World War I and after he
helped organize the Mizrachi movement of Poland. In 1917
he founded the Z eirei Mizrachi in Lodz and in 191920 was
a member of the Jewish National Council of Poland. In 1920
he was a delegate to the London Zionist Conference and from
there proceeded to the U.S. to work on behalf of Mizrachi. In
1923 he began to work in the library of the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America, New York, eventually becoming chief of
the Hebraica section. He was a co-founder of the U.S. branch
of the Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO); on the executive of
the Hebrew PEN Club of the U.S.A.; and a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research. During World War II and in
the immediate postwar years he was the national chairman in
the U.S. of the League for Religious Labor in Palestine.
Rivkind was the author of significant studies and essays
in many fields, notably in Jewish bibliography, ethnography
and folklore, Yiddish philology, and Zionism. He contributed
to numerous periodicals and publications in Hebrew, Yiddish,
and English, including Kirjath Sepher, Reshumot, and Yidishe
Shprakh. He wrote the following works: Le-Ot u-le-Zikkaron
(For a Sign and a Reminder, 1942), a study on the history,
development, and customs of bar mitzvah; Der Kamf Kegn
349
Rivlin, Alice
published. His son HILLEL (17581838), born in Shklov, was
active in the H azon Zion association. In 1809 he immigrated
to Erez Israel at the head of a company of 70 people, among
whom were disciples of the Vilna Gaon, and settled in Jerusalem. MOSES (17811846), son of Hillel, lived in Shklov, where
he officiated as a Maggid. After his father immigrated to Erez
Israel, he headed the H azon Zion association. He came to Erez
Israel himself in 1841 where he was appointed head of the Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem by the rabbis of Russia and
Lithuania. Among his writings is Beit Midrash, published in
Vilna in 1861 by his son ISAAC EISIK (?1869). When Elijah
Joseph Rivlin (18051865), grandson of Elijah Platkes, went
to Jerusalem in 1847, the members of the H abad branch of
the family joined the family and H abad H asidim already in
the country in such places as Jerusalem, Hebron, and Tiberias. Members of the family became heads of the kolelim and
public institutions in Jerusalem and Hebron, such as talmud
torahs, hospitals, and gemilut h asadim societies, and were
among those who extended the limits of Jewish settlement
in Jerusalem and other cities. Other members of the family
traveled to Western Europe. There, too, branches of the family evolved, some of whose children moved to Jewish centers
in America.
Bibliography: H .H. Rivlin, H azon Z iyyon (1947); M. Kasher,
Ha-Tekufah ha-Gedolah (1969); A. Horowitz, Mosad ha-Yesod (1948);
S.J. Fuenn, Kiryah Neemanah (1915); Frumkin-Rivlin, Toledot, 3
(1929), 175, 224, 227, 261; 263; S.Z. Rivlin, Ha-Maggid Doresh Z iyyon
(1960).
[Benjamin Rivlin]
350
RIVLIN, SHELOMO ZALMAN (18861962), h azzan, composer, and rabbi, son of Yosef *Rivlin. Rivlin studied liturgical music with A.Z. Idelsohn. For 60 years, he was h azzan of
the Shirat Israel Synagogue in Jerusalem, and founded and
directed its school for h azzanim and Jewish music. He endeavored to produce a unified musical style based equally on
the European and Oriental traditions, which he published in
Shirei Shelomoha-Shirah ha-Meuh edet (1933). Rivlins reputation as an outstanding teacher was spread by his students,
many of whom became notable h azzanim. He also trained
many of his pupils in homiletics and published the sermons
he wrote for them to deliver in the Shirat Israel Synagogue in
Midrash Shelomo (1953). His compositions and arrangements
of traditional melodies were published in Shirei Shelomo, 3
vols. (193161). He also edited, together with J.C. Epstein, a
Hebrew-English-Yiddish dictionary (1924).
Bibliography: Tidhar, 4 (1950), 1743; E. Horowitz, in: Yediot
ha-Makhon ha-Yisreeli le-Musikah Datit, 4 (1963/64), 35460.
[David M.L. Olivestone]
RIVLIN, YOSEF YIZ H AK (18371896), leader of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. Born in Jerusalem, Rivlin was
a fourth-generation descendant of Hillel Rivlin (see *Rivlin
family), the leader of the disciples of the Vilna Gaon who settled in Erez Israel in the early 19t century. He entered public
life at an early age, and from 1863 until his death was secretary and, in fact, director of Ha-Vaad ha-Kelali Keneset
Yisrael (General Committee of Keneset Yisrael), the central
body of the Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem. As such he
was instrumental in unifying the Ashkenazi community. Rivlin initiated the building of the first Jewish quarters in Jerusalem outside the Old City walls, e.g., Nah alat Shivah (1869),
Meah Shearim (1874), and other housing centers in the west
and northwest of the city. He took an active part in founding
the first Jewish agricultural settlement, Petah Tikvah. Rivlins
writings are mostly confined to publicistic commentary. His
articles in Hebrew newspapers in Erez Israel and abroad described Jewish life in the Holy Land. He argued with those who
criticized the social and economic conditions of the old yishuv
and especially the H alukkah system, for he favored gradual
reform, rather than major changes. Rivlin also wrote some
poetry about the redemption of Israel and the upbuilding of
Jerusalem. A selection of his articles and essays appeared in
351
rizaieh
book form as Megillat Yosef (1966), edited with an introduction by N. Katzburg.
Bibliography: P. Grajewski, Ha-Rav Yosef Rivlin (1926); Y.
Rivlin, in: H.Z. Hirschberg (ed.), Yad Yosef Yiz h ak Rivlin (1964).
[Nathaniel Katzburg]
352
ROBACK, ABRAHAM AARON (18901965), U.S. psychologist and Yiddish scholar. Born in Russia, Roback was
taken to the U.S. as a child. He taught at several universities
and was associated with the Massachusetts State Department
of Education (192649). He served as chairman and professor of psychology at Emerson College (19491958). Robacks
primary importance to psychology was as a historian and systematist. An early opponent of behaviorism, he believed in a
broadly humanistic approach to psychology. He was the first
to investigate the historical antecedents of American, as opposed to European, sources of psychology. He also stressed
the Jewish contribution to the history of psychology. In addition, he devised tests for superior adult intelligence, scientific
ingenuity, comprehension, and sense of humor. He wrote on
personality and folklore and became interested in the study
of linguistics, especially of Yiddish.
Roback was the first to introduce an academic course in
Yiddish literature in the U.S., at the Massachusetts University
Extension (1929) and organized the Yiddish collection (over
10,000 books) at Harvard University Library (1929). He was
editor of Der Keneder Odler in Montreal (1908) and first editor of Canadian Jewish Chronicle (1914).
Robacks extensive research into the character and literary value of Yiddish also showed the cultural and spiritual impact which this language has made upon Western culture. He
showed how Yiddish is permeated by the folkgeist of its Jewish speakers and Weltanschauung of the shtetl. Roback wrote
the Jewish Influence in Modern Thought (1929) and Psychology
Through Yiddish Literature (1931) in which he expressed his belief in the role of Jewish thought in the modern age. Roback
was active in many communal and Jewish organizations.
Apart from Yiddish research, he was a prolific writer in
his own field. He wrote many articles and over 20 books on
psychology. Among the most important were: The Psychology
of Character (1927, 19524); Personality in Theory and Practice
(1949, 19572); A History of American Psychology (1952, 19642);
History of Psychology and Psychiatry (1961, 19622); Aspects of
Applied Psychology and Crime (1964).
Bibliography: J. Berger, The Destiny and Motivation of Dr.
A.A. Roback (1957).
[Menachem M. Brayer]
ROBACK, LEA (19032000), Canadian feminist, union organizer, communist, peace activist. Roback was known in the
Jewish community but earned her fame among labor activists and feminists in Quebec Francophone society. Born in
Montreal to Yiddish-speaking Polish parents, she was raised
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
robbins, jerome
in Beauport, one of nine children. At home in French society,
she went to the University of Grenoble for two years and then
to the University of Berlin. Her association with the radical
left began in Germany, where she witnessed the rise of Nazism
and was herself beaten for her political activism. Returning to
Montreal in 1932, she worked at the YWHA and then opened a
Marxist bookstore. She became a labor organizer for the ILGWU and organized the Union of Electrical Workers. Given
the anti-Marxist government of Duplessis, she continued her
work underground when the bookstore was closed. Age did
not diminish her enthusiasm or activism as she marched and
spoke out for womens rights and against antisemitism, war,
and the use of nuclear weapons. Even at age 92, she participated in the March of Bread and Roses. Friends and family
set up an ongoing foundation in her honor that would raise
money for education. Named to the Order of Quebec and
honored by the YWCA and Temple Emanuel-Beth Sholom,
Roback was listed as one of the 100 outstanding Quebecers
of the 20t century in LActualit. She was the subject of a 1991
documentary film, Des Lumires: Dans la grande noirceur, by
Sophie Bissonnette. Robacks papers are at the Jewish Public
Library of Montreal. She never married but left a strong legacy that combined a fierce pride in being Jewish with a steadfast commitment to social justice, human rights, and peace.
Her life stands as an example of Canadian multiculturalism
at its best.
353
robert, ludwig
Christian Andersen award (1988) and the Handel Medallion
of the City of New York (1990).
Bibliography: IED, vol. 5, 358b368a; International Dictionary of Ballet, vol. 2, 1199203.
[Marcia B. Siegel / Amnon Shiloah (2nd ed.)]
ROBERT (Levin), LUDWIG (17781832), German playwright. Born into a prosperous and enlightened Berlin family, Robert was the younger brother of Rahel *Varnhagen von
Ense. Rejecting a business career to become a writer, he devoted himself mainly to the drama, and was the first Jew to
have his plays performed on the German stage. Although he
converted to Christianity, he was never allowed to forget his
Jewish origin, and his lack of success was partly due to the
prejudices of his contemporaries. Neither his adaptation of
Molires Les Prcieuses Ridicules (staged in Berlin, 1804) nor
his verse tragedy Die Tochter Jephthas (staged in Prague, 1813)
aroused much enthusiasm. His staunch German patriotism
during the Napoleonic era found expression in his verse collection, Kaempfe der Zeit (1817), whose technique influenced
some of the poems of his young friend Heinrich *Heine. Roberts outstanding work, the tragedy Die Macht der Verhaeltnisse
(1819), reflects the ambiguity of his position as a converted
Jew. Based on the controversy between Achim von Arnim and
Moritz Itzig that led to a duel in 1811, the play deals with class
conflicts and the avenging of insults and was the forerunner of
the great social dramas of Hebbel and Ibsen, but was not appreciated in its time. His correspondence with his sister Rahel
Varnhagen appeared in 2001, edited by C. Vigliero.
354
ROBERT OF READING (second half of 13t century), London Dominican friar, an excellent preacher, deeply skilled in
Hebrew, who converted to Judaism, was circumcised, and,
taking the name Haggai, married a Jewish woman. Summoned before the king and arguing boldly, he was handed
to the archbishop of Canterbury for discipline. This entry for
1275 appears in the Worcester chronicle, derived with few additions from a lost Winchcombe chronicle. In his conversion
Robert was not unique. Roth (see Bibliography) draws attention to Samuel Usques reference in his Consolaam (Ferrara, 1553) to this episode.
Bibliography: Florence of Worcester: Chronicon ex chronicis (ed. B. Thorpe), 2 (1849), 214; A. Gransden Historical Writing in
England c. 550c. 1307 (1974), 421; C. Roth History of the Jews in England (19492) 273.
[Joe Hillaby (2nd ed.)]
robinson, jacob
Le Ralisme socialiste: une esthtique impossible (1986). Robin
is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Bibliography: B.-Z. Shek, Pour lamour du yiddish. The Literary Itinerary of Rgine Robin, in J. Sherman (ed.), Yiddish After
the Holocaust (2004): 286299.
[Ben-Zion Shek (2nd ed.)]
ROBINSON, JACOB (18891977), jurist, diplomat, and historian. Born in Serijai (Lithuania then Russia), Robinson
graduated from the law school of the University of Warsaw
(1914), served in the Russian army (from 1914), and was for a
time in German captivity. He returned to what became independent Lithuania, entered into Jewish public life, and pioneered in the building of a Hebrew school system. For three
years, he was director of the Hebrew Gymnasium in Verbalis.
In 1922 he was admitted to the bar and in the same year was
elected to the Lithuanian parliament, holding office as chairman of the Jewish faction and leader of the minorities bloc
until its dissolution in 1926.
With the foundation of the Congress of Nationalities, he
became (192531) one of the spokesmen for the Jewish cause
at international gatherings. He was legal adviser to the Lithuanian Foreign Office (193133), and represented Lithuania in
the Memel Case before the Permanent Court of International
Justice at The Hague (1931), as well as the German-Lithuanian
Conciliation Committee.
With the emergence of the Nazi threat to European
Jewry, he organized a secret committee for the protection of
Jewish rights and used his connections for admission of German Jews to Lithuania. He left Lithuania at the end of May
1940, and later reached New York, where, in 1941, he established the Institute of Jewish Affairs sponsored by the American and the World Jewish Congress. He headed the Institute
for seven years, in the course of which he undertook a number
of special assignments as special consultant for Jewish affairs
to the U.S. chief of counsel, Robert H. Jackson, in the trial of
the major war criminals in Nuremberg, and as consultant to
the UN Secretariat in the establishment of the Human Rights
Commission. When the Palestine question was submitted to
the UN, he became legal adviser to the Jewish Agency and later
legal adviser to the Israel mission to the UN (194857). In 1952,
he was in charge of drafting Israels Reparations Agreement
with West Germany.
355
Bibliography: H.B. Smith and Hitchcock, Life of E. Robinson (1863); J.A. Bewer, in: JBL, 58 (1939), 35563; F. Abel, ibid., 36572;
A. Alt, ibid., 3737; W. Stinespring, ibid., 37987.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
robinson, nehemiah
From 1957, he was adviser to the Conference on Jewish
Material Claims Against Germany (subsequently the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture) and coordinator of research activities and publications on the Holocaust for *Yad
Vashem and *Yivo. He was recognized as a leading authority in this field. Before and during the Eichmann trial, he was
special consultant to the attorney general on problems of the
history of the Holocaust and of international law.
Robinson was the author of numerous books and articles on international law and organization, and Jewish affairs.
These include: The Metamorphosis of the United Nations (1958;
a course given to the Hague Academy of International Law);
Guide to Jewish History under the Nazi Impact (a bibliographical work with Philip Friedman, 1960); And the Crooked Shall
be Made Straight (1965), which was a reply to Hannah *Arendts
Eichmann in Jerusalem; and International Law and Organization (1967). He also served as consultant editor and adviser to
the Holocaust Department of the Encyclopaedia Judaica.
Bibliography: Acadmie de droit international, Recueil des
Cours, 94 (1958), 4956; Lithuanian Encyclopedia, 25 (Boston, 1961),
3723; Yahadut Lita, 3 (1967), 231.
[Maurice L. Perlzweig]
ROBINSON, NEHEMIAH (18981964), international lawyer. Born in Vitys, Lithuania, he studied law and political science at the University of Jena, Germany, and from 1927 practiced law in Kovno with his brother Jacob *Robinson. Soon
after his arrival in New York (December 1940), he joined the
Institute of Jewish Affairs and was appointed its director in
1947, in which post he continued until his death. He published
a number of books and numerous articles on contemporary
Jewish affairs, the United Nations, prosecution of war criminals, and indemnification of the victims of Nazi persecution.
Robinson was International Law Adviser to the *World Jewish
Congress. In the negotiations of the *Conference on Jewish
Material Claims Against Germany with German authorities
at The Hague, Robinson acted as chief adviser in formulating
the agreement on indemnification, and later contributed to its
legislative and judicial implementation. He also represented
Jewish bodies in negotiating agreements on indemnification
with the Austrian authorities.
Among his works are: Indemnification, Reparations, Jewish Aspects (1944); Problems of European Reconstruction (1945);
Ten Years of German Indemnification (1964, includes biography and bibliography of his works on indemnification);
United Nations and the World Jewish Congress (1956); Genocide Convention (1960); and Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1958).
at the New York School of Social Work from 1940 until her
retirement in 1958. She did significant studies in the field of juvenile delinquency; her major publications in this field are Can
Delinquency Be Measured? (1936) and Juvenile Delinquency: Its
Nature and Control (1960). She also did pioneering work in
the field of Jewish demography: her Jewish Population Studies
(1943) present a thorough statistical analysis of a number of
Jewish communities in the northeastern United States. Sophia
Robison was a member of the Conference on Jewish Relations
since its inception; she cooperated closely with the founder of
the conference, Morris Raphael *Cohen.
[Werner J. Cahnman]
ROBLES, ANTONIO RODRIGUES (c. 16201690), Marrano merchant. Robles, who was born in Fundo, Portugal,
of a family which had suffered at the hands of the Inquisition,
settled in London as a merchant in the mid-17t century, but
played no part in the crypto-Jewish community. When, however, his property was seized as that of an enemy alien after
outbreak of war with Spain in 1656, he successfully obtained
exemption on the grounds that although uncircumcised he
was not a Spaniard but a Portuguese of the Hebrew nation.
The successful outcome of the Robles Case established the
right of professing Jews to live in England without interference.
Bibliography: Roth, England3, 164f.; Wolf, in: JHSET, 1
(189394), 6066, 7786.
[Charles Reznikoff]
ROBISON, SOPHIA (18881969), U.S. sociologist and criminologist. Born in New York, Sophia Robison was a professor
356
Bibliography: World Jewish Congress, Dr. Nehemiah Robinson (Eng. 1964); N. Goldmann in: Ten Years of German Indemnification (1964).
[Maurice L. Perlzweig]
rochester
Add. Bibliography: ODNB online.
[Edwin Emanuel Gutmann]
des Juifs, later known as Rue de lEvch. The apostate Nicholas *Donin, who instigated the campaign against the Talmud,
originated from La Rochelle. It was here also that *Manasseh
Ben Israel was born, his parents having stayed in the town
after fleeing from Portugal. From the beginning of the 18t
century, the Lameira family, originally from Portugal, lived
in La Rochelle; it maintained connections with the Sephardi
community of Bordeaux, whose mohel served La Rochelle.
During World War II Jewish property was confiscated. The
Jewish community in La Rochelle numbered approximately
200 in 1969.
Bibliography: Gross, Gal Jud, 312f.; A. Barbot, Histoire
de La Rochelle, 1 (1886), 107f.; L. Cardozo de Bethencourt, in: REJ,
20 (1890), 289ff.; Z. Szajkowski, Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer
(1966), 173.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
ROCHELLE, LA, capital of the department of CharenteMaritime, W. France. The presence of Jews in La Rochelle is
mentioned from the first half of the 13t century. The expulsion planned by *Alphonse of Poitiers in 1249 does not appear
to have been carried out; in 1251 a Jew, Haquot, who had been
banished for personal reasons, was recalled to La Rochelle
from Bordeaux. The Jews were definitely expelled from La
Rochelle in 1291. The medieval community occupied the Rue
Early History
Established in 1812 as a mill town at the falls of the Genesee
River in western New York, Rochester attracted its first Jewish residents some three decades later. The construction in
the early 1820s of the Erie Canal, which crossed the Genesee
at Rochester, opened a trade route west from the Hudson
River and spurred migration to the area, including a number
of Jewish merchants with packs on their backs. These young
men, recently arrived from Germany, were located at first in
the smaller canal towns of Brockport and Lockport, among
others, but the booming settlement at the falls, which secured
its first city charter in 1834, prompted several of these men to
move there within the next decade.
Among four Jews listed in the citys 1844 directory was
Meyer Greentree, generally regarded as Rochesters pioneer
Jewish resident. Born in Bavaria in 1819, he had gone to Rochester as a peddler from New York in the early 1840s and soon
married a local seamstress. They quickly combined their skills
with those of three young newcomers, Joseph and Gabriel
Wile and Hirsch Britenstool, in establishing Rochesters first
ready-to-wear clothing firm.
As the number of Jewish residents increased, the need
for religious services became more urgent, and twelve young
men met in 1848 to organize Rochesters first congregation.
The Brith Kodesh Society eventually leased a former Baptist
church, which it later purchased and remodeled as a temple.
The number of Jews listed in the Rochester directories increased to 39 by 1850. Marcus Tuska became the first resident
rabbi in 1851.
Increasing in numbers, the Jews of Rochester organized a
Hebrew Benevolent Society which held its first public festival
at Palmers Hall in 1856. A half dozen of their most enterprising merchants had opened ready-to-wear mens clothing stores
on the north side of Main Street bridge, a business that was
rapidly becoming Rochesters second most important industry. A Hebrew, German and English Institute, also established
in 1856, taught the increasing number of Jewish children until
357
rochester
their parents decided, after the end of the Civil War, to rely on
the public schools. A Harmony club, formed in 1868, assumed
leadership in the social life of the Jewish community, which
was now centered in the sixth ward on the citys northeast side.
In 1865 the first Jewish alderman, Joseph Beir, was elected.
Modernizing tendencies at Brith Kodesh prompted the
withdrawal in the late 1860s of a conservative faction to form
a second but short-lived synagogue. The original congregation
brought Max Landsberg to Rochester as its rabbi. While Rabbi
Landsberg progressively led his congregation, housed after
1876 in a new temple on the east side of town, into fuller conformity during the next decade with the Reform synagogues
of Chicago and elsewhere, a group of newly arrived Polish
Jews successfully established the more Orthodox Temple Beth
Israel in 1879. A split in the old Harmony club produced the
Phoenix club in the mid-seventies and the Eureka club a few
years later, but while the German Jews who dominated these
clubs hesitated to admit the newly arrived Polish and Russian
Jews to membership, they quickly formed a committee in 1882
to raise funds for the relief of a new wave of destitute refugees
from Eastern Europe. A move for the creation of the Western
New York Jewish Orphan Asylum attracted its chief support
at Rochester where it opened in 1885 on North St. Paul Street.
Some of the sons of the first Jewish settlers joined two years
later in establishing the Young Mens Jewish Association to
assist newcomers in mastering the English language and adjusting to American ways.
Post-World War II
Jews of Rochester achieved a stronger unity in the mid-1940s
as the struggle for the establishment of a Jewish homeland developed. All supported the State of Israel in 1948, and thereafter. Most Jewish residents were clustered in the southeastern city wards and in adjoining towns where they built many
substantial homes and three new synagogues and schools in
the sixties. In 1970, the Jewish population was 21,500 (3 of
the total population).
[Blake McKelvey]
358
Prominent Jews
Numerous Rochester Jews have played active roles in the
broader community. In 1892 Max Brickner, a member of one
of the citys leading clothing firms, which were nearly all controlled and staffed by Jews, was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce, the first of several Jews in Rochester and
elsewhere in America to hold that position. Isaac L. Adler, a
leader of the Good Government forces, became acting mayor
of Rochester in 1930, and a decade later Samuel B. Dicker held
that office for 16 years. Congressman Meyer Jacobstein and
Louis Wiley (who left Rochester to become publisher of the
New York Times) were Rochester Jews who attained national
distinction. Rabbi Philip Bernstein, head of Brith Kodesh
from 1926, was prominent in national and international Jewish
causes. He was deeply involved with the post-liberation care
of survivors. Rabbi Abraham J. *Karp of Temple Beth-El was
an American Jewish historian and bibliophile. Sol Linowitz
was a native of Rochester and headed the Xerox Corporation
before entering American diplomacy.
The Rochester Jewish community of the new millennium continues to thrive. While stable in population a demographic study sponsored by the Jewish Community Federation of Greater Rochester in 2000 records 22,850 Jewish
residents the community is characterized by a high degree
of participation and affiliation in Jewish life.
The Federation, the modern center of Jewish philanthropy and community planning for the area, supports five
beneficiary agencies in the Jewish community of Rochester:
the Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Service, the Jewish Home of Rochester, Hillel Community Day School, and
Hillel of Rochester Area Colleges.
The JCC of the early 21st century is a modern facility
in which a high percentage of Jews in the area hold membership, taking advantage of family programs, summer camps,
senior activities, cultural arts, and athletic facilities. The old
Jewish Home and Infirmary on St. Paul Street was a precursor
to the Jewish Home of Rochester, a state-of-the-art nursing
home with rehabilitation facilities, day treatment programs for
seniors, and a separate complex for independent living.
There are a total of 12 synagogues in the Rochester area
and a comparatively high number of residents (54) belong to
synagogues. This family-oriented community also has a high
(20) number of residents who are 65 or over. The Rochester
Jewish community, which comprises about 3 of the Greater
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
rockefeller museum
Rochester area of over 1 million, is relatively affluent and gives
generously to Jewish and other charitable causes.
The migration from city neighborhoods to Rochesters
eastern suburb of Brighton that took place in the 1960s1970s
led to the significant presence of Jewish institutions and synagogues in that area. As of the year 2000, 48 of Jews lived
in the community of Brighton, down from 55 in the late
1980s; Jews were dispersing to other eastern suburbs as well
as communities in western Monroe county and areas of the
city of Rochester.
The Rochester Federation, in addition to funding local Jewish agencies and social and humanitarian programs
in Israel and around the world, houses the Center for Holocaust Awareness and Information (CHAI), which supports
Holocaust education in the public schools. CHAI also sponsors educational workshops and events commemorating the
Holocaust in the community. The Federation has a Jewish
Education Services department that provides programming
for families, teens, and Jewish adults; area synagogues also
sponsor many programs in Jewish education. The Rochester
Jewish community is heavily involved in Israel affairs and interfaith initiatives.
Professions among Jewish residents of Rochester are
manifold. In addition to contributing to the high tech industries that have a foothold in Rochester (such as Xerox, Kodak,
and Bausch & Lomb), Jews are counted among the faculty of
several area colleges and universities. Jews in Rochester are
well represented in the professions of medicine, law and finance, in addition to real estate.
A professorship at the University of Rochester was named
after Rabbi Phillip Bernstein; William Scott Green was named
the Phillip S. Bernstein Professor of Judaic Studies in 1991. Joel
Seligman, a leading authority on securities law, took on the
presidency of the University of Rochester in 2005. Dan Carp
set Kodak onto the path of becoming a digital photography
powerhouse as CEO of the company from 2000 to 2005.
[Margot Cohen (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: S. Rosenberg, The Jewish Community in
Rochester: 18431925 (1954); A. Wile, The Jews of Rochester (1912); A.J.
Karp, Jewish Experience in America (1969), 31634; B. McKelvey, in:
ajhsp, 40 (1950/51), 5773.
ROCHMAN, LEIB (19181978), Yiddish journalist and novelist. Born in Minsk Mazowiecki (Poland), he began his career
writing for Warsaws Yiddish daily, Varshever Radio. His diary
of the perilous years 194344 was published in Paris as Un in
Dayn Blut Zolstu Lebn (And You Should Live in Your Blood,
1949). In 1950, he settled in Jerusalem, where he worked on the
Yiddish broadcasts of Israel radio and as a correspondent for
the New York daily, Forverts. His novel Mit Blinde Trit Iber der
Erd (With Blind Steps across the Earth, 1969) deals with the
wanderings of Jews through Europe before reaching Israel.
Bibliography: M. Ravitch, Mayn Leksikon, 3 (1958), 391f.
Add. Bibliography: LNYL, 8 (1981), 37476; Y. Rapoport, Zoymen in Vint (1961), 48993; Y. Kahan, Afn Tsesheydveg (1971), 3038;
Y. Yanasovitch, Penimer un Nemen, 2 (1977), 296303.
[Sol Liptzin]
359
rocker
ROCKER, U.S. family in Cleveland. SAMUEL ROCKER (1864
1936), who was born in Goerlitz, Austria, emigrated to the
United States in 1891. Five years later he founded the Jewish Star, a Yiddish newspaper, in Cleveland and in 1908 he
founded the Jewish Daily Press (later Jewish Daily World,
1913), serving as editor and publisher of this first successful
Yiddish newspaper in Cleveland. The World, published until
1943, became a spokesman for the East European Jews in the
city. Samuel Rocker wrote Divrei H akhamim (Words of Our
Sages, 1920), among other works.
His son, HENRY A. ROCKER (18831967), born in Hungary, practiced law with the firm Rocker, Zeller & Kleinman.
He served as president of Park Synagogue congregation for
more than 20 years beginning in 1929; president of the Jewish
Welfare Federation of Cleveland; member of the board of directors, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee from
1948 to his death; and member of the board of overseers of the
Jewish Theological Seminary from 1951 to his death.
ROCKET. The rocket mentioned in the Bible and in rabbinical literature is the garden rocket, Eruca sativa, a plant of the
Cruciferae family which grows wild in Israel, but is also cultivated as a salad vegetable or for the extraction of a kind of
mustard from its seeds. It is the orot (herbs) mentioned in
the Bible as the plant which one of Elishas disciples went to
gather during a year of famine; instead he found pakkuot (colocynths) which were poisonous (II Kings 4:39). The Peshitta
renders orot as *mallows, but the Targum explains that it re-
ROCKLAND COUNTY, New York State county on the Hudson River, 30 miles north of midtown New York City. Rockland County is 174 square miles in area. It has 35,670 acres of
parkland and 60 lakes and ponds. The 2003 population projection was 292,989. There are five towns in Rockland: Clarkstown, Haverstraw, Ramapo, Orangetown, and Stony Point.
The Jewish population of Rockland was estimated at 92,000.
At 31 of the total population, the Jewish community has a
major and significant presence in business, cultural, political,
religious, and communal life.
Early Jewish settlers came in the late 1890s as peddlers
and small retail shopkeepers. Congregation Sons of Israel was
established in Nyack in 1891 and was the first synagogue in
the county. Congregation Sons of Jacob in Haverstraw was established around the same time. During the 1930s and 1940s
the Jewish population expanded as families who spent their
summers in Rockland decided to relocate permanently to the
suburbs. These people came predominantly from the five boroughs of New York City and Yonkers. A plurality came from
the Bronx and kept moving north.
In December 1955, the Tappan Zee Bridge opened.
Within the next 20 years, the general population increased
from 90,000 people in 1950 to 229,903 in 1970 and approached
290,000 by the end of the 1990s. The Jewish population increased as well. Young families, many of them professionals,
moved from the five boroughs of New York City northward
to the suburbs. They came in search of affordable housing
with large yards for their children, safety and security, and
excellent schools.
This growth included Jews of all affiliations. The most
significant growth occurred within the Orthodox Community, which expanded from a few hundred families in the early
1960s to over 5,000 families by 2005.
The Community Synagogue, under the leadership of
Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler, firmly established the Up the Hill
community of Monsey in the late 1950s. Down the Hill Monsey had also grown from its earlier roots in Spring Valley. Yeshiva of Spring Valley, Beth Jacobv of Spring Valley, Ashar, and
360
ROCKER, RUDOLF (18731958), German-Christian anarchist, editor, writer, and translator. Rocker, who was born in
Mainz, grew up in a Catholic orphanage, and became a disciple of Prince Peter Kropotkin, the Russian anarchist. In 1895
he went to Liverpool, where he founded and briefly edited
the Yiddish monthly of social theory, Germinal. In 1898 he
settled among the Jewish community of Londons East End,
and became both editor of the Yiddish anarchist newspaper
Der Arbeter Fraynd and a leading figure in the Jewish anarchist movement. Rocker edited the paper until the outbreak
of World War I, when he was interned as an enemy alien by
the British. The paper was suppressed, and the anarchist club
closed. After the war Rocker was deported to Germany. He
was forced to flee when Hitler took power and subsequently
went to the U.S. (1933).
Rocker translated works by Maxim Gorki, Jean Grave,
Kropotkin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Fritz Lemmermayer, Johann
Most, and Max Nordau into Yiddish for the benefit of his fellow anarchists. He also wrote a three-volume autobiography
in Yiddish. A portion of this, dealing with his experiences in
the Jewish anarchist movement, was translated into English
and published as The London Years (1956).
Bibliography: W.J. Fishman, Jewish Radicals: From Czarist
Stetl to London Ghetto (1975); P. Wienand, Der geborene Rebell
(1981); H.M. Becker, in: Schriften der Erich-Mhsam-Gesellschaft, 7
(1995), 4362; M. Graur, An Anarchist Rabbi (1997).
rodan, Mendi
Bais Shraga provided private educational opportunities for
the growing Orthodox community. By 1983 there were more
than 3,000 Orthodox families in Spring Valley, Monsey and
its northern neighborhoods. Twenty years later the Orthodox
community had nearly tripled its size from 15,000 people to
close to 45,000, some of it attributable to a high birth rate and
the rest to the attractiveness of the community for Orthodox
Jews. Many new neighborhoods have developed with synagogues in walking distance to large neighborhood population
centers. As one example, the Forshay neighborhood grew from
25 families and a single Orthodox synagogue in 1983 to close
to 1,000 families and more than a dozen Orthodox houses of
worship by 2005. The number of schools rose as well, since
virtually all the Orthodox population attend yeshivot or Jewish day schools. In addition to the Modern Orthodox, Agudah, and Chabad Orthodox communities, several h asidic villages have been established. These include New Square and
Kaiser (Vizhnitz).
The rise in the Orthodox population has created several
political changes and challenges including the issue of density/
down zoning and affordable housing, and the delicate situation in the East Ramapo school district, in which only 9,200
of the close to 25,000 students attend public schools.
Beyond Monseys large Orthodox community, there are
14 established Conservative, Reform, and unaffiliated congregations. These exist primarily to the east of Route 45.
The trajectory of the Conservative Jewish population in
Rockland reflects that in the country as a whole. During the
1950s, 1960s, and 1970s the movement was large and thriving, sustaining at least eight congregations. Today, there are
five. New City Jewish Center, with 900 families, is the largest
Conservative congregation in the county. Established in 1958,
Rabbi Henry Sosland served the congregation for 43 years, becoming emeritus in 2005. Rabbi Craig Scheff who grew up in
Rockland County leads Orangetown Jewish Center.
Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School was chartered in
1971 as the Solomon Schechter School of Rockland County.
The school was housed in the Jewish Community Center of
Spring Valley, a Conservative congregation that subsequently
closed. In 1985, it moved to its present location on New Hempstead Road, where it was renamed. The school serves students
in preschool through the eighth grade.
Camp Ramah in Nyack, is one of three day camps in the
United States affiliated with the Jewish Theological Seminary,
the Conservative movements primary educational institution.
The day camp serves children entering kindergarten through
eighth grades from Rockland and surrounding counties.
The largest of the Reform congregations include Temple
Beth Shalom, Temple Beth El, and Beth Torah Congregation.
These synagogues have rich cultural, religious, educational,
and social action programs for their congregants and the community at large. Several operate preschool programs in addition to their religious school programs.
The geographic makeup of the Rockland Jewish community has given rise to a new term called this side, that side, or
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
RODAN, MENDI (1929 ), Israeli conductor. Born in Romania, he studied the violin and conducting with Silvestri at
the Bucharest Academy of Music (19457), then took a degree at the Arts Institute there (19479). He made his dbut
when he conducted the Romanian Radio Orchestra in 1953.
He immigrated to Israel in 1961. He has often conducted the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and appeared in many countries abroad. From 1963 to 1972, Rodan was chief conductor
of the Israeli Broadcasting Orchestra presenting new Israeli
works. In 1965 he founded the Jerusalem Chamber Orches-
361
rodanim
tra and, as its permanent conductor until 1969, toured with it
in Europe, East Asia, Australia, South Africa, and the United
States. In 1962 he began to teach at the Jerusalem Academy of
Music and Dance, where he became pedagogic director (1973),
and from 1984 to 1993 the head of the academy. From 1977 he
took over the musical directorship of the Beersheba orchestra and served as chief conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels (198389). Between 1993 and 1997, he was
also co-conductor of the Israeli PO. Rodan was guest conductor of major orchestras, including Suisse-Romande Orchestra,
Oslo Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Brussels
Radio Television Orchestra, Bergen Festival Orchestra, and
Berlin Symphony Orchestra. He appeared with soloists such
as *Rubinstein, *Barenboim, Rampal, *Perlman, and *du Pr
and received the Musician of the Year award from the Israeli
Ministry of Education and Culture (1997). He made a series of
recordings with the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra, including
a collaboration with the harpsichordist Frank *Pelleg of music
by Bach and his sons. In 2006 he won the Israel Prize.
Bibliography: Grove Music Online.
[Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
RODA RODA, ALEXANDER (Sndor Friedrich Rosenfeld; 18721945), Austrian author and humorist. Born in
Zdenci, Slavonia, he was the son of a Jewish landowner and
of a non-Jewess. From 1892 Roda Roda was an officer in the
Imperial Austrian army, but was dishonorably discharged 10
years later because of his unacceptable opinions. He then became a journalist and, as a roving foreign correspondent, traveled through Western Europe, serving on the Austrian front
during World War I. He worked in the U.S.S.R. and other
countries until 1933, when he severed his connection with the
362
RODE (Rosenzweig), WALTHER (18761934), Austrian jurist. Born in Czernowitz (Chernovtsy), Rode was the son of
Leon Rosenzweig, writer and deputy to the Austrian Reichsrat.
He became a prominent criminal lawyer and was well known
for his vehement attacks on the Austrian judiciary under the
nom de plume Pamphilius.
In 1929 he published a collection of essays Justiz, and in
1931 Knoepfe und Voegel, a book of literary notes on crime,
criminals, and penal courts. Rode worked as journalist in Geneva, and wrote Frieden und Friedensleute (1931), criticizing
the League of Nations, and Deutschland ist Caliban (1934).
[Josef J. Lador-Lederer]
rodgers, Mary
for 41 years. As a teacher, Rodell specialized in constitutional
law, labor law, administrative law, federal taxation, and the
legal profession.
Rodell is renowned for his cynical assessment of legal articles entitled Goodbye to Law Reviews, published in 1936 in
the Virginia Law Review. Not mincing words, he stated: There
are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its
style. The other is its content.
That article notwithstanding, Rodell was a prolific contributor to law reviews and general magazines. He also wrote
Fifty-Five Men: The Story of the Constitution (1936); Woe Unto
You, Lawyers (1939); and Nine Men: A Political History of the
Supreme Court, 17901955 (1955). Regarded as the bad boy of
American legal academia, Rodell was noted for the ease and
clarity of his writing, along with intemperate attacks on those
with whom he disagreed. In his highly controversial Nine Men,
Rodell developed as his central theme that the justices of the
U.S. Supreme Court reach their decisions on the basis of essentially political considerations.
[Sol Liptzin]
363
rodgers, Richard
Johnson and Johnson, which tried to market a similar mop.
Rodgers turned over the royalties to her daughters.
[Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)]
RODIN, ELISHA (18881946), Hebrew poet. Born in Mstislavl, Russia, Rodin became a bookkeeper. Between 1905 and
1907, he was active in the Jewish revolutionary movement in
Lithuania and Poland. Excelling in Yiddish composition as a
child, he published several collections of Yiddish poems in the
Soviet Union in the early 1920s. His Hebrew poems and literary sketches began to appear in Erez Israel in Davar, Haaretz,
and Gilyonot (192938), which ultimately caused him to be imprisoned by the Soviet authorities. A book of poems and essays, Bi-Feat Nekhar (In a Foreign Corner), appeared in 1938
and expresses his devotion to the Hebrew language. The book
includes Prison Poems, a poem dedicated to Bialik (Rodin
attributes his adoption of Hebrew in the late 1920s to Bialiks
influence), and a poem on Elisha b. Avuyah. Rodins son, to
whom he was deeply attached, volunteered for the front in
World War II and was killed in 1942. Poems to his son, written
before and after his death, were collected in La-Ben (To My
Son), and were published in Erez Israel in 194243. After the
war he worked briefly as a translator for the Jewish Anti-Fascist *Committee. In 1954 A.Y. *Kariv published all of Rodins
works (together with those of H ayyim *Lensky) in He-Anaf
ha-Gadua (The Severed Branch, 1954). Kariv prefaced the
collection with a biographical sketch of Rodin, one of the last
poets in the Soviet Union to write in Hebrew.
faculty of New York University in 1970 as an assistant professor of psychology. In 1972 she began a 22-year career at Yale,
becoming an associate professor in 1975. She was named full
professor of psychology in 1979 and professor of medicine
and psychiatry in 1985. She served as chair of the department
of psychology and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences before becoming provost in 1992. Rodins academic
work concerns the relationship between psychological and biological processes in human health and behavior. The author
of numerous articles for academic journals, she also published
several books, including Body Traps (1992), which explores the
role of physical appearance in womens psychological health.
In 1994 Rodin was appointed as the seventh president of
the University of Pennsylvania, the first alumna to be named
president. She also held faculty appointments as a professor of
psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences and as a professor of medicine and psychiatry in the School of Medicine. As
president, Rodin facilitated several international health initiatives, which included a collaboration with the government
of Botswana to build a hospital, and projects in Saudi Arabia
and India to address womens health issues. At the same time,
she chaired an international research network studying health
and behavior for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation. During her tenure, the University of Pennsylvania
launched an extensive neighborhood revitalization program
and established several interdisciplinary institutes as well as
international educational programs and collaborations.
In 2005 Rodin was named president of the Rockefeller
Foundation, where it was expected that she would guide extensive efforts to combat global disease and hunger through initiatives that promote economic development, education, and
disease prevention. She previously served on President Bill
Clintons Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology,
and she chaired the Council of Presidents of the Universities
Research Association. She has served on the boards of Electronic Data Systems Corporation, the Brookings Institution,
Catalyst, Air Products and Chemicals, and the Greater Philadelphia First Corporation. Rodin was elected to the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical
Society, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
[Dorothy Bauhoff (2nd ed.)]
364
rod of Moses
terested in producing translations of works by Freud and his
followers. The best known of many publishing houses with
which he was associated was the Imago Press.
One of his novels, Montagnes Russes, was first published in
a French translation in 1923, and his Collected Poems 19121925
appeared in Paris in 1930. After World War I, he devoted himself largely to publishing and in 1920, at his Ovid Press, issued
limited editions of poems by T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Under the imprint of the Imago Press, he published the complete
works of Sigmund Freud. Rodkers own writings include The
Future of Futurism (1926). A new edition of his Poems and
Adolphe (a novel he wrote in 1920), with an introduction by
Andrew Crozier, was published in Manchester in 1996.
Bibliography: The Times, London (Oct. 11, 1955).
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
him to join his quintet in 1949. It was perhaps the most highly
visible trumpet gig in jazz and, although the compulsively
modest Rodney tried to turn Parker down, Bird insisted.
When the band played the segregated South, Bird passed
off the red-haired, freckle-faced Rodney as a blues singer
named Albino Red. Although Parker repeatedly warned his
young trumpeter not to follow his lead into heroin, Rodney
became a drug addict. Rodney supported his habit with steady
musical work for a while before turning to non-violent crimes.
When he kicked the drug, he enjoyed considerable financial
success leading society bands out of Las Vegas, but the pleasure of banking regular checks was outweighed by the boredom of the musical drivel he was forced to play. In the late
1970s he reteamed with longtime collaborator Ira Sullivan,
and the two were responsible for several brilliant albums of
post-bop jazz in the 1980s.
Bibliography: Red Rodney, MusicWeb Encyclopaedia of
Popular Music, at www.musicweb.uk.net; G. Robinson, Red Rodney Hits the High Note, in: Manhattan Jewish Sentinel (July 7, 1993);
P. Watrous, Red Rodney, Jazz Trumpeter and Band Leader, Dies at
66, in: New York Times (May 28, 1994).
[George Robinson (2nd ed.)]
ROD OF AARON, Aarons staff with which he used to perform signs before Pharaoh in order to convince him that he
and Moses were sent by the Lord, the God of the Israelites (Ex.
7:8ff., 1920; 8:1, 12). On another occasion, God caused a rod
inscribed with Aarons name to blossom and bear almonds in
order to demonstrate his choice of Aaron for the priesthood
and to quell the mutterings of the Israelites against God in the
wilderness (Num 17:1626).
[Shlomo Balter]
In the Aggadah
The Bible ascribes similar miraculous powers to the rods of
Aaron and of Moses. One rabbinic opinion even regards the
two as identical (Yal., Num. 763, Ps. 869). This staff bore the
Ineffable Name (Num. R. 18:23).
The rod, with its blossoms and fruit, was created in the
twilight between the sixth day and the Sabbath of creation
(Pes. 54a). It was previously used by Jacob when crossing the
Jordan, and it was also the staff which Judah gave to Tamar
(Yal., loc. cit.).
Because it bore the Ineffable Name it blossomed overnight and yielded ripe almonds thus validating Aarons claim
to the priesthood (Num. R. 18:23). The almond, which is the
first tree to blossom, indicated that God would quickly punish those who venture to usurp the priesthood (ibid., Tanh.
Ah arei 8). This rod, which never lost its blossoms or almonds,
was utilized by the kings of Judah until the destruction of the
Temple when it disappeared. In the future, Elijah will reveal it
and hand it over to the Messiah (Num. R. 18:23).
Bibliography: Ginzberg, Legends, 7 (1938), 3.
365
rodrigues, bartholomew
Lord appeared to Moses and ordered him to cast his staff to
the ground, and it became a serpent; then he was ordered to
seize the serpent by the tail, and it became a rod again (4:15).
Moses subsequently repeated this and other signs before the
Israelites and then before Pharaoh to convince them that he
was sent by the Lord. He manipulated the staff in the performance of various miracles in Egypt (Ex. 7:14ff.; 10:13), as
well as the splitting of the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea; 14:16), and
the producing of water from a rock in the wilderness (Num.
20:9ff.).
[Shlomo Balter]
In the Aggadah
The rod used by Moses in performing his miracles was created
during the twilight of the eve of the first Sabbath of creation
(Avot 5:6) from a branch of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden (ARN, ed. Schechter, 157). On it were engraved
the letters of the Ineffable Name (Pd RK 19:140a , Pd RK 42), the
ten plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians, and the patriarchs,
matriarchs, and twelve tribes (Targum to Ex. 14:21). The people
originally thought that the staff could engender only destruction, since through its agency Moses had brought the plagues
upon the Egyptians in Egypt and the Red Sea. When, however,
Moses used it to smite the rock at Horeb, they learned that
the rod could also produce the blessings of water (Ex. R. 26:2).
With the rod, Moses smote and killed Sihon and Og (Deut. R.
11:10). He was also able to chastise the Angel of Death with it
when the Angel came to take him (Deut. R. ibid.). In the next
world, Moses was rewarded with the scepter which God had
employed in the creation of the world. The rod which Moses
used in this world was shaped and engraved in the image of
this scepter (Midrash Petirat Moshe, in: A. Jellinek, Beit haMidrash, 1 (19382), 121).
One opinion identifies the Rod of Moses with the Rod
of *Aaron (Yal., Num. 763, Ps. 869).
Bibliography: Ginzberg, Legends, 7 (1938), 328, index S.V.
Moses, Rod of.
366
RODRIGUES, DIONISIUS (Diniz; d. 1541), Marrano physician to the kings Emanuel and John III of Portugal. In 1518
he engaged in a once-famous controversy with the French
physician Pierre Brissot on the rival systems of bloodletting
of Galen and Hippocrates. Threatened as a Judaizer by the Inquisition (which subsequently burned him in effigy), he fled
first to London where he was a member of the crypto-Jewish
community under Henry VIII, then to Antwerp, and finally
to Ferrara, where he died. He was the father of the eminent
medical writer Manuel *Brudo.
Bibliography: H. Friedenwald, in: Bulletin of the History
of Medicine, 7 (1939), 4607 (= idem, Jews and Medicine, 2 (1944),
4607); L. Wolf, Essays in Jewish History (1934), 78.
[Cecil Roth]
rogachev
Bibliography: G. Faust, Sozial-und wirtschaftliche Beitraege
zur Judenfrage in der ehemaligen Grafschaft Solms-Roedelheim
(1937); Germania Judaica, 2 (1968), 702; PK Germanyah. PRINTING:
M. Steinschneider, Juedische Typographie (19382), 61; A. Freimann,
in: ZHB, 21 (1918), 18; L. Lewin, in: MGWJ, 44 (1900), 127ff.; 45 (1901),
422ff., 549ff; 53 (1909), 360ff.
ROEST, MEIJER MARCUS (18211889), Amsterdam bibliographer and journalist. Having been trained as a religious
teacher in the Haskalah-oriented Nederlandsch Isralietisch
Seminarium in Amsterdam, Roest became one of the first in
the Netherlands to embrace the Wissenschaft des Judentums.
From his early thirties he contributed numerous articles to
Dutch and Jewish periodicals. From 1855 till 1870 he was employed by the auctioneer Frederik Muller, for whom he compiled catalogues of, inter alia, the Joseph Almanzi and Jacob
Emden libraries (Beth ha-Sefer, 1868) and edited the Dutch
journal De Navorscher. His magnum opus Catalog der Hebraica und Judaica aus der L. Rosenthalschen Bibliothek, whose
model of description closely resembled that of Joseph Zedner, was published in 1875. After the collection was presented
to the Amsterdam municipality and incorporated in the university library, Roest became its first custodian, a position he
continued to fill until his death.
In reaction to current Reformist tendencies, Roest
founded (together with the seminarys rector and later chief
rabbi J.H. *Dnner) the Nieuw Isralietisch Weekblad (1865)
and Isralietische Nieuwsbode (1875), through which they
hoped to promote a moderately conservative Judaism, supported by Wissenschaft des Judentums. In addition to these
weeklies, Roest founded and edited the quarterly De Isralietische Letterbode (187586), which served as a platform for international, historical as well as bibliographical, scholarship.
Bibliography: J.M. Hillesum, Voornaamste letterkundige
producten van wijlen M. Roest Mizrachi, in: Isralietische Nieuwsbode, 32, 34 (1890); J. Zwarts, NNBW, VII (1927), 106061; J. Lipschits,
Honderd jaar NIW: het Nieuw Isralitisch Weekblad 18651965 (1966);
L. Fuks, in: Studia Rosenthaliana 1 (1967), 422. Add. Bibliography: R. Cohen, in: Studia Rosenthaliana, 9 (1975), 90102; L. Fuks,
in: Studia Rosenthaliana, 13 (1979), 15793; J. Meijer, Meijer Marcus
Roest (18211889). De biografie van een bibliograaf, 2 vols (1980); A.K.
Offenberg in: Frederik Muller, leven en werken (1996), 11018.
[Frederik Jacob Hirsch / Irene E. Zwiep (2nd ed.)]
367
rogatin
ghetto, where they suffered from overcrowding, hunger, and
disease. Between November 1941 and March 1942, 3,500 Jews
were executed. The 1959 census gave no indication of Jews living in Rogachev, though their number was estimated at about
750. Rogachev was the native town of Joseph *Rozin, known
as the Rogachover. It was also the birthplace of the painter
Tanhum Kaplan and the Yiddish poet Shmuel *Halkin; after
Halkins death in 1960 a street was named after him.
[Yehuda Slutsky / Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
ROGATIN (Pol. Rohatyn), city in Ivano-Frankovsk (Stanislavov) district, Ukraine; formerly within Poland, it passed
to Austria in 1772, and was incorporated within Stanislawow
province, Poland, between the two world wars. One of Polands oldest cities, Rogatin suffered severely from the depredations of the Tatars. A Jewish community apparently existed there from early times; in the 16t and 17t centuries,
Jews from other parts of Poland attended fairs which took
place in Rogatin. Within the framework of the Council of
Four Lands (see *Councils of the Lands), Rogatin was within
the province of Russia. At the beginning of the 18t century, there were a number of Shabbateans in Rogatin. Jacob
*Frank had many adherents there. The town was one of the
three towns allocated to the Frankists by King Augustus III. A
noted Frankist, Elisha Schoor (*Wolowski) lived in Rogatin.
There were 797 Jews living in Rogatin in 1765 and the number increased during Austrian rule (17721919): the community numbered 3,192 (48.9 percent of the total population) in
1887; 3,217 (about 46 percent) in 1912; 1,294 (22.6 percent) in
1921; and 3,002 in 1931.
During World War I, the city was in the battle zone and
did not recover during the period of the independent Polish
republic. The Jews suffered from the discriminatory policy of
the Polish government and the economic depression of the
1930s. Jews took part in the social and political life of the city,
and their representatives were elected to the city council in
1927 and 1933. In the elections to the community council of
1933, the Zionists gained the most seats.
[Shimshon Leib Kirshenboim]
Holocaust Period
After the outbreak of World War II, during the period of Soviet rule (193941), Jewish community institutions were dissolved, political activity was banned, and restrictions were
placed on private enterprise. Some Jews were deported to the
Soviet interior. During the German campaign against the Soviet Union, Rogatin was captured by the Germans on July 2,
1941. On July 6 Ukrainian police attacked the Jews, and by the
end of 1941 a ghetto was established. Its inhabitants suffered
from hunger and from a typhus epidemic in which 30 to 40
persons died daily. Shlomo Amarant was head of the Judenrat.
On March 20, 1942, 2,000 persons were murdered near the
city. On Sept. 21, 1942, some 1,000 persons were deported to
the *Belzec death camp. In October Jews from Bukaczowce,
Bursztyn, and Bolszowce were brought to the Rogatin ghetto.
368
rheim, gza
ROGINSKI, SIMON ZALMANOVICH (19001970), Russian physical chemist. Roginski taught at the Dnepropetrovsk
Universitys Mining Institute from 1923 to 1928 and from 1925
was also attached to the Ukrainian Institute of Physical Chemistry. From 1928 to 1941, he was at the Leningrad Polytechnic
and the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in Leningrad, and from 1941 at the corresponding institute in Moscow.
His fields of research were catalysis, including the theory of super-saturation, kinetics of explosions, isotopes, and
free atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. He wrote Adsorbtsiya i kataliz na neodnorodnykh poverkhnostyakh (Adsorption and Catalysis on Heterogeneous Surfaces, 1948).
[Samuel Aaron Miller]
ROGOFF, HARRY (Hillel; 18831971), U.S. Yiddish journalist and editor. Born in Berezino, Belorussia, Rogoff immigrated to New York at the age of ten with his parents. In 1906
he became a reporter for the Forverts, and except for short
absences, remained on its staff (as editor after the death of
Abraham *Cahan) until his retirement in 1962. In his journalism and editorial writing, he interpreted and commented
on political events and sociological trends in the U.S. His
major books, Civics: Vi Azoy Amerike Vert Regirt (Civics:
How America Is Governed, 1918), and the highly regarded,
five-volume Geshikhte fun di Fareynigte Shtatn (History of
the United States, 1928), helped to familiarize his largely immigrant readership with their adopted country. Rogoff wrote
abundant literary criticism; a short-lived literary magazine,
East and West, which he edited in 191516 was one of the earliest attempts at introducing Yiddish literature to American
readers. His English publications, signed Harry Rogoff, include An East Side Epic: The Life and Work of Meyer London
(1930), later rewritten in Yiddish, and Nine Yiddish Writers
(1931), a collection of critical essays.
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 4 (1929), 5860; E.H. Jeshurin, Harry Rogoff Bibliography (1958). Add. Bibliography:
LNYL, 8 (1981), 3034; A. Cahan, Bleter fun Mayn Lebn, 4 (1928),
466.
[Ruth Wisse]
RHEIM, GZA (18911953), U.S. psychoanalyst and anthropologist. Born in Budapest, he was for a time affiliated
with the ethnological department of the Hungarian National
Museum. In Berlin, he worked under F. von *Luschan and
studied the theories of *Freud. In 1915, he underwent his first
psychoanalysis at the hands of Sndor *Ferenczi and became
the first ethnologist employing and advocating a psychoanalytic interpretation of culture, and during the next three years
wrote a series of papers on his theories. About this time, he
was appointed professor of anthropology at the University of
Budapest. His treatise, Nach dem Tode des Urvaters (Imago
(1923), 83121), adjusted the Freudian theory in the light of
anthropological data. In 1925 and 1926, he wrote two books
on the psychoanalytic study of Australian totemism.
With Freuds encouragement and assistance, from 1928
to 1931 Rheim did fieldwork in Central Australia, Normanby
369
rohling, august
(Melanesia), on the Sipupu Island in Somaliland, and among
the Yuma Indians in Arizona. On the basis of this research
Rheim was enabled to produce a revision of psychoanalytic
theory. Some of the products of this study appear in Animism,
Magic, and the Divine King (1930) as well as various articles in
the psychoanalytic journals of the early 1930s. His two books,
Riddle of the Sphinx (1934) and The Origin and Function of Culture (1943), deal with folklore and the interpretation of myths.
Between 1932 and 1938, he taught anthropology and psychoanalysis at the Budapest Institute of Psychoanalysis.
In 1938 he left for the United States and became affiliated
with the Worcester State Hospital as an analyst. After 1940 he
joined the New York Psychoanalytical Institute as a lecturer
and engaged in private practice as a psychoanalyst.
In his studies of mythology and magic, he placed primary
stress on sexuality but with some deviations from the Freudian doctrine. On the basis of both his fieldwork and his clinical experience, Rheim tended to reject Freuds theory of the
primal family and the hypothesis of inherited racial memories
as an explanation of totemism and other social data in religion
and social structure. He moved toward an ontogenetic theory
of culture explaining it on the basis of prolonged dependence
of the human infant and child on the mother which results in
emotional and social ties.
Rheim also developed a dream theory interpreting various phenomena of anxiety, ambivalence, and aggression as
part of the human experience of mother separation. In 1949 he
wrote Technique of Dream Analysis and Field Work in Anthropology and in 1950 Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. In
Magic and Schizophrenia (1955), Roheim set out his belief that
both individuals and societies evolve from a stage of magical
symbolic thinking that he related to schizophrenia.
Bibliography: G.B. Wilbur and W. Muensterberger (eds.),
Psychoanalysis and Culture; Essays in Honor of Gza Rheim (1951),
incl. bibl.; American Anthropologist, 55 (1953), 420; W. La Barre, in: F.
Alexander et al. (eds.), Psychoanalytic Pioneers (1966), 27281, incl.
bibl; W. Muensterberger and B. Domhoff, in: IESS, 13 (1968), 5436,
incl. bibl.
[Ephraim Fischoff]
370
rokach, shimon
studied in Salamanca and settled in Talavera de la Reina. In
1517 he was a witness in defense of a man accused of Judaizing
and in 1525 the Inquisition objected to his serving as lawyer
for his Converso father-in-law, Alvaro de Montalbn, because
he was a New Christian. Acclaimed as the father of the Spanish novel, Rojas is generally recognized as the author of all or
most of one of Spains greatest literary works and the earliest
Spanish tragedy, La Celestina (first-known ed. Burgos, 1499).
Though written completely in dialogue, this is more a novel
than a play. The first edition was an anonymous 16-act Comedia de Calisto y Melibea. In the third-known edition (Seville, 1501), Rojas hesitantly reveals his authorship in a prefatory letter and in some acrostic verses, stating that he found a
fragment of the first act and continued the work. The various
editions dated 1502 (although printed later) contain a new prologue and five added acts, as well as numerous textual changes.
The title was also changed to Tragicomedia de Catisto y Melibea. Rojas himself suggests that the first act may have been by
Juan de Mena or Rodrigo de Cota de *Maguaque. He probably wished to obscure his own part in the writing because of
the works anticlericalism. From 1519 the play was known as
La Celestina. The fact that Rojas was a Converso has been adduced to explain the pessimism of his work, unequaled in any
contemporary production. The Celestina has probably inspired
more studies than any other Spanish book with the exception
of *Cervantes Don Quixote, to which alone it is placed second. It has been translated many times into English (first by
James Mabbe in 1631).
Bibliography: S. Gilman, The Art of La Celestina (1956);
J.M. Cohen, A History of Western Literature (1956), 1302, 198; F. de
Rojas, The Spanish Bawd: La Celestina (1964), translation and introduction by J.M. Cohen; M. Bataillon, La Clestine selon Fernando
de Rojas (1961); L.G. Zelson, The Celestina and Its Jewish Authorship
(1930), reprint from Jewish Forum (Dec. 1930); F.J. Norton, Printing
in Spain 15011520 (1966).
[Kenneth R. Scholberg]
371
rokeaH , david
ROKEAH , DAVID (19161985), Hebrew poet. Born in Lvov,
Rokeah settled in Palestine in 1934, working as an engineer,
and first published lyrical poems in 1935.
His books of poetry are: Be-Gesher ha-Yiud (1939), Yamim Ashenim (1941), Moadei Ergah (1954), Arar alei Shaham (1958), Kinno shel Yam (1963), Mi-Kayiz el Kayiz (1964),
Shah ar le-Helekh (1965), Einayim la-Sela (1967), and Ve-Lo
Ba Yom Ah er (1969). Many of his poems appeared in German translation by prominent poets such as Paul Celan and
Erich Fried, and Rokeah was indeed one of the first Hebrew
poets to be published in postwar Germany. For a full listing
of Rokeah s works in English translation, see Goell, Bibliography, 1191207.
Bibliography: M. Hamburger, in: Ariel, no. 12 (1965), 2530.
Add. Bibliography: H. Shoham, in: Yedioth Aharonoth (November 20, 1981); Z. Luz, Marot ha-Zemannim: Motivim ve-Dimuyei-Yesod be-Shirato shel D. Rokeah, in: Bikkoret u-Farshanut, 45 (1974),
6469; J. Neusner, On D. Rokeahs Jews, Pagans and Christians in
Conflict, in: JQR, 74:3 (1984), 31320; Y. Schwartz, Al D. Rokeah,
Ha-Yahadut ve-ha-Naz rut bi-Rei ha-Pulmus ha-Pagani, in: Zion
58:1 (1993), 11519; A. Bodenheimer, Das Wiedererkennen des Unbekannten: Zu P. Celans Uebersetzung des Gedichts Banechar von
D. Rokeah, in: Poetik der Transformationen (1999), 129136.
[Getzel Kressel]
372
from Erez Israel, but he died suddenly exactly a year after his
arrival here.
With his death the position of the Ashkenazi community deteriorated and they appealed for help to the *Council
of Four Lands, mentioning the great help which Rokah had
obtained for them as a result of his contacts with Poland and
Amsterdam.
Among Rokah s works are Maaseh Rokeah on the composition of the Mishnah (Amsterdam, 1740) and on the Pentateuch (Lemberg, 1850), and Arbaah Turei Even (Lemberg,
1789).
[Jacob Barnai]
roman
York. He appeared at leading international festivals such as
Aldeburgh, Bath, Edinburgh, Granada, Hong Kong, Vienna,
and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr. He holds a professorship at the
Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. His three CD recordings of the
Beethoven Piano Concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Howard Shelley were highly praised by critics.
[Max Loppert / Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
ROM, YOSEF (19321997), aeonautical engineer. Born in Poland, Rom immigrated with his parents to Erez Israel in 1935.
He studied aeronautic engineering and became dean of the
Faculty of Aeronautic Engineering of the Technion in Haifa.
He served as engineering consultant to many research and development institutions and to the defense industry in Israel,
and developed supersonic wind tunnels. Rom was awarded
the Israel Prize in 1976 for service to technology and applied
engineering. He was elected to the Ninth Knesset in 1977, representing the Likud.
ROMAIN, JONATHAN A. (1954 ), British rabbi and historian. A leading Progressive rabbi in Barkingside and in
Maidenhead, Berkshire, and director of the Jewish Information and Media Service, Romain is also well-known for his
publications on Jewish history and life, including (with Dr.
Anne J. Kershen): Tradition and Change: A History of Reform
Judaism in Britain, 18401995 (1995), Faith and Practice: A
Guide to Reform Judaism Today (1991), and The Jews of England: A Portrait of Anglo-Jewry Through Original Sources and
Illustrations (1985).
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
ROMAN, town in Bacau province, Moldavia, N.E. Romania. According to a popular tradition, the first Jews settled in
Roman in the second half of the 15t century. Another source
attributes the beginning of the Jewish settlement there to the
early 16t century. In 1579 the Jews were expelled, according
to this source, by the prince of Moldavia. Jews in Roman are
first mentioned in Romanian documents from the beginning
of the 18t century, and the oldest Jewish tombstones there
date from this period. In 1714 a case of blood *libel occurred
in Roman. In 1825 priests demanded that the Jewish cemetery
should be closed claiming that it was in the center of the town,
but the Moldavian ruler rejected their request. The priests then
brought several actions against the community, resulting in
1849 in compulsory closure of the cemetery which was subsequently also desecrated. In 1846 the community acquired
land for a new cemetery. At first the Jewish guild assumed
the community functions; subsequently some of them were
taken over by the h evra kaddisha whose minute book is preserved from 1793. There were 16 prayerhouses, including the
Great Synagogue (The Taylors Synagogue). In 1875 the hostel
for travelers (*hekdesh) was converted into a modern hospital
and old-age home. The community bath (mikveh) also served
as a public bath for Christians, being the only one in town.
The Jewish population numbered 288 in 1803, and 1,200
in 1831; it had increased to 6,432 by 1899 (39 of the total
population). Persecutions led many Jews to emigrate in 1900
and the following years. The number of the Jews in Roman
had decreased to 4,728 by 1910. In 1930 they numbered 5,963
(28 of the total population). At the beginning of the 19t
century, the majority of the Jews were occupied in crafts; the
number of those engaged in commerce increased by the early
20t century.
In 1865 Jewish educational institutions in Roman included a talmud torah and 20 h adarim, some belonging to
the craftsmen, and others to the H asidim. A modern Jewish
elementary school, opened on directions of the authorities
in 1860, was subsequently closed. In 1893, when Jews were
expelled from the public schools, a new modern elementary school was opened with the aid of the Jewish Colonization *Association (ICA), and in 1899 a school for girls was
founded. Among rabbis in Roman were David Isaacson, who
officiated from 1839 to 1907, and his nephew, Solomon Isaacson (191047).
After World War I the community underwent reorganization. From 1926 its board was appointed by the government
from among Jews who were members of the ruling party. Jews
also served on the local council but as representatives of the
Romanian parties. Antisemitism was strong in Roman especially between the two world wars, encouraged by the bishop,
Lucian Triteanu, one of the leading antisemites in Romania. In
1910 A. *Cuza, the head of the antisemitic party, was elected
deputy in this city, and in 1930 as representative of Roman in
the Romanian parliament.
The community was not liquidated in the Holocaust. The
Jewish population numbered 7,900 in 1947, and 4,500 in 1950.
373
ROMANELLI, SAMUEL AARON (17571817), Italian Hebrew poet and traveler. Born in Mantua, he acquired a knowledge of ten languages including English, French and Spanish.
He began his journeys through Europe at an early age. By his
late 20s, he reached London where he wrote a Hebrew translation of Popes Essay on Man, Massah al ha-Adam, and a lament on the death of Moses Mendelssohn (1786). On his way
back to Italy in 1787, he decided to tour Morocco. While there
he took up employment wherever he could find it and at the
same time wrote his travelogue, Massa ba-Arav (Berlin, 1792;
repr. with introd. by H. Schirmann in Romanelli, Ketavim
Nivh arim, 1968; Eng. trans. by Schiller-Szinessy, Romanellis
Travels in Morocco, 1887). It is for this attractive description of
Jewish life in Morocco written in a biblical Hebrew style that
he is best known. In 1790 he left for Europe where he eventually settled in Germany. There he befriended the principal
meassefim (see *Meassef ), e.g., I. *Euchel and D. *Friedlaender. While there he composed an allegorical play in three
acts, Ha-Kolot Yeh dalun (Berlin, 1791), for the marriage of one
of the Jaffe Itzig family. The same year, he published his philosophical poem Ruah Nakhon, concerning the existence of the
soul and God. In 1793 he worked as a proofreader in Vienna,
where he published a play for the marriage of Charlotte Arnstein, Alot ha-Minh ah, which appeared with an Italian translation. After the French conquest of northern Italy, Romanelli
returned to his homeland and settled in Mantua in 1807. The
ROMAN EMPERORS. It is impossible to make generalizations about the attitude of the Roman emperors toward the
Jews. Different attitudes were adopted by different emperors
and even the same emperor would change his views, sometimes dependent upon whether it was directed to the Jews in
Erez Israel or in other parts of the empire. On the other hand,
it is possible to make a sufficiently clear distinction between
the attitude of the pagan emperors on the one hand and the
Christian on the other.
In general, the pagan emperors were tolerant toward the
various foreign religions and even Cicero stated: Sua cuique
civitati religio est, nostra nobis (Pro Flacco, 28). Augustus
(27 B.C.E.14 C.E.) continued the favorable policy toward the
Jews initiated by *Julius Caesar. Under Tiberius (1437), as
a result of the influence of the powerful Sejanus, the young
Jews of Rome were deported to Sardinia to fight brigandage,
and a large number of them died there. The Senate decreed
that all Jews who would not abjure their faith be banished
from Italy and that their articles of religious worship be confiscated. The decree, however, was not put into effect, and in
31, after the death of Sejanus, the protective edicts of Caesar
and *Augustus were reconfirmed. Under *Caligula (3741),
Jewish insurrections took place in Erez Israel and Egypt, after the emperor, who desired to be worshiped as a god, had
his statue erected in the Temple. The danger was averted due
to the efforts of the delegation from the Jews of Alexandria,
headed by Philo, and more by the sympathetic legate to Syria,
Petronius *Publius. *Claudius (4154), who did not claim divinity, restored the edict of tolerance to the Jews and extended
it to the whole Roman Empire. In 4950, he decided to expel
374
romania
from Rome the Jews who, perhaps because of conflicts with
the Christians, had disturbed the public order (Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantis Roma expulit; Suetonius,
De vita Caesarum, Claudius, 25); the expulsion, however, was
applied to a few individuals only. In 66, during the reign of
*Nero (5468), the disturbances in Palestine became a fullscale war which ended with the destruction of the Temple (70).
Nevertheless, according to Josephus, when *Titus became emperor (7981), he wished to show a benevolent attitude toward
the Jews; in Jewish tradition, however, he remains Titus the
Wicked. Vespasian instituted the *fiscus judaicus. It was collected with particular harshness by Domitian (8196), under
whose reign the Jews suffered both in life and property. The
meek *Nerva (9698) started to protect the Jews again, and
abolished the stringency of the collection of the fiscus. *Trajan (98117) harshly repressed the Jewish revolt in Palestine,
Egypt and Cyrenaica.
The attitude of *Hadrian (117138) has been the subject
of much controversy. Under his reign the *Bar Kokhba Revolt
broke out. According to *Dio Cassius, the immediate cause
of the revolt was the decision of Hadrian to transform Jerusalem into a Greek city and the Temple into a temple of Jupiter,
but, according to Spartianus, it was caused by the prohibition
against circumcision. The Midrash (Gen. R. 64:10) attributes
it to the breach of promise to reconstruct the Temple, as a result of Samaritan pressure. According to Eusebius, however,
the Jews were regarded as responsible for the outbreak of the
war, and in consequence anti-Jewish measures were taken. The
agitation of the Jews continued also under *Antoninus Pius
(138161), despite his conciliatory attitude which included the
repeal of the prohibition against circumcision; as non-Jews
were severely punished for circumcision, this signified, in
practice, the prohibition of conversion. In fact, conversions
were looked upon with disfavor by the emperors and punished
with different penalties (for example, the edict of Septimius
*Severus in 204). In 212, with the Constitutio Antoniniana of
Caracalla (211217), the Jews of the empire also became Roman
citizens. Alexander *Severus (222235) was so favorable in his
attitude toward the Jews that a synagogue in Rome was named
after him and he was nicknamed the archisynagogus. *Diocletian (284305), the harsh adversary of Christians, Manicheans,
and Samaritans, was in contrast friendly toward the Jews, as
is affirmed by the Talmud.
With the triumph of Christianity in 313, the empire became ever more intolerant; religious liberty declined. A period
of persecutions and juridical and political restrictions began
toward the Jews, who were regarded as of a lower degree than
pagans and heretics. Theoretically, for example, the destruction of a synagogue was still considered a crime, but in practice the penalties laid down were only partially observed and
numerous offenses were perpetrated by the Church. There was
an interval of tranquility and a restoration of religious liberty
with *Julian the Apostate (361363), who entertained the idea
of rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple, but with his death
there was a religious reaction. In 399 *Honorius tried in vain
375
ROMANIA, country in East-Central and South-East Europe, in the Carpatho-Danubian region, north of the Balkan
Peninsula, partly on the littoral of the Black Sea. The territory comprising Romania was known as Dacia in antiquity;
Jewish tombstones, other inscriptions with Jewish and Palmyrean names written in Greek or Latin from the Roman period (1st3rd centuries C.E.) and a coin from the period of Bar
Kochbas revolt with an inscription in Hebrew were discovered in the counties of Transylvania and Oltenia. Jewish and
Palmyrean names are also present in some Greek inscriptions
discovered in the county of Dobrogea, known in antiquity as
the Roman province Moesia Inferior. Early Christian missionary activity in Dacia and the Hellenistic towns of Moesia
may have been due to the existence of Jewish groups there.
Later, the Carpatho-Danubian territory was mentioned in
some Hebrew sources from the 10t to 12t centuries. A Jewish presence is attested in the 14t century in the port towns
of the Southern Bessarabia county on the Black Sea. In the
15t century, there were Karaite communities in the same
towns, one of them, Akkerman (in Romanian: Cetatea Alb;
in Russian: Belgorod Dnestrovskij) called in Hebrew Ha-Ir
ha-Levanah (the white city). The Karaite Jews continued
to live there until the middle of the 18t century. Occasional
temporary presence of Ashkenazi Jewish merchants in Moldavia (called in Romanian: Moldova, principality located in
the North-East, between the Oriental Carpathians and the
Dniester and the Black Sea, founded at the beginning of the
14t century) occurred in the second half of the 15t century
and in the beginning of the 16t century. In the second half of
the 16t century, some Sephardi Jews from the Ottoman Empire visited Wallachia (called in Romanian: ara Romneasc,
the second Romanian principality, located in the South, between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube, founded
at the beginning of the 14t century) as exporters of cattle to
romania
the Ottoman Empire, dealers of wine, importers of textiles,
and moneylenders. Some of them settled in Bucharest, the
capital of Wallachia. Jewish creditors from Constantinople
loaned money to candidates to the thrones of the principalities: they needed the money to pay the amount demanded by
the Turkish sultan to obtain the princely function, since the
principalities had become vassals to the Ottoman Empire in
the first half of the 15t century. Some of those Jewish creditors accompanied the new princes to the principalities to make
sure that they would repay their debt. Other Sephardi Jews
from Turkey and from Italian states served as physicians or
diplomats at princes courts. In 15941595 the princes Mihai
Viteazul (Michael the Brave) of Wallachia and Aron Tiranul
(Aron the Tyran) of Moldavia killed their Jewish and Muslim
creditors to avoid paying their debts to them.
As Moldavia was on the trade routes between PolandLithuania and the Ottoman Empire many Jewish merchants
traveled through it. Some settled there. In the 16t century
there were Jewish communities in several Moldavian towns.
More intensive waves of Jewish immigration resulted from
the Chmielnicki massacres (164849). Beginning in the 17t
century Moldavian princes granted special charters to Jews;
known is a charter given to Jews from Jassy in 1666. The Great
Synagogue of Jassy was built about 1670.
In the last decades of the 18t century, more Jews from
Galicia began to settle in Moldavia as a result of demographic
changes, the partition of Poland, Austrian emperor Joseph IIs
toleration edicts, and the economic growth of the Romanian
principalities after the Kck-Kainargi Russian-Turkish peace
treaty (1774). It was the beginning of a new wave of immigration. Many of them were H asidim. These Jewish craftsmen
and merchants obtained special charters. They helped to reestablish war-ravaged towns or to enlarge others. Some of
them settled at crossroads and founded commercial centers,
the so-called burgs; in this activity they were encouraged by
landowners. Many Jews were occupied in buying and selling
agricultural products from neighboring villages to towns, and
bringing and selling industrial products to peasants. The burgs
were founded as a part of the economic development toward
a commercial economy and the urbanization process. After
the settlement of the Jews, landowners gave them charters including advantages, such as exemption from taxes, land for
prayer houses, ritual baths, and cemeteries. When two counties of Moldavia were annexed by their neighbors (Bukovina
by Austria in 1775 and Bessarabia by Russia in 1812), some Jews
from these counties preferred to move to Romanian Moldavia,
where they were not harassed by the authorities and had both
family and business connections. Among the Jews occupied
in commerce (in towns, but especially in burgs), there were
also many craftsmen, such as furriers, tailors, boot makers,
tinsmiths, and watchmakers; they settled mainly in the towns.
There were also Jewish exporters of agricultural products
and importers of industrial and luxury products, and Jewish
moneylenders, who later on became bankers. In villages, Jews
leased inns and brandy distilleries. The process of urbaniza-
376
romania
cluded Moldavian or Wallachian Christian-Orthodox craftsmen or merchants from towns). The system was based on
the Ottoman system of isnafs (in Turkish: isnaf ). The guild
took care of tax collection proportionate to the number of
persons organized in it; the Jews (i.e., the Jewish Guild) were
obliged to pay a poll-tax for the right to settle. This system,
known from 1666 in Jassy (the right to settle was granted by
the sovereign through a gold-charter, in Romanian: hrisov)
may have existed some decades previously in Moldavia. The
head of the guild was the senior (in Romanian: staroste; in
Hebrew: rosh medinah). The senior was responsible for tax
collection. The system was based on that existing in Poland:
the Ashkenazi Jews, of Polish origin, maintained their tradition. The senior was exempted from payment and had some
advantages, granted by the sovereign through a special charter.
Later the abuses began: the seniors were elected from among
members of the same family. In the 1830s the tax paid in Moldavia was called in Romanian the crupca (also a system
of Polish origin; in Polish: korowka). The sovereigns preferred
to put the rabbi in charge of collecting the tax, with him exempted from paying. Later (last decades of the 18t century)
his administrative function was called in Turkish hakhambashe and he was named h akham-bashi (the rabbi, who was
the chief of the Jewish guild). Every rabbi, however, had to pay
bribes (officially) to be recognized in his function. In Moldavia, the rabbis were from the same family: descendents of
Rabbi Naphtali ha-Kohen of Posen, whose son, Bezalel was
appointed as rabbi of Jassy community in 1719. In Wallachia
the senior maintained his administrative and fiscal function, but consulted the rabbi of Jassy for halakhic problems
and became his representative in Bucharest. The collective tax,
set by the guild in agreement with the tax-collector, was paid
from the tax on kosher meat, taxes on religious ceremonies,
and contributions from every family head. The expenses of the
institutions (talmud torah, hekdesh, cemetery) were covered
by the remainder. The rabbis salary was set according to the
number of slaughtered cattle, of religious ceremonies, and of
boys learning in the talmud torah.
The situation changed once again at the end of the 18t
first decades of the 19t centuries. Owing to the competition
among the rabbis for this function and to the fact that many
Jews considered the h akham bashi as insufficiently learned in
Torah, his prestige was low, and learned rabbis were considered by the Jews as their real spiritual leaders. The growing
number of immigrants from Galicia and Russia at the beginning of the 19t century opposed the h akham bashi, since such
an institution was unknown to them and many of them were
followers of H asidism and led by z addikim. As they were foreign subjects they asked their consuls to intercede, and in 1819
the prince of Moldavia decided that the h akham bashi should
have jurisdiction only over native Jews. The H asidim did not
buy meat slaughtered by a non-H asidic slaughterer, because
his knife was not polished. So, they bought meat from illegal slaughterers and did not pay the tax on kosher meat. The
collective tax paid by the Jewish guild to the state was smaller.
Finally, after agreements with the representatives of the immigrant Jews (H asidim), because of permanent strife among
the diverse groups of Jews and their complaints to the authorities, the latter decided in 1834 to abolish the h akham bashi system and institution in Moldavia. In Wallachia, although the
h akham bashi institution was not abolished, it remained inactive. Jewish communal life and organization were changed.
The Ottoman system was changed to the Russian system. The
Jewish guild became the Jewish community, called the Jewish
nation (in Romanian: natia ovreeasca). Since the fiscal system
could not be changed radically, the method of collective taxation on kosher meat remained in use but was carried out by
representatives of the government for a relatively short period.
After around a decade it was changed, proving impractical:
only the wealthy Jews bought meat, while the poor consumed
mainly vegetables. The functions of the community devolved
on to the various prayer houses and the artisans guilds and
sometimes on the h evra kaddisha or the Jewish hospital.
(For the early history of the other regions which later
made up Romania see *Bessarabia, *Bukovina, and *Transylvania).
377
Emerging Romania
The Russian-Turkish peace treaty of Adrianopol (1829) canceled the interdiction of the export of some Moldavian and
Wallachian agricultural products from the Ottoman Empire
and decreed freedom of commerce. Between 1829 and 1834
Moldavia and Wallachia were occupied by Russia. A nearly
similar constitution (the so-called Organic Law) was prepared
for both principalities during that period and promulgated in
1832. The constitution was similar to the one already existing
in Wallachia and Moldavia. From 1832 to 1856 the two principalities were protectorates of Russia. The Organic Law of
Moldavia (together with additions promulgated between 1834
and 1856) also dealt with the position of the Jews. Their communal organization was on the Russian model (kahal). Jews
were forbidden to own property in the villages. Additions to
the laws promulgated in 1839 and 1843 gave the authorities
the right to determine which Jews were useful to the country,
the others being declared vagrants and expelled. However,
the Organic Law of Moldavia stipulated that Jewish children
could attend public schools if they dressed like the Christian
children. Jews were exempted from military service. The number of Jews increased owing to emigration from Galicia and
Russia. The number of Jewish burgs in Moldavia also grew. In
Bucharest (Wallachia) the community was fragmented. In the
early 1840s the Sephardi Jews of Bucharest left the community and founded their own community with their own traditions. The Ashkenazi Jews of Bucharest who were Austrian
and Prussian subjects also left the community and founded a
community supported by the Austrian and Prussian consuls,
in order not to pay taxes. The native and Polish (Russian)
Jewish subjects remained as the Ashkenazi community. Later
on, these two Ashkenazi communities reunited.
In the 1848 revolutions of Moldavia and Wallachia, di-
romania
Independent Romania
The peace treaty of Paris (1856), which concluded the Crimean
War and granted the principalities a certain autonomy under
the suzerainty of the seven European powers, proclaimed inter alia that in the two Danubian principalities all the inhabitants, irrespective of religion, should enjoy religious and civil
liberties (the right to own property and to trade) and might
occupy political posts. Only those who had foreign citizenship were excluded from political rights. The leaders of the
Moldavian and Wallachian Jews addressed themselves both
to the Romanian authorities and to the great powers, asking
for the abolition of the discriminations against them. However, the opposition of Russia and of the Romanian political
leaders hindered this: the special assembly decided that only
Christians would obtain citizenship. The two principalities
united in 1859; Bucharest became the capital of the new state
(United Principalities, and from 1862 Romania); Alexandru
Ioan Cuza, who was a member of the 1848 revolutionaries
group and not antisemitic, became their sovereign. The number of Jews was then 130,000 (3 of the total population). In
1864 native Jews were granted suffrage in the local councils
(little naturalization); but Jews who were foreign subjects
still could not acquire landed property. Political rights were
granted to non-Christians but only parliament could vote on
the naturalization of individual Jews but not a single Jew
was naturalized.
In 1866 Alexandru Ioan Cuza was ousted by anti-liberal
forces. A new sovereign, Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was elected and a new constitution adopted. Under the
pressure of demonstrations organized by the police (during
which the Choir Temple in Bucharest was demolished and the
Jewish quarter plundered), the seventh article of the constitution, restricting citizenship to the Christian population, was
adopted. Even the visit to Bucharest of Adolphe Crmieux,
president of the Alliance Isralite Universelle, who delivered
a speech in the Romanian parliament, had no effect. In the
spring of 1867 the minister of interior, Ion Bratianu, started
to expel Jews from the villages and banish noncitizens from
the country. In the summer of the same year Sir Moses Montefiore arrived in Bucharest and demanded that Prince Carol
378
rected against the Russian protectorate and against absolutism and serfdom, the revolutionaries appealed to the Jews to
participate. They distinguished, however, between useful and
non-useful Jews (the latter being nominated for expulsion)
and proposed the emancipation of the Israelites and transformation into useful citizens, proclaiming their civic equality.
Some Jews took part in the 1848 revolution of Wallachia (see
Davicion *Bally), but the majority of Jews did not participate
in the revolutions. However, under the influence of revolution, some progressive Jews revolted against the leadership
of the Ashkenazi community and took over for a short period.
The revolutions were suppressed (in Moldavia immediately by
the sovereign, in Wallachia after three months by the Russian
and Ottoman armies).
romania
als and the Conservatives were antisemitic, with only slight
differences. In 1910 the first specifically antisemitic party, the
National Democratic Party, was founded, under the leadership
of the university professors A.C. Cuza and Nicolae Iorga.
H asidism, Haskalah, Religious Reform
The majority of the Jews of Moldavia were H asidim. Most of
them followed the admor of Ruzhin, Rabbi Israel *Ruzhin
Friedmann. Others, especially those of Russian origin, were
H asidim of the Chabad movement. In 1809, Rabbi *Abraham
Joshua Heshel of Opatow settled in Jassy, having been invited
by the local leader and moneylender Rabbi Michel ben Daniel;
he left the town in 1813. The next year another H asidic rabbi,
Joseph David Ha-Kohen from Zwolew (17501828) settled in
Jassy. In 1834, at the suggestion of the admor Rabbi Israel of
Ruzhin, the H asidic Rabbi Joseph Landau was invited to Jassy,
where he became the towns rabbi until his death (1853). Owing to the large number of appeals to the rabbinical tribunal,
another H asidic rabbi, Aharon Moses *Taubes, was invited
to Jassy and settled there; he died in Jassy in 1852. In 1852 the
admor Menahem Nahum Friedman settled in Stefanesti and
founded the H asidic dynasty and court of Stefanesti. In 1866,
the admor Isaac ben Shalom Friedman settled in Buhusi and
founded the H asidic dynasty and court of the same name,
which became the central H asidic court in Romania. Later, admorim from the same family founded other H asidic dynasties
and courts in Romania, such as Pascani, Adjud, and Focsani.
Other admorim and H asidic rabbis from the Gutman, Halpern, Derbaremdige, Landman, Zilberfarb, Wahrman, Teumim,
Drimer, Frenkel, and Sulitzer-Moscovici families also settled
in Romania in the 19tfirst half of the 20t centuries.
The presence of maskilim, many of them having emigrated from Galicia, is also attested from the 1830s. Later they
became more active and began to organize. One of them was
Michel Alter Finkelstein of Jassy, fighter for cultural integration, modernization, and changing of Jewish East-European
manner of dress. An important maskil from Bucharest was
Judah ben Mordechai (Julius) *Barasch, a physicist and also a
writer in the Hebrew, German, and Romanian languages. The
first Jewish school functioning with a Haskalah movement
curriculum was founded in Bucharest in 1851, in the Jewish
community holding Austrian and Prussian citizenship, with
Julius Barasch as its principal; in 1852 in Bucharest (in the
community of native and Polish Jews) Naftaly K. Popper
became a Hebrew teacher; in Jassy (1853) Benjamin Schwarzfeld became the principal. A Society for Israelite Culture
was founded in 1862 in Bucharest, functioning for only one
year. At the end of the 1850s and in the 1860s some maskil
Hebrew writers were active in Moldavia: Matitiahu Simha
Rabener (editor of the Hebrew review Zimrat Haaretz; Mordechai Streslisker (Marvad Sat); Hillel Kahane; Hirsh Mendel
Pineles (Ha-Shalash) and others.
Some maskilim adopted the idea of also reforming religious worship. They advanced their proposals in the 1850s in
Bucharest. After a conflict with *Malbim, the rabbi of BuchaENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
379
romania
150 _ 500
500 _ 1,000
1,000 _ 10,000
10,000 _ 50,000
Herta
Darabani
Saveni
Mihaileni
Dorohoi
Ripiceni
Bucecea Botosani
Burdujeni
Stefanesti
Sulita
Frumusica Bivolari
Harlau PodulFalticeni
HeciTiganasi
lloaiei
Lespezi
Targu-Neamt
Copou-Targ
Pascani
Sculeni
Jassy
Targu-Frumos
Liteni
Bozieni-Bals
Piatra-Neamt
Raducaneni
A Codaesti
Ramnicu-Sarat
Roman
Dranceni
Bacesti
TarguGloduri Negresti
Buhusi
Husi
Vaslui
Bacau
Plopana
Moinesti
Racaciuni
Puesti
Valea-Rea
Parincea
Targu-Ocna
Pungesti
Barlad
Caiuti
Podul-Turcului
Adjud Beresti-Targ
Dragasani
Tecuci
Panciu
Odobesti
Focsani
Ivesti
P r ut R .
Campina
Galati
Braila
Tulcea
Buzau
Ploesti
Pitesti
Turnu-Severin
Craiova
Constanta
Calarasi
Caracal
R.
ube
Dan
Rosiori-de-Vede
Calafat
Giurgiu
A
AVI
OSL
YUG
Bucharest
Slatina
Danub
B
BLACK
SEA
R.
U
Map 1. Jewish communities in Romania on the eve of World War I. Based on Pinkas ha-Kehillot: Rumanyah, Vol. 1, Jerusalem, 1969. Courtesy Yad Vashem
Archives, Jerusalem.
burg and from there went to the United States, Canada, and
Great Britain. Up to World War I about 70,000 Jews left Romania. From 266,652 (4.5 of the total population) in 1899
the Jewish population declined to 239,967 (3.3) in 1912. The
1907 revolt of the peasants, who at first vented their wrath on
the Jews, also contributed to this tendency to emigrate; Jewish houses and shops were pillaged in many villages and cities
of Moldavia, 2,280 families being affected. At the same time
the persecution of the Jews increased. Their expulsion from
the villages assumed such proportions that in some counties
380
romania
with King Carol I, who held up the passage of a bill discriminating against Jewish craftsmen (1912).
At the end of the 19t century there began the organization of Jewish communities, together with the creation of a
Jewish school system as a result of the expulsion of Jews from
the public schools (1893). The impoverishment of the Jewish population also created a need for social assistance which
could not be provided by the various existing associations. To
achieve the legalization of the communities, several congresses
of their representatives were organized (April 1896 in Galati,
1902 in Jassy, and 1905 in Focsani), but they could not agree
on the proper nature of a community. Some claimed that it
should have an exclusively religious character; others wanted
a lay organization dealing only with social welfare, hospitals,
and schools. The different Jewish institutions (synagogues, religious associations, hospitals) endeavored to preserve their
autonomy. There was a struggle for the tax on meat, too, each
demanding this income for itself. At the same time assimilationist groups of students and intellectuals launched a drive
against the community, which they defined as an isolationist instrument; in this move they were joined by antisemites
who called the community a state within a state, a Jewish
conspiracy aiming to establish supremacy over the Romanians. Some proposed putting the communities under the
Ministry of the Interior. An attempt in 1897 to introduce into
parliament a bill on the Jewish communities, its purpose being defined by the proposer as to defend the Jewish population against its ignorant religious fanatics, failed because of
the opposition of the liberal government of the day. Later the
principle of autonomy prevailed at Jewish community congresses, owing to the influence of the Zionists, especially Rabbis J. [Jacob] Nacht and J. Niemirover. Protests were lodged
against the interference of the local authorities (mayors, chief
commissioners of police, etc.) as well as against the oath more
judaico. The principle of autonomy finally triumphed, owing
to the young Zionists who penetrated the local communities,
especially in the country.
The Struggle for Naturalization
Following World War I Romania enlarged her territory with
the provinces of Bukovina, Bessarabia, and Transylvania. In
each of these the Jews were already citizens, either of long
standing like those who had lived in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or more recent like those from Bessarabia who
achieved equality only in 1917. Indeed, the naturalization of
the Jews of Romania was under way in accordance with the
separate peace treaty concluded with Germany in the spring
of 1918. In August 1918 the Romanian parliament passed an act
concerning naturalization with many very complicated procedures, the latter being, moreover, sabotaged when they had
to be applied by the local authorities. After the defeat of Germany, Prime Minister Ionel Bratianu realized that at the peace
conference the naturalization of the Jews would be brought
up again, so he tried to resolve the problem in good time by
issuing a decree of naturalization on Dec. 28, 1918, proclaim-
381
romania
was a great difference between the laws and the way in which
they were implemented. In a regulation published two months
after the passing of the constitution, many procedural restrictions on the Jews living in the new provinces were introduced.
In practice, the civil service, the magistracy, university chairs,
and officers corps remained closed to Jews. UEP became the
Union of Romanian Jews (Uniunea Evreilor Romni UER)
and Wilhelm *Filderman became its president.
Increasing Antisemitism
Growing social and political tensions in Romania in the 1920s
and 1930s led to a constant increase in antisemitism and in the
violence which accompanied it. Antisemitic excesses and demonstrations expressed both popular and student antisemitism
and cruelty; they also served to divert social unrest to the Jews
and show Western public opinion that intervention on their
behalf was bound to miscarry. In December 1922 Christian
students at the four universities proclaimed numerus clausus
as their program; riots followed at the universities and against
the Jewish population. As was later revealed in parliament,
the student movements were organized and financed by the
Ministry of the Interior. The leader of the student movements
was Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the secretary of the League of
National Christian Defense which was headed by A.C. Cuza.
The students formed terrorist groups on the Fascist model and
committed several murders. In 1926 the Jewish student Falic
was murdered at Chernovtsy. The assassin was acquitted. In
1927 Codreanu broke away from A.C. Cuza and founded the
Archangel Michael League, which in 1929 became the Iron
Guard, a paramilitary organization with an extreme antisemitic program.
On Dec. 9, 1927, the students of Codreanus League carried out a pogrom in Oradea Mare (Transylvania), where they
were holding a congress, for which they received a subsidy
from the Ministry of the Interior: they were conveyed there
in special trains put at their disposal free of charge by the government. Five synagogues were wrecked and the Torah scrolls
burned in the public squares. After that the riots spread all
over the country: in Cluj eight prayer houses were plundered,
and on their way home the participants in the congress continued their excesses against the Jews in the cities of Huedin,
Targu-Ocna, and Jassy. At the end of 1933 the liberal prime
minister I.G. Duca, one of the opponents of King Carols dictatorial tendencies, dissolved the Iron Guard and after three
weeks was assassinated by its men. The guard was reformed
under the slogan, Everything for the Country. Codreanus
ties with the Nazis in Germany dated from that time. Carol II
later aided other political bodies with an antisemitic program
in an attempt to curb the Iron Guard. From 1935 Al. Vaida-Voevod led the Romanian Front, and made use in his speeches of
such slogans as the blood libel, the parasitism of the Jews, their
defrauding the country, their international solidarity, and the
Judaization of the press and national literature.
After Hitler came to power in Germany (1933), the large
Romanian parties also adopted antisemitic programs. In 1935
382
romania
status for the Jews. Their proposal was not accepted by the
Union.
In 1926 the first National Jewish deputies and senators
were elected from Bukovina, Transylvania, and Bessarabia. As
a consequence of these successes the National Jewish Club, in
which representatives of the Zionist parties also participated,
was founded in Bucharest. Such clubs were established in all
the cities of the Old Kingdom. In 1928 four National Jewish
deputies were returned to parliament (two from Transylvania,
one from Bukovina, and one from Bessarabia). They formed a
Jewish parliamentary club. In 1930 the Jewish Party (Partidul
Evreesc) was established in the Old Kingdom and on May 4,
1931, it held its general congress. Adolphe Stern joined this
party. In the elections to parliament, a month later, the Jewish
Party gained five seats, and in the 1932 elections it again obtained five. The situation of the Jewish parliamentarians was
far from easy, because they were not only interrupted during
their speeches but were often physically attacked by the deputies of the antisemitic parties. After 1933 there were no more
Jewish members of parliament, except for J. Niemirower, who
in his capacity of chief rabbi was officially a senator.
383
romania
life, within the framework of the all-Romanian Federation of
Jewish Communities. Culturally, the deeply rooted Jewish life
of Bessarabia, with its Hebrew teachers, writers, and journalists, had a great influence, especially in the Old Kingdom.
In 1924 there were 796,056 Jews in enlarged Romania (5
of the total population): 230,000 in the Old Kingdom, 238,000
in Bessarabia, 128,056 in Bukovina, and 200,000 in Transylvania. In 1930 their number was 756,930 (4.2 of the total population): 263,192 in the Old Kingdom, 206,958 in Bessarabia,
92,988 in Bukovina, and 193,000 in Transylvania.
Social Structure
The Jewish population of Old Romania was for the most part
an urban one. According to the 1899 census, 79.73 of the
Jews lived in cities, forming 32.10 of the whole urban population of the country. Only 20.27 lived in villages, forming
1.1 of the whole rural population. This phenomenon was a
result of the ban on Jews dwelling in a rural area. In the Moldavia province, where the Jews were most heavily concentrated, they formed a majority in several towns. In Falticeni
they were 57 of the total population; in Dorohoi, 53.6; in
Botosani, 51.8; in Jassy, 50.8. In several smaller towns of
that region their proportion was greater: in Gertsa, 66.2; in
Mihaileni, 65.6; in Harlau, 59.6; in Panciu, 52.4. The Romanian population was 84.06 farmers, the Jews constituting the middle class. According to 1904 statistics, 21.1 of the
total number of merchants were Jews, but in some cities of
Moldavia they were a definite majority, such as in Jassy, 75.3;
Botosani, 75.2; Dorohoi, 72.9; Tecuci, 65.9, etc. Jews represented 20.07 of all artisans, and in several branches they
were a majority: 81.3 of engravers, 76 of tinsmiths; 75.9
of watchmakers; 74.6 of bookbinders; 64.9 of hatmakers;
64.3 of upholsterers, etc. Industry was not advanced in Romania before World War I. There were 625 industrial firms altogether, 19.5 of them owned by Jews. Jews were 5.3 of the
officials and workers in these industrial enterprises. In several
branches of industry there were Jewish factory owners: 52.8
of the glass industry; 32.4 of the wood and furniture industry; 32.4 of the clothing industry; 26.5 of the textile industry. Of the liberal professions only medicine was permitted
to Jews. They constituted 38 of the total number of doctors.
The occupational distribution of the Jews was as follows; agriculture, 2.5; industry and crafts, 42.5; trade and banking,
37.9; liberal professions, 3.2; various occupations, 13.7.
There are no detailed statistics of the period between the
two world wars. The provinces of Bessarabia, Transylvania,
and Bukovina were annexed to Old Romania, increasing the
Jewish population threefold. In every province their occupational structure was different as the result of historical development. In the two annexed provinces, Transylvania and
Bukovina, the Jews had enjoyed civil rights from the days of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and were also represented in
the liberal professions. On the other hand, their situation in
Bessarabia in czarist times was worse than in Old Romania a
fact which also influenced their occupational structure. The
384
few known figures refer to Greater Romania, with all the annexed territories. The only census taken in Bessarabia was in
1930, and according to those figures the occupational distribution of the Jewish population was as follows: industry and
crafts, 24.8; trade and banking, 51.5; liberal professions,
2.9; miscellaneous, 8.2. It should be noted that Jewish
bankers (such as the bank of Marmorosh-Blank) invested
money in the developing industry of Greater Romania. Some
industrial enterprises, comprising several factories such as the
sugar, metal, and textile works, etc., were owned by Jews. In
the late 1930s, under the influence of Nazi Germany in Romania, the whole occupational structure of the Jews collapsed
because of persecution on the economic level, which preceded
political persecution and murder.
Cultural Life
Since most Romanian Jews were of Polish or Russian extraction, their religious and cultural traditions were similar to
those of the Jews of Eastern Europe. Their rabbis and teachers,
as well as their religious trends came from there. The spoken
language of the Ashkenazi Jewish population was Yiddish; Judeo-Spanish was used by Sephardi Jews; Romanian became
more widely used among them only in the second half of the
19t century, at the time when the first Romanian universities
were established (Jassy in 1860 and Bucharest in 1864). In that
period, too, the development of modern Romanian literature
began. In 1857 Julius Barasch published the first newspaper
in Romanian and French Israelitul Romn whose function was to fight for equal civil rights for Romanian Jewry. In
1854 another two newspapers Timpul (Di Tsayt; Bucharest)
and Gazeta Romno-Evreeasc (Jassy) appeared in Romanian and Yiddish, but all three papers ceased publication before the end of a year. Other such attempts met the same fate.
Only in 1879 did the weekly Fraternitatea begin to appear, lasting until 1885, when it ceased publication upon the expulsion
from Romania of its chief editors, Isaac Auerbach and Elias
Schwarzfeld, for their stand against persecutions. This paper,
which represented the assimilationist trend, was opposed to
the incipient pre-Zionist movement which sponsored the
establishment of the colonies of Zikhron Yaakov and Rosh
Pinnah in Erez Israel. Then two papers in Romanian also appeared, supporting aliyah: Aprtorul, which was published in
Bucharest from 1881 to 1884 with A.S. Gold as editor, and the
weekly Stindardul, which was published in Focsani from 1882
to 1883. The Yiddish paper Ha-Yoez which appeared in Bucharest from 1874 to 1896 also supported aliyah. Eleazar Rokeah,
an emissary from Erez Israel, published as special organs of
the pre-Zionist movement the Hebrew paper Emek Yizreel
in Jassy (1882), and the Yiddish Di Hofnung in Piatra-Neamt
(1882), and Der Emigrant in Galati (1882). Of the Jewish press
in Romania the weekly Egalitatea, edited by Moses Schwarzfeld, survived for half a century. The weekly Curierul Israelit,
edited by M. Schweig, began to appear in 1906 and continued
up to 1948, becoming the mouthpiece of the Uniunea Evreilor
Romni (Union of Romanian Jews) after World War I. In the
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
romania
time of Herzl several Zionist papers appeared in Romania but
did not last long. In 1913 the monthly Hatikva in Romanian
was issued in Galati under the editorship of Leon Gold who
gathered round him the outstanding Jewish authors in Romanian. Apart from original articles they also published translations of a high literary standard from modern Hebrew poetry
and classical Yiddish literature. After World War I, from 1919
to 1923, there was published in Bucharest a daily newspaper
in Romanian with a Zionist national tendency, Mntuirea, edited by A.L. Zissu, with Abraham Feller as chief editor. This
paper stood for the idea of a Jewish political party and sharply
attacked the tendencies of assimilationist circles. The weekly
Renasterea Noastr (192342, 194448), edited by Samuel I.
Stern, continued in this direction subsequently. The Zionist
Federation published the weekly tiri din Lumea Evreeasc,
edited by I. Ludo and later by Theoder Loewenstein. Between
the two world wars the Zionist students association published
the monthly Hasmonaea. The number of Jewish journalists
grew between the two wars, some of them even becoming
chief editors of the great democratic papers. They included
Constantin Graur, B. Branisteanu, Em. Fagure, G. Milian
(Bucharest); A. Hefter (Jassy), and S. Schaferman-Pastoresu
(Braila). After they had acquired a knowledge of Romanian,
several Jewish scholars at the end of the 19t century became
distinguished in the field of philology and folklore: Lazar Saineanu (Sainan), compiler of the first practical dictionary of
Romanian (1896); M. Gaster, who did research on early Romanian folklore; Hayman Tiktin, author of a scientific grammar of Romanian in two volumes (189394). This tradition
continued down to later times. I.A. Candrea also compiled a
Romanian dictionary (1931), as did J. Byk and Al. Graur after
World War II. A number of these scholars also devoted time
to research on the history of Romanian Jewry. The pioneer in
this field was J. Psantir, whose two Yiddish volumes contained
Hebrew headings: Divrei ha-Yamim le-Arz ot Rumanye (Jassy,
1871) and Korot ha-Yehudim be-Rumanye (Lemberg, 1877). A
society for research into the history of Romanian Jewry was
established in 1886 and named for Julius Barasch. Among its
active members were J. Psantir, M. Gaster, Lazar Saineanu, Isac
David Bally, Elias Schwarzfeld, Moses Schwarzfeld, and others. In the three publications of their bulletin they published
source material, memoirs, and bibliographical notes, as well as
some combined research and monographs of Jewish communities. Although the society ceased activities after four years
the scholars continued their researches. Part of their works appeared in the 19 volumes of the annual Anuarul pentru Israelii
and in the weekly Egalitatea published by M. Schwarzfeld. Frequently, the articles are apologetic or polemic, their authors
being interested in demonstrating the length of the Jewish
presence in Romania as an element justifying Emancipation.
Between the two world wars Meir A. Halevy published several monographs on the history of the Jews of Romania. The
Templul Coral (Choir Synagogue) then erected in Bucharest
a museum, library, and archives for the history of Romanian
Jewry. In some bulletins of these institutions and in the annual
385
Holocaust Period
German penetration into the Romanian economy increased
as the Nazis moved eastward with the Anschluss of Austria
(1938), the annexation of Czechoslovakia (1939), and the occupation of western Poland at the outbreak of World War II.
A considerable number of Romanian politicians agreed to
serve German interests in exchange for directorships in German-Romanian enterprises, and German trade agreements
with Romania always demanded the removal of Jews in the
branch involved. In this way, Jews were expelled from wood
commerce and industry.
In the summer of 1940 Romania succumbed to German
and Soviet pressure (after the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty)
and transferred Bessarabia and part of Bukovina to the Soviet Union. Following the Hitler-Mussolini agreement, in September 1940 northern Transylvania was transferred to Hungary, and southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria. On June 30, 1940,
52 Jews were murdered in Dorohoi by a retreating Romanian
regiment. Hoping to ensure its borders after the concessions,
Romania, which had not been invaded by the German army,
became a satellite of Nazi Germany. The first result of this
move was the cancellation of Romanian citizenship for Jews,
a measure taken by the government, which included members
of the Iron Guard, under German pressure in August 1940.
On September 6, when King Carol abdicated, Ion Antonescu,
who had been minister of defense in the Goga government,
came to power. His government included ministers from the
ranks of the Iron Guard, and Romania was declared a National-Legionary State (the members of the Iron Guard styled
themselves legionnaires). There followed a period of antisemitic terrorism that lasted for five months. It began with the
confiscation of Jewish-owned shops, together with the posting of signs Jewish shop and picketing by the green-shirted
legionary police. The reign of terror reached its height when
Jewish industrial and commercial enterprises were handed
over to the members of the Legion under pressure from the
Iron Guard. The owners of the enterprises were arrested and
tortured by the legionary police until they agreed to sign
certificates of transfer. Bands of legionnaires entered Jewish homes and confiscated any sums of money they found.
This resulted in a mortal blow to the Romanian economy and
chaos that frightened even the German diplomats. Antonescu
tried on several occasions to arrest the wave of terrorism, during which a number of Romanian statesmen opposed to the
Iron Guard were killed.
On Jan. 21, 1941, the Iron Guard revolted against Antonescu and attempted to seize power and carry out its antise-
romania
Khotin
T
Dn
iest
er
R.
Soroki
Brichany
U.S.S.R.
S
N
Falticeni
CRISANA
Beltsy
HUNGARY
Satu-Mare
Chernovtsy A
N Dorohoi
I
V
O
K
Botosani
Orgeyev
R'oman Kishinev
Bendery
Bacau
MARAMURES
Oradea
Jassy
Piatra-Neamt
Cluj
Akkerman
I
Arad
Prut R.
M O L D A V I A
Kagul
A
Focsani
Timisoara
Brasov
BANAT
Bolgrad
Galati
Braila
Kiliya
Reni
Izmail
Vilkovo
A
R
Bucharest
BLACK SEA
OLTENIA
Constanta
O
YUGOSLAVIA
Danu
be R .
BULGARIA
Map 2. Jewish communities in Romania showing areas (shaded in) taken away from Romania and ceded to neighboring countries. Based on Pinkas haKehillot: Rumanyah, Vol. 1, Jerusalem, 1969. Courtesy Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem.
mitic program in full. While part of the Legion was fighting the Romanian army for control of government offices and
strategic points in the city, the rest carried out a pogrom on
Bucharest Jews, aided by local hooligans. Jewish homes were
looted, shops burned, and many synagogues desecrated, including two that were razed to the ground (the Great Sephardi
Synagogue and the old bet ha-midrash). Some of the leaders of
the Bucharest community were imprisoned in the community
council building, worshipers were ejected from synagogues,
the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization was attacked
and its director murdered, and wealthy Bucharest Jews were
arrested, according to a previously prepared list. Those arrested were taken to centers of the Iron Guard movement:
some were then taken into the forests near Bucharest and shot;
others were murdered and their bodies hung on meat hooks
in the municipal slaughterhouse, bearing the legend kosher
meat. The pogrom claimed at least 125 Jewish lives. There
were no acts of violence in the provinces because the army
was in firm control and fully supported Antonescu. This was
also Hitlers reason for supporting Antonescu. Romania held
an important role in the war contemplated against the Soviet
386
romania
Antonescu, was an ally of Germany and fought with the Nazi
army in the war against the Soviet Union. The declared purpose of Romanias involvement in the war was to retrieve the
Romanian territories (Bukovina and Bessarabia). One week
after the war started, on June 29 and 30, 1941, the large Jewish
community in Jassy was shattered by a pogrom unprecedented
in all of Europe. Over 14,000 Jews lost their lives during the
massacres in the city, massacres initiated and supervised by
the army and the local police. In addition, many perished in
the subhuman conditions of the death trains that transported
Jews who had been arrested.
The Jewish population of Bessarabia (approximately
200,000) and Bukovina (93,000) was considered hostile,
foreign, and destined for elimination in the program of
cleansing the land conceived by Antonescu. This intensely
antisemitic propaganda campaign, conducted on all levels of
the state hierarchy and especially in the army, portrayed this
population and, by extension, all Jews as the embodiment
of the Bolshevik danger. The Jews in the reacquired territories were held responsible for mistreating, humiliating, and
even killing many Romanian soldiers during the retreat in
the summer of 1940.
A completely different fate, though no better, befell the
Jews in Transylvania (approximately 200,000, including those
in Banat). In northern Transylvania, under Hungarian rule,
the Jews shared the fate of Hungarys Jews during the war,
most of them being deported and exterminated at Auschwitz.
Of the 200,000 Transylvanian Jews, 160,000 (mostly Orthodox) were in the northern part. Until close to the end of
the war, the fate of the Jews in southern Transylvania, which
was still part of Romania, was similar to that in the other
Romanian regions Moldavia and Wallachia, known as the
Regat.
The armies combined advance through Bessarabia, Bukovina, and the Dorohoi district was accompanied by massacres of the local Jewish population. At the beginning of August
1941 the Romanians began to send deportees from Bukovina
and Bessarabia over the Dniester River into a German-occupied area of the U.S.S.R. (later to be known as Transnistria).
The Germans refused to accept the deportees, shooting some
and returning the rest. Some of these Jews drowned in the
river and others were shot by the Romanian gendarmerie on
the western bank; of the 25,000 persons who crossed the Dniester near Sampol, only 16,500 were returned by the Germans.
Some of these survivors were killed by the Romanians, and
some died of weakness and starvation on the way to camps in
Bukovina and Bessarabia. Half of the 320,000 Jews living in
Bessarabia, Bukovina, and the Dorohoi district (which was in
Old Romania) were murdered during the first few months of
Romanias involvement in the war, i.e., up to Sept. 1, 1941.
After this period the Jews were concentrated in ghettos
(if they lived in cities), in special camps (if they lived in the
countryside, or townlets such as Secureni, Yedintsy, Vertyuzhani, etc.). German killing squads or Romanian gendarmes,
copying the Germans, habitually entered the ghettos and
387
romania
Bessarabian origin and had asked to return to the Soviet Union
in 1940), had broken forced-labor laws, etc.
At the beginning of December 1942 the Romanian government informed the Jewish leadership of a change in its policy toward Jews. Defeat at Stalingrad (where the Romanians
had lost 18 divisions) was already anticipated. In 194243 the
Romanian government began tentatively to consider signing
a separate peace treaty with the Allies. Although a plan for
large-scale emigration failed because of German opposition
and lack of facilities, both small and large boats left Romania
carrying illegal immigrants to Palestine, some of whom were
refugees from Bukovina, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. Between 1939 and August 1944 (when Romania withdrew from
the war) 13 boats left Romania, carrying 13,000 refugees, and
even this limited activity was about to cease, as a result of German pressure exerted through diplomatic missions in Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Two of the boats sank: the Struma
(on Feb. 23, 1944 with 769 passengers) and the Mefkure (on
Aug. 5, 1944 with 394 passengers).
Despite German efforts, the Romanian government refused to deport its Jews to the east. At the beginning of 1943,
however, there was a return to the traditional economic pressures against the Jews in order to reduce the Jewish population. This was achieved by forbidding Jews to work in the civilian economy and through the most severe measure of all,
forced labor (from which the wealthy managed to obtain an
exemption by paying a considerable sum). In addition, various taxes were imposed on the Jewish population in the form
of cash, clothing, shoes, or hospital equipment. These measures, particularly the taxes to be remitted in cash of which
the largest was a levy of 4 billion lei (about $27,000,000) imposed in March 1943 severely pressed Romanian Jewry. The
tax collection was made by the Jewish Center. W. Filderman,
chairman of the Council of the Union of Jewish Communities,
who opposed the tax and proved that it could never be paid,
was deported to Transnistria for two months.
At the end of 1943, as the Red Army drew nearer to Romania, the local Jewish leadership succeeded in obtaining
the gradual return of those deported to Transnistria. The
Germans tried several times to stop the return and even succeeded in bringing about the arrest of the leadership of the
clandestine Zionist pioneering movements in January and
February 1944; however, these leaders were released through
the intervention of the International Red Cross and the Swiss
ambassador in Bucharest, who contended that they were indispensable for organizing the emigration of those returning
from Transnistria and refugees who had found temporary
shelter in Romania. In March 1944 contacts were made in Ankara between Ira Hirschmann, representative of the U.S. War
Refugee Board, and the Romanian ambassador, A. Cretzianu,
at which Hirschmann demanded the return of all those deported to Transnistria and the cessation of the persecution of
Jews. At the time, the Red Army was defeating the Germans in
Transnistria, and there was a danger that the retreating Germans might slaughter the remaining Jews. Salvation came at
388
Jewish Resistance
PREPARATORY STEPS. As soon as Hitler assumed power in
Germany (1933), Jewish leaders in Bucharest decided not to
remain passive. In November the congress of the Jewish Party
in Romania decided to join the anti-Nazi boycott movement,
disregarding the protest raised by the Romanian press and antisemitic groups, but the Union of the Romanian Jews (UER)
did not participate in the campaign. The necessity for a united
political, as well as economic, struggle soon became obvious. On Jan. 29, 1936, the Central Council of Jews in Roma-
romania
nia, composed of representatives of both Jewish trends the
UER and the Jewish Party was established for the defense
of all Jewish rights and liberties against the organizations and
newspapers that openly proclaimed the introduction of the
racial regime. At the end of the year the Council succeeded
in averting a bill proposed in the parliament by the antisemitic circles suggesting that citizenship be revoked from the
Jews. During the same period the Romanian government attempted to suppress the state subvention for Jewish religious
needs, as well as the exemption from taxes accorded to Jewish community institutions. The Council could not obtain the
maintenance of the subvention, and it was finally reduced to
one-sixth of its allotment.
When Gogas antisemitic government came to power, the
Council began a struggle against it, gaining support and attention outside Romania. Filderman, president of the Council, left at once for Paris, where he mobilized the world Jewish organizations with headquarters in France and England
and informed local political circles and the League of Nations
of events in Romania. At the same time the Jews in Romania
began an expanded economic boycott, refraining from commercial transactions, withdrawing their deposits from the
banks, and delaying tax payments. The outcome was largescale paralysis of the economic life, as the German minister
of foreign affairs stated in his circular of March 9, 1938. Thus
the dismissal of the Goga government after only 40 days was
motivated not only by external pressure, but by the effects of
the Jewish economic boycott.
THE UNION OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES. Following the
downfall of the Goga government, King Carols royal dictatorship abolished all the political parties in Romania, including
the Jewish Party and the Union of Romanian Jews. The single body of the Jews in Romania was the Union of the Jewish
Communities, whose board was composed of the leaders of
both Jewish currents. The Union assumed the task of fighting
against the increasing number of anti-Jewish measures promulgated by the Romanian authorities under pressure from
local antisemitic circles and the German government. In some
cases its interventions were successful; for example, it achieved
the nullification of the prohibition against collecting contributions to Zionist funds, and, as a result of its protests, the
restrictions against the Jewish physicians and the Jewish industrial schools were abrogated. In the summer of 1940, after
Romania ceded Bukovina and Bessarabia to the Soviet Union,
the Romanian police tried to eject Jewish refugees from those
two provinces. The Unions board succeeded in moving the
Ministry of the Interior to annul the measure. When the interdiction of ritual slaughter was decreed, the board obtained
an authorization for ritual slaughtering of poultry. The cancellation of the prohibition against Jews peddling in certain
cities was also achieved. When the antisemitic newspapers
incited against the leaders of the Union, the police began to
search their homes.
Ion Antonescus government, with the participation of
389
romania
the yellow badge was maintained in a number of Moldavian
cities, as well as in Chernovtsy (Cernauti), the capital of Bukovina, where the German influence was strong.
During this period, when Romania suffered great losses
on the front and Germany called for an increase in Romanian
participation, the Unions board employed the argument that
Romania, being an ally of the Third Reich, and thus a sovereign state, did not have to accept anti-Jewish laws that were
applied only to German satellite countries. Hungary and Italy,
allies that did not apply such measures at that time, were presented as examples. It is known from von Killingers reports
that Antonescu raised these objections in his dealings with
the Nazi government.
After Jews began to be deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina to Transnistria, the board delegated Chief Rabbi Safran
to intervene with the queen mother, Patriarch Nicodem, and
the archbishop of Bukovina and induce them to intercede with
Antonescu to halt the deportations and permit aid to those
who had already been transported over the Dniester. Until a
decision could be achieved through their intervention, and
against the opposition of von Killinger, the 17,000 Jews who remained in Chernovtsy were not deported. However, the steps
taken, with permission to provide assistance to those who had
already been deported to Transnistria were sabotaged by difficulties raised by lower authorities. The Union also endeavored
to gain the support of the U.S. ambassador, who interceded
with the Romanian government. Nevertheless, when the ambassadors of Brazil, Switzerland, and Portugal proposed to
the U.S. ambassador the initiation of an international protest
against the Romanian anti-Jewish excesses, the latter reported
to Washington that he did not possess enough exact information. Later on, however, in another report (Nov. 4, 1941), he
described in detail the massacres committed in Bessarabia and
in Bukovina and the cruelties that were committed during the
deportations to Transnistria. The description was based on
the information received from the Union. (It was only at the
end of 1941 that Romania broke off relations with the United
States, under German pressure.) The antisemitic press financed and inspired by the German embassy including the
German-language Bukarester Tageblatt, then intensified the
incitement against the Jewish leaders and their constant interventions against anti-Jewish measures.
At the end of 1941 the Union of the Communities was dissolved under pressure from Richter, and the Centrala evreilor
(Central Board of the Jews) was set up at his suggestion in January 1942. Its leaders were appointed by Radu Lecca, who was
responsible for Jewish affairs in the Romanian government, but
they were actually subordinate to Richter. Nearly all of the new
leaders were unknown to the Jewish public, with the exception
of A. Willman, who shortly before his appointment had published a number of pamphlets proposing a kind of neo-territorialist plan to be accomplished with the aid of Nazi Germany.
From the outset, the Jewish population expressed its distrust
of the new organ. The former leaders of the Jewish institutions
formed a clandestine Jewish Council with Chief Rabbi Alexan-
der Safran as its president. The Council leaders handed memoranda personally to, or interceded individually with, Antonescu
or his ministers, who went on to deal with them because the
government did not trust the Central Board either.
In the spring of 1942 changes were made in the framework of the Central Board. Willman and some of his followers
were removed and replaced by others appointed from among
the leadership of the Zionist movement and the Union of the
Romanian Jews (UER). Thus the Central Board was prevented
from taking any harmful initiatives against the Jewish population. In the summer the Zionist Organization was dissolved
at the request of the Germans, and this was a sign that the
Germans disagreed with the Romanian policy, which aided
Jewish emigration. In order to avoid the Nazi plan of deportation to Belzec, the queen mother was convinced by Safran
to intercede with Ion Antonescu. Others were also requested
to intercede on behalf of the Jews, such as the papal nuncio,
Andreas Cassulo; the Swiss ambassador, Ren de Weck; and
even Antonescus personal physician. The nuncios efforts were
supported by the Swedish and Turkish ambassadors, and by
the delegates of the International Red Cross. At the same time
the Jewish Council achieved the annulment of the order to deport to Transnistria 12,000 Jews accused of having committed
crimes or breaches of discipline.
390
romania
nomic measures. The former committee of the JDC continued
its activity clandestinely under the control of the Union of the
Jewish Communities and afterward of the Jewish Council. In
October 1943 it was officially recognized within the framework
of the Jewish Central Board as the Autonomous Committee
of Assistance. Assistance was thus provided to the Jews evacuated from towns and villages who could not be maintained by
the local communities. The most important accomplishment,
however, was the aid in the form of money, medicines, utensils for craftsmen, coal, oil heaters, window glass, clothing,
etc. transmitted to Transnistria. In order to cover the budget,
money and clothing were collected in the regions not affected
by deportations. These means, however, were far from adequate. Only owing to the important amounts acquired from
the JDC, the Jewish Agency, and other world Jewish organizations was the Autonomous Committee of Assistance able to
continue its activity.
In addition to all the official difficulties raised by the Romanian central authorities (the compulsory transfer of money
through the National Bank at an unfavorable exchange rate,
and the obligation of paying customs for the objects sent), the
transports were frequently plundered on the way or confiscated by the local authorities in Transnistria. The assistance,
however, was in itself an element of resistance. The mere fact
that the deportees knew that they had not been abandoned,
at least by their fellow Jews, contributed to the maintenance
of their morale. The aid in its various forms saved thousands
of lives. Through clandestine correspondence, carried by nonJewish messengers, reports were received concerning the situation of the refugees. This means of providing information
was insufficient, however, and the Autonomous Committee
of Assistance therefore wanted to review the situation directly
on the spot.
As early as January 1942 authorization was obtained from
the Ministry of the Interior for a delegation of the committee to go to Transnistria; nevertheless, due to the opposition
of the governor of Transnistria, the representatives could not
get there until Dec. 31, 1942. The governor received them in
audience at Odessa and tried to intimidate them by means
of threat, telling them that their behavior would determine
whether or not they would return to Romania. He gave them
permission to visit only three of the camps in which deported
Jews were concentrated. The delegates of the committee responded by requesting a regional conference with representatives of all the camps. During the railway journey to Mogilev,
the delegates visited the Zhmerinka camp and received information about the surrounding camps. Upon their arrival at
Mogilev (Jan. 89, 1943), a regional conference took place with
the participation of about 70 delegates. Before the conference
opened, the prefect and the commander of the gendarmes
warned the delegates not to complain about their situation,
adding the threat that complaints might endanger the further
receipt of aid. However, the delegates clandestinely submitted
a written report concerning the real situation to the representatives of the committee. From Mogilev the delegation left for
Balta, where it did not receive a license for a regional conference, but each delegate from the ghettos or camps of the area
was authorized to report individually about the situation. Back
in Bucharest, after this two-week tour in Transnistria, the delegates presented their report, which was also sent to Jewish
organizations abroad.
In December 1943 representatives of the Autonomous
Committee of Assistance again left for Transnistria to organize the return of the deportees, taking with them wagons of
clothing. One group of representatives left for the north, to
Mogilev and its surroundings; another for the south, to Tiraspol. The central administration of Transnistria did not display
any goodwill, but the local authorities provided wagons for
the transport. On Feb. 15, 1944, two delegations started out to
aid the return of the orphans. On March 17, 1944, another two
delegations set out for Transnistria, but they could not reach
their destination as the area had already become a front area,
the northern part occupied by the Red Army.
The delegates installed themselves in Tighina (Bessarabia), whence they made contact with Tiraspol on the eastern
bank of the Dniester River and succeeded in saving almost all
those concentrated there. The Germans still had the time to
organize a last massacre, murdering 1,000 Jews who were in
detention in the Tiraspol jail. When Transnistria and Bessarabia were reconquered by the Soviets, the deportees who followed the armies were the last to succeed in returning to Romania, for afterward, at the end of June 1944, the Soviets closed
the frontier. It was reopened only in May 1945 for a last group
of 7,000 deportees, after prolonged dealings in Bucharest between the Jewish leaders and General Vinogradov, the head
of the Soviet armistice commission.
391
romania
of an independent Romanian policy began to appear. Until
1965 the pattern of this policy gradually solidified, and from
then, with the personal changes after the death of the general
secretary Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Romania entered with a
more independent policy. All the changes in government and
policy also left their on Jewish community life. The situation
of Romanian Jewry always had a special character. Even in the
days of complete dependence on Moscow, when the tools and
institutions of national Jewish identity were destroyed and expression of Jewish aspirations was repressed, Romanian Jewry
was not compelled to be as alienated from its national and religious identity as were the Jews of the Soviet Union. At the end
of the 1960s the Jewish community in Romania found itself in
an intermediate position. Its activities displayed indications
of free community life as well as the limitations imposed by
the government. Variations in the governments policy also reflected the connection between the status of Romanian Jewry
and the official attitude of Romania toward Israel. This mutual influence was expressed in all the areas of Jewish life and
especially through the central issue of the right to leave the
country and settle in Israel.
until the end of the 1960s, over 200,000 Romanian Jews settled
in the new state. In addition, it should be noted that not all
the Jews who emigrated from Romania went to Israel; about
80,000 others were scattered throughout other countries. At
the end of the 1960s the Romanian Jewish community numbered no more than 100,000.
392
romania
The persecution of the Zionist movement was also expressed by the imprisonment of shelih im from Erez Israel. On
Dec. 23, 1948, a general consultation of Zionists was held and
resulted in the decision to dissolve voluntarily the Zionist
organizations. Following this decision, the Zionist parties began to halt their activities, with the exception of Mapam, the
youth movements, and He-Halutz. The World Jewish Congress also ceased to operate in Romania. Those organizations that did not close down at the time continued to operate formally until the spring of the following year. On March
3, 1949, however, the Ministry of Interior issued an order to
liquidate all remnants of the Zionist movement, including
youth movements and training farms. With this order the
Jewish community in Romania was given over completely to
the dominance of the government alone at first by means
of the Jewish Democratic Committee, until it too was gradually dissolved. In April 1949 the youth movement of the Jewish Democratic Committee was disbanded just as the Communist Party Youth (UTM) was organized, and the committee
itself was disbanded in March 1953, together with all other
national minorities organizations in Romania. In 194950
the activity of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Romania was discontinued by order of the government. The hostile attitude toward the Zionist movement was
also expressed in Romanias attitude toward Israel, which
gradually hardened and led to the frequent imprisonment
of previously active Zionists. The periods of time when emigration was ceased (April 1952 until 1956) were led by violent
anti-Zionist campaigns. Zionist organizations were banned
as of 1949. Yet the new Communist regime brought about a
radical change: a significant number of Jews became prominent in the political and administrative hierarchy of the new
regime, among them the long-time Communist militant Ana
*Pauker.
There were ups and downs, however, especially in the
area of propaganda, until the situation in general began to improve at the beginning of 1967.
COMMUNITY LIFE. With the liquidation of the Zionist Movement and the dissolution of the Jewish Democratic Committee, the religious communities (kehillot) were the only organized bodies left in Romanian Jewry. The legal foundations for
their activities were laid down even before other Jewish frameworks were destroyed. In 1945 the Regulations on Nationalities were passed and declared the formal equality of members
of all national minority groups before the law. Regulations of
the activities of the recognized religions, including Judaism,
were set down in the Aug. 4, 1948, order of the presidium of
the Grand National Assembly (which also served as the presidency of the state). The regulations of the Federation of Communities of the Mosaic Religion, which were approved by the
Assemblys presidium on June 1, 1949, were based upon this
order. Dr. Moshe Rosen became chief rabbi in 1948. He was
instrumental in organizing massive Jewish emigration from
Romania as well as in establishing a satisfactory community
life even within the Communist regime and the threat of fast
diminution of Jewish communities.
The Federations scope of activity was limited to the area
of religious worship alone. In the first years of the Communist regime and its complete dependence upon Moscow, Jewish Communists infiltrated into the Federation, but afterward
their participation in Jewish religious bodies decreased, although it did not cease altogether. The Federation of Communities was responsible for maintaining synagogues and
cemeteries and supplying religious objects, unleavened bread
for Passover, kosher food, and the like. It was not authorized
to deal in matters of Jewish education, however, although it
did have the right (according to a decision of the department
of religions on Nov. 13, 1948) to set up seminaries for training
rabbis, and for a few years it maintained a yeshivah in Arad
(Transylvania). According to the registration of 1960, there
were 153 communities throughout Romania that maintained
841 synagogues and battei midrash (56 of which were no longer in use), 67 ritual baths, 86 slaughterhouses, and one factory for unleavened bread (in Cluj). From 1956 the Federation also published a tri-language biweekly (in Romanian,
Yiddish, and Hebrew) entitled Revista Cultului Mozaic din
R.P.R. (Journal of (Romanian) Religious Jewry). From 1964
the chief rabbi Rosen officiated as the chairman of the Federation and was also a member of the National Assembly. Thus
the Federation became the general Jewish representative in the
country.
EDUCATION. With the renewal of Jewish life after the war,
Jewish education also began to operate again. In 1946 the total number of Jewish schools was 190 with 41,000 students.
In 1948 five yeshivot, 50 talmud torah schools, 10 Bet Jacob
schools, one elementary school of Tarbut, five dormitories
for students, 14 dormitories for apprentices, the agricultural
training institute (Cultura AgricolD), three vocational schools
in Bucharest, and three vocational schools in provincial cities
(Hus i, Sibiu, Radauti) were supported by the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee. A substantial number of educational institutions were maintained by the various Jewish
communities without outside support. The network of Jewish education was destroyed in the autumn of 1948, when all
schools in Romania were nationalized. At that time a small
number of schools in which the language of instruction was
Yiddish were established (in Bucharest and in Jassy) and remained open until the 1960/61 school year. After the nationalization Jewish education remained in the hands of melammedim, whose activities were tolerated by the authorities. In
1960 there were 54 talmud torah schools, in addition to the
yeshivah that was established in Arad in 1956. By the end of
the 1960s the number of educational institutions had very
considerably decreased.
CULTURE. At the beginning of the period under discussion,
the language of Jewish writers and poets, including those who
wrote about Jewish subjects, was Romanian. During the first
393
romania
years after World War II the Jewish press was fairly large. The
most important newspaper was Mntuirea, which began to
reappear after Romania joined the Allies and continued to be
published until the Zionist movement ceased to exist. In 1945
the press of the pro-Communist Jewish Democratic Committee began to appear, and its major newspaper was Unirea,
in Bucharest, which lasted until 1953. As long as Zionist activity was permitted, the Zionist publishing house Bikkurim and
the He-Halutz publishing house, as well as the Yavneh Company for the distribution of books on Jewish history and Hebrew literature, continued to operate. In Jewish contributions
to Romanian literature, art, and music, the influence of the
memories of the Jewish milieu was sometimes felt. The writers and poets A. Toma, Maria Banus, Veronica Porumbacu,
Barbu Lazareanu, and others belonged to this group. Among
the writers who wrote in Yiddish were Jacob Groper, Alfred
Margul Sperber, and Ludovic Brukstein. The most outstanding
Jewish artists were Josif Iser, M.H. Maxy, and Jules Perachim.
Well-known Jewish musicians were Matei Socor, Alfred Mendelsohn, and Max Eisikovits. The only Jewish cultural institution was the Jewish theater in Bucharest. It was established as
a state institution in 1948. The Jewish theater in Jassy, which
was established at the same time, closed down in 1968. During the 20 years of its existence, the theater produced 107 plays
including works by A. Goldfaden, Shalom Aleichem, Yiddish
playwrights, and others. In 1968 the Bucharest Jewish theater
performed on tour in Israel.
Contemporary Period
The official census published in June 1977 gave the Jewish
population as only 25,600; despite the fact that according to
the statistics given by the Federation of Jewish Communities,
which based itself on a registry of those in need of the communitys services, the number was approximately 45,000, and
its files did not include those Jews who had no connection
with the communities. If these Jews are included, it would
bring the total Jewish population to approximately 70,000.
The Jewish community of Romania is an aging one; 25.51
of all Jews in Romania belong to the age category 4160 and
46.2 to the age category 6080. The majority of the Jews of
Romania are professionals.
The institutions of the community, both local and central,
have continued to function. The Federation of Jewish Communities, on which all the communities throughout Romania
are represented, was recognized by the authorities and headed
by Chief Rabbi Dr. Moshe Rosen who was a member of the
Romanian Parliament.
Romania continued to be until the late 1980s the only
country within the Soviet sphere of influence whose Jewish community maintained contact with international Jewish organizations and with communities outside Romania;
close ties existed with the World Jewish Congress, the Joint
Distribution Committee and others, as well as with Jewish
communities throughout the world. Representatives of Romanian Jewry participated in the conference of the European branch of the World Jewish Congress which took place
in Madrid (Dec. 46, 1976), and a delegation of the Federation of Communities, headed by Rabbi Rosen, participated
in the Synagogue Federation Conference held in Jerusalem in
February 1978. The Jewish State Theater in Bucharest continued to produce plays in Yiddish despite the dwindling of the
potential audience. Several books in Yiddish have also been
published.
In an earthquake which struck Bucharest on May 4,
1977, the Choral Temple and Malbim synagogue were damaged. During his official visit to Romania on Aug. 1, 1977 (see
394
romania
below), Prime Minister Menahem Begin participated in the
Sabbath services in the Choral Temple and addressed the
large congregation.
RELIGION AND CULTURE. Synagogues throughout the country (about 150) continued to function. In addition to the chief
rabbi, there were two other rabbis, Rabbi Yitzhak Meir Marilus in Bucharest and Dr. Ernest Neumann in Timisoara. Kosher meat was provided by ritual slaughterers who visited the
various communities weekly.
In the latter part of December 1977 the Museum for the
History of the Jews in Romania was opened in Bucharest,
along with a center for documentation and research. In the
same year the centenary of the founding of the Jewish theater
in Romania was celebrated by a gala performance at which
Tevye der Milchiger by Shalom Aleichem, The Dybbuk by Anski, and Lessings Nathan the Wise were presented. A history
of the Yiddish theater in Romania by Israil Bercovici was published in Yiddish and in Romanian (1976, 1981).
In September 1981 Romania was the site of the convention of the European Rabbinical Conference, the first time a
major Jewish gathering had been held in an East European
country since World War II. The chief rabbis of England,
France, Italy, and Holland were among the participants. The
25t anniversary of the publication of Revista Cultului Mozaic
was celebrated in September 1981. The state publishing house
has published a bibliographical work on the Jewish press in
Romania, Yiddishe Presse in Rumenye by Wolf Vladimir Tamburu. An annual in Yiddish, Bukarester Shriftn, including Yiddish literature and studies on the history of Romanian Jews,
was published between 1978 and 1988.
Research in the history of the Jews of Romania has been
undertaken by a group of Jewish historians. Their activities
center on the Federation of Communities biweekly and deal
especially with the role of the Jews in Romanian history. They
also conduct research in municipal archives and the Jewish
archives of the Federation. Several significant historical papers and collections of documents were published, edited by
experienced historians (Itzik var-Kara, Lya Benjamin, Victor Eskenasy).
Post-Communist Period
The central development in Romanian life and especially
in the life of the ever-dwindling Jewish community was the
overthrow of the Communist regime and the attempts at introducing democracy into the country along Western lines.
The change of rule did not bring in its wake any real changes
in the life of the few Jews left in the country. Until his death
in May 1994, the dominating figure in Jewish life continued to
be Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen. The remnants of the Romanian
Jewish community welcomed the overthrow of Ceausescu and
the community journal published a special issue expressing
joy at the change.
In the new spirit of freedom Rabbi Rosen was the object of personal attacks by antisemitic groups, which accused
him of close cooperation with the communist regime. Two
antisemitic newspapers waged this campaign, which the chief
rabbi saw as an attack on the entire community. Romania
Mare (Great Romania) and Europa, weeklies publishing
virulent antisemitic material, aimed their barbs personally at
Rabbi Rosen. In order to quash the harsh complaints about
active antisemitism, President Ion Iliescu invested effort, internally and externally, to placate Chief Rabbi Rosen. In 1993
he took the rabbi with him to the opening of the Holocaust
Museum in Washington, DC, and before that participated in
a memorial service for Holocaust victims held in the Bucharest Choral Synagogue, where Iliescu spoke and condemned
antisemitism.
Upon the immigration to Israel of Rabbi Pinhas Wasserman of Dorohoi (1989), the home for the aged and the kasher
restaurant there were closed. Otherwise, all the institutions,
restaurants, and homes for the aged were still in operation
10 restaurants and four homes (two in Bucharest, and two
smaller ones in Arad and Timisoara). Needy Jews receive
packages of food and clothing. All this activity is financed
395
romania
by the JDC, fighting a rearguard action to maintain the few
remaining Romanian Jews. The situation of the elderly has
worsened considerably as their pensions value has eroded to
nothing because of inflation, and without the Joints help they
would be starving.
Despite the declining number of Jews, the communities run smoothly and without assistance from the Federation, whose central place has been taken under the prevailing circumstances by the Joint. In addition to the Bucharest
community, there are organized communities in the Transylvania region, in Cluj, Oradea, Arad, Timisoara. and in eastern Romania in Piatre-Neamt, Botosani, Jassy, Braila, Galati,
Constanta, Ploesti, Brasov, Sighet, Satu-Mare, and a number
of small communities. 10 kasher canteens were still operated
by the communities and kasher meat was provided by three
ritual slaughterers.
Romania lost its special status regarding relations with
Israel, since it was no longer the only Eastern bloc country
to have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. Relations
continued to be normal and friendly, with efforts at increasing bilateral trade. From the late 1990s Jewish life throughout
Romania continued to revolve around the synagogues and
the kasher restaurants, operated by the Federation of Romanian Jewish Communities and funded by the Joint Distribution Committee.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel some
300,000 Romanian Jews have emigrated there. The more the
number of Jews in Romania shrinks, the more difficult it is to
obtain reliable current Jewish population figures. The Federation of Communities, whose numbers are used by the Joint,
estimate that there is a total of 15,000 Jews, 8,000 of whom
are in Bucharest, the capital. Timisoara (in Transylvania) and
Jassy each has a community of some 900 people; all the others are scattered among a Romanian populace of 22 million
people. The official 1992 government yearbook, citing statistical data from a kind of census, states that there are 9,000
Jews. It may be that not all Jews were counted or admitted
to being Jewish, particularly those in mixed marriages. Even
though the total number of Jews is small, emigration to Israel
continues.
The death of Rabbi Moses Rosen in May 1994 significantly affected the remaining Jews of Romania. The passing
at age 83 of the man who for over 40 years had served as chief
rabbi and head of the federation of Romanian Jewish communities signified the end of an era which included the collapse
of the Communist regime in the country.
The feeling of stagnation which followed the death of
the Rabbi Rosen prompted the representatives in Romania of
the AJDC, which essentially administers to Jewish life there,
to find a new chief rabbi quickly. Among the five candidates,
all from Israel, they chose in May 1995 the Romanian-born
professor Yehezkel Marek, a lecturer in literature at Bar-Ilan
University. After his return to Israel in 1999, Menahem Hacohen became chief rabbi.
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romanian literature
caust (on which date in 1941 the deportations to Transnistria
began).
[Naftali Kraus / Lucian-Zeev Herscovici and
Leon Volovici (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: S. Baron, The Jews in Roumania (1930); J.
Berkowitz, La Question des Isralites en Roumanie (1923); I. Cohen,
The Jews in Romania (1938); W. Filderman, Adevarul asupra problemei
evreesti din Romania (1925); M.A. Halevy, in: Anuarul evreilor din Romania (1937); A. Ruppin, Die Juden in Rumaenien (1908); E. Schwarzfeld, in: AJYB, 3 (1901/02), 2587; idem, in REJ, 13 (1886), 127ff.; idem,
Impopularea re-impopularea si intemeierea targurilor si targusoarelor in Moldova (1914); M. Schwarzfeld, Ochire asupra istoriei evreilor
in Romania (1887); idem, Momente din istoria evreilor in Romania
(1889); idem, Excursiuni critice asupra istoriei evreilor in Romania
(1888); idem, in: Annuar pentru Israelii, 10 (1887/88); 18 (1896); PK
Romanyah (1970), 141209, 219224 (first pagin.), introduction and
comprehensive bibl.; T. Lavi, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 4 (1960), 261315;
5 (1963), 40518; idem, Yahadut Romanyah be-Maavak al Hazzalatah
(1965); M. Carp, Cartea Neagra, 1 (1946); I. Hirschmann, Caution to
the Winds (1962). Add. Bibliography: E. Aczl, Publicaiile periodice evreieti din Romnia, vol. 1 (2004); J. Ancel, Toledot ha-Shoah:
Romanyah, 2 vols. (2002); L. Benjamin, Evreii din Romnia n texte
istoriografice (2002); I. Bercovici, Pirkei Romanyah (Tel Aviv, 1975);
S. Bickel, Yahadut Romanyah: Historyah, Bikkoret Sifrutit, Zikhronot
(Tel Aviv, 1978); N. Cajal and H. Kuller (eds.), Contribuia evreilor din
Romnia la cultur i civilizaie (1996); W. Filderman, Memoirs and
Diaries, ed. J. Ancel (2004/05); C. Iancu, Jews in Romania, 18661919
(1996); idem, Les juifs en Roumanie, 19191938 (1996); E. Mendelsohn,
The Jews of East Central Europe between the World Wars (1983); A.
Stern, Din viaa unui evreu-romn, vols. 13 (2001); L. Rotman and R.
Vago (eds.), Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Romanyah, vols. 14 (19962003);
L. Volovici, Nationalist Ideology & Antisemitism: The Case of Romanian Intellectuals in the 1930s (1991).
ROMANIAN LITERATURE.
Biblical and Hebraic Influences
Unlike the languages of surrounding peoples and cultures in
the area, Romanian is of Latin or Romance origin, dating back
to Roman colonization of Dacia (present-day Romania and
Bessarabia). Although Romanias national movement could
not discard the dominant Orthodox Christianity, which was
a legacy of Slavic influence in the Balkans, Calvinism was a
significant religious factor in the 16t century (as also in neighboring Hungary and the disputed territory of Transylvania),
and this had interesting literary repercussions. Under the impact of the Hussite movement and the Reformation, attempts
were made to replace Church Slavonic (see *Bulgarian Literature) with services in the vernacular and to translate the
Bible into Romanian. Thus some of the earliest extant texts
in Romanian are of a religious character. They include two
versions of the Psalter: Psaltirea Scheiana (1482) and Psaltirea
Voroneeana (1580), so named after the monasteries in which
the manuscripts were discovered.
Early Writings
Of all the books of the Bible the Psalms were especially favored
and inspired numerous translations. The first extant Romanian
Later Influences
Modern Romanian literature came into existence toward the
middle of the 19t century, in the era of Romanian national resurgence. Ion Eliade Radulescu (18021872), one of the first
great literary figures in modern Romania, published a version
of the Bible, translated *Byrons Hebrew Melodies (in 1834), and
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romanian literature
Tassos Jerusalem Delivered (in 1847). He also wrote many religious, philosophical, and political commentaries on biblical
texts (Biblice, 1858). Following his example, other writers also
turned to the Bible. They include G.G. Filipescu, who published
a novel about the *Wandering Jew (1835); J.A. Vaillant, a French
professor who settled in Romania, author of Legenda lui Aman
i Mardoheu (The Legend of Haman and Mordecai, 1868); and
G. Grbea, who wrote a dramatic poem about Job (1898). Job
also inspired Nicolae Davidescu (18881954) to produce a verse
play (1915), his other works including the poem Judeea (1927).
Alexandru Macedonski (18541920) and Cincinat Pavelescu
(18721934) collaborated in the tragedy Saul (1893), based on
the Hebrew kings dramatic conflict with the prophet Samuel.
Other works of note on biblical themes are Eliezer (1908), a
biblical one-act play by Eugen Lovinescu (18811943), and reworkings of the Song of Songs by Corneliu Moldovanu (1908)
and Marcel Romanescu (1925). The evocation of Divine majesty in the numerous psalms of Tudor Arghezi (18801967)
elevated Romanian poetry to new artistic heights. The poems
of George Calinescu (18991965) abound in references to biblical characters and incidents, as well as to the landscape and
flora of Canaan, which he described in many poems of great
artistry. Another eminent writer, Gala Galaction, was steeped
in the Bible, which inspired his mystical prose and several biblical novels, including Roxana (1930).
Romanian-Jewish writers did not particularly distinguish themselves in the field of biblical literature. The Zionist
poet Enric *Furtuna (18811965) wrote the dramatic poem
Abiag (1963) and other biblical verse, while Camil *Baltazar
(19021977) published Biblice (Poems from the Bible, 1926),
a collection notable for its sensual treatment of figures such as
Ruth, Tamar, Esther, and the Shulammite. Two poets inspired
by the Songs of Song were Marcel Breslau (19031966),
whose Cntarea Cntarilor (1938) was staged as an oratorio,
and Maria *Banu.
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romanian literature
OBJECTIVE ATTITUDES. Literary societies did not, however,
adopt antisemitism as a policy. Although Semanatorul, the
review of Nicolae Iorga, received contributions from many
antisemites, it remained impartial. So did Viata Romneasca,
which reflected the popular-democratic views of writers such
as Constantin Stere (18651936), Mihail Sadoveanu (1880
1961), and G. Ibraileanu (18611936). Political issues were
also excluded from Flacara, Convorbiri literare, Viaa Nova,
and Sburatorul Literar, which were only concerned with aesthetic problems.
Among Romanian writers who showed understanding
for the Jews position were the democratic historian Nicolae
Blcescu (18191852), Alexandru Odobescu (18341895), and
the revolutionary hero Aleco Russo (18191859), who wrote
in his Cugetari (Reflections, 1856) that it is not wise to
oppress the Children of Israel. Junimea, the literary society
that created the New Direction in modern Romanian literature, did not espouse antisemitism, although most of its
members toed the anti-Jewish line. This was due to the firm
control of the founder, Titu Liviu Maiorescu (18401917),
a conservative prime minister and Romanias first great literary critic. He was supported by Petre P. Carp (18371918), a
translator of Shakespeare, who admired Jewish talent.
Ion Luca Caragiale (18521912), who scorned antisemitism
as a bestial aberration, was the first great Romanian writer
to present a Jews state of mind in a work of literary importance. His masterly short novel, O faclie de Pati (An Easter
Candle, 1889), is a psychological study of a Jewish innkeeper,
Leiba Zibal, terrorized by his would-be murderer one Easter night.
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romanian literature
ordeals and spiritual torment. Although its hero is unable to
accept either Zionism or Communism, the book contains
some excellent description of pre-World War II Jewish life in
Romania. A rare instance of Jewish self-hatred was the novelist
Ury Benador (18951971), whose Marxist convictions led him
to portray Romanian Jewry, in works written after the Holocaust, in a generally hostile manner. On the other hand, Iulia
Soare, a writer of the postwar generation, produced an objective study of a middle-class Jewish family during the second
decade of the 20t century.
Jewish Contribution to Romanian Literature
In so culturally backward a land as Romania, Jews naturally
played an important literary role from the late 19t century,
despite the prejudices and restrictions that operated against
them. In philology, folklore, and bibliography they were acknowledged pioneers, and many Romanian Jews who later
gained distinction as poets, playwrights, and novelists, began their career in journalism. By common admission, Romanian philology was largely the creation of Jewish scholars. Heinrich *Tiktin and Lazar *Saineanu (L. Sainan) were
experts of international renown, the former producing the
first and to date the most scientific Romanian grammar,
the latter publishing the first comprehensive dictionary of the
Romanian language. Denied Romanian citizenship, Tiktin
moved to Berlin and Sainanu to Paris, both men broadening
their work to include general philological research. I.A. Candrea Hecht (18721950) was also a lexicographer of the first
rank. In folklore two outstanding figures were Moses Gaster
and Moses *Schwarzfeld. Gasters many learned works include the pioneering Literatura populara romna (1883) and
Chrestomaia romna (1891). A staunch Jewish nationalist,
he antagonized the Romanian government with his protests
against antisemitism and in 1885 was expelled and settled in
England. E. Schwarzfeld, an eminent historian of Romanian
Jewry, was also expelled and settled in Paris. Two other great
philologists and linguists were A. Grauer (Brauer; 1900?)
and J. Byck (18971964).
nian Jewry, was driven off the stage of the Romanian National
Theater by antisemitic nationalist demonstrators. During the
years preceding World War I, when Titu Maiorescus aesthetic
theories were dominant, Constantin *Gherea-Dobrogeanu, a
literary critic and Socialist writer, introduced his own social
and materialist conception of art, inaugurating a new school
of scientific criticism. The same period saw the emergence
of other Jewish literary scholars and critics, notably Ion Trivale, whose brilliant career was cut short by World War I, and
Henric Sanielevici, one of Romanias most erudite and incisive polemical critics.
LITERARY PIONEERS. Curiously enough, the first significant Jewish contribution to Romanian literature was made
by a semiliterate peddler, Mose *Cilibi (Ephraim Moses b.
Sender), whose annual books of folk wisdom, dictated to the
printer, enjoyed an extraordinary success from 1858 until his
death. Although objective critics stressed the important role of
emerging Jewish writers as apostles of avant-garde ideas and
techniques, those less sympathetic to Jewish literary aspirations could always find fault with their work. Some claimed
that the Jews dealt with Romanian national themes that they
could not possibly appreciate, while others maintained that
they unjustifiably neglected specifically Jewish questions.
While it is undeniable that many Romanian-Jewish writers
showed greater concern for Romanian than for Jewish issues,
it is worth recalling that Roman-Ronettis dramatic masterpiece, Manasse, which did investigate the problems of Roma-
POETS. Among creative writers, Barbu *Nemeanu introduced a Heinesque note into the poetry of his time, while
D. Iacobescu ushered in French symbolism. The few poems
printed at that time by Tristan *Tzara and his review, Simbolul,
already foreshadowed the future rebel and creator of Dadaism; while the verse of Felix *Aderca proclaimed the poetic innovator, though not the great novelist that he was to become
between the two world wars. Another remarkable poet of the
time was Eugen *Relgis who later inaugurated the intellectual
current of humanitarianism in Romania. Other leading poets
were Leon Feraru, Enric Furtuna, A. Toma, and the versatile
Samson Lazar, who settled in Israel. Jewish suffering especially
preoccupied two other poets, Avram Axelrad and Adolf Rodion Steuerman.
Immediately after World War I, the economic prosperity which followed Romanias annexation of Transylvania,
Bukovina, and Bessarabia was accompanied by an unusual
literary boom. The euphoria of a hard-won emancipation
also contributed to the increasing activity of Jewish writers.
Benjamin *Fondane, known in his earlier Romanian years
as Beniamin (Wechsler) Fundoianu, wrote poems about the
countryside, but his works were suffused with Jewish inspiration. Even after his emigration to France in 1923, Fondane occasionally published Romanian verse. The collection
Priveliti (Landscapes), one section of which describes life
in the Moldavian shtetl, was published in 1930. The new lyrical
themes and imagery introduced by Camil Baltazar during the
1920s led him to be acknowledged as one of the most gifted
poets of his time. He was closely followed by Ilarie *Voronca,
whose review, 75 HP, inaugurated the new integralist trend in
1924. Another avant-garde poet was Saa *Pana (19021981);
his highly nonconformist verse appeared in the review Unu,
whose guiding spirit he was during the years 192832. Marcel
Breslau wrote biblical poetry, while Maria Banu with her
verse collection Tara fetelor (The Maidens Land, 1937) revealed herself to be Romanias outstanding poetess. By contrast, a forerunner of the absurd in poetry was Alexandru Robot (Alter Rotman, 19161943). Classical verse was published
during the 1920s and 1930s by Andrei Tudor (19071959), and
by Virgiliu Monda and Emil *Dorian, both of whom became
better known as novelists, as well as by Leon Feraru and Alexandru Dominic, whose poem Israel (1920) was hailed by
the critics as a masterpiece.
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romanian literature
PLAYWRIGHTS AND NOVELISTS. Writers of the period between the world wars include the playwrights B. Luca and
Adrian Verea, who also published verse. Isaia Raca ciuni
(1900?) wrote social novels such as Ml (Swamp, 1934)
and Dai-ni-l napoi pe Isus (Give Us Back Jesus, 1936) and
Paradis uitat (Forgotten Paradise, 1937), as did Sergiu *Dan
and Cella Serghi. Mihail Sebastian, one of the most prolific
and versatile prose writers in Romania, wrote essays, criticism,
novels, and plays. His drama Steaua fara nume (The Nameless
Star, 1943) was the only work by a Jew staged (albeit under
an assumed name) during the era of Nazi persecution. With
his novels and poems Marcel *Blecher was a pioneer of surrealism and existentialism, while Ion Calugaru and Isac Peltz
portrayed Jewish life in Romanias towns and villages. Abraham Leib *Zissu, a leading Zionist, wrote novels and sketches
exclusively on Jewish themes.
THE NAZI ERA AND ITS AFTERMATH. Although Jewish
writers in Romania suffered less from the Nazi Final Solution than Jews in most other lands under Hitlers domination, their works were suppressed and they had to spend the
war years (194144) in hiding or anonymous seclusion. The
restrictive atmosphere so prevalent in the country already led
many Jewish writers to emigrate after World War I and a remarkable number of talented Jewish writers made their way
to France, notably Benjamin Fondane, Isidore Isou (1925 ),
Adolphe Orna (18821925), Claude Sernet (19021968), Tristan
Tzara, and Ilarie Voronca. Fondane, who was murdered in the
Birkenau death camp, was the most consciously Jewish among
them. Two other Romanian-Jewish writers who emigrated to
France were the talented novelist Sorana *Gurian and the critic
Aureliu Weiss. Enric Furtuna ended his life in Brazil and Eugen Relgis settled in Montevideo in 1947. Three who moved
to Israel were Samson Lazar, A.L. Zissu, and the poet Mayer
*Rudich (1913 ), who resumed his literary and journalistic
career in Tel Aviv in 1959.
Several Jewish writers who had risen to eminence before World War II, including Baltazar, Ludo, and Peltz, dutifully conformed to the requirements of Romanias postwar
Communist regime. Ludos attacks on the former royal family
and the hostile accounts of the Jewish bourgeoisie published
by Ury Benador were devoid of literary value. On the other
hand, Maria Banu and Marcel Breslau, though faithful to the
party line, maintained a higher ethical and artistic standard
in their works, as did Samuel Gregore with his fantastic novel
Dincolo (Beyond, 1944). The new writers of the post-World
War II era did not, in general, pay much attention to Jewish
questions. Many adopted Romanian names, obscuring their
Jewish origin. As authors and critics, they made an important
contribution to the development of neo-realistic literature.
Among the literary historians and critics who held leading
posts on the editorial boards of various reviews were Vera
Clin, Paul (Cohn) Cornea (1924 ), Ovid Crohmlniceanu,
Samuil (Druckman) Damian (1930 ), B. (Bernstein) Elvin
(1927 ), Silvian Iosifescu, Mihail Petroveanu (1923 ), Lucian
401
romanin, Samuele
Transnistrian camps. Matei Galls novel Masacrul (1957) described the murder of a group of Jewish communists by an SS
unit and Arnold Daganis diary of the deportation, Groapa este
n livada de viini (1947), was one of the most impressive accounts of its type. Another survivor, Oliver Lustig, wrote two
novels on his experiences in Auschwitz, while Maria Arsene
(Arthur Leibowici, 19091975) published various works about
the Nazi terror in Romania, including the novels Hotel Ambasador (1967) and Los (1968). Other works on the Holocaust
were written by Cella Serghi, G.T. Maiorescu, and Alexandru
Jar (19121988), whose novel, Tradarea lunii (The Moons
Treason, 1968), is set in Nazi-occupied Vilna. Finally, poems
on Jewish suffering at the hands of the Nazis were written by
Camil Baltazar, Maria Banu, Saa Pana, Veronica Porumbacu,
and Mayer Rudich.
Consciously or unconsciously, Jewish writers in Romania revealed their spiritual heritage in such characteristics
as their interest in research, their spirit of innovation, their
predilection for philosophical reflection, and their ability to
grasp the torments of the human soul. Even their inclination
toward social revolt has its ethical roots in the Bible. Although
they may have drifted far from religious tradition, only a very
few Romanian-Jewish writers advocated total assimilation.
Most of the non-Zionists merely submerged themselves in
the themes and ideals of their era without renouncing their
ties with the Jewish people. This is also true of the more recent
writers whose lack of specifically Jewish appeal is attributable
to the limitations imposed by Romanias Marxist theoreticians
rather than to their own free choice and mode of expression. It
is significant that, after 1967, Romanias friendly relations with
Israel unique among communist states of Eastern Europe
brought about an upsurge of Jewish consciousness among the
countrys younger writers.
Bibliography: M. Gaster, Ilchester Lectures on Greco-Slavonic Literature (1887); M. Schwarzfeld, in: Anuar pentru Israelii
5652 (1891); O. Densusianu, Studii de filologie romna: Psaltirea
Voroneeana (1898); idem, Literatura romna moderna, 2 vols. (1929);
G. Panu, Amintiri de la Junimea din lasi (1908); E. Lovinescu, Istoria civilizaiei romne moderne (1924); idem, Istoria literaturii romne
contemporane (1927); L. Feraru, Development of Romanian Poetry
(1929); G. Calinescu, Istoria literaturii romne (1941); D. Murarasu,
Nationalismul lui Eminescu (1955); Perpessicius, Mentiuni de istoriografie literara si folclor (1957); E. Turdeanu, in: Revue des Etudes Roumaines (1960), nos. 57.
[Dora Litani-Littman]
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roman literature
(1939), passim; idem, Romania (1949), passim; A. Galant, Les Juifs
de Constantinople sous Byzance (1940), 5558; idem, Histoire des Juifs
dIstanbul, 2 (1942), 1716; S. Marcus, The Judeo-Spanish Language
(1965), 1447.
[Simon Marcus]
ROMAN LITERATURE. Although there is information concerning the Jews in Rome as early as 139 B.C.E., the first Latin
writers to mention the Jews or Judaism in their writings are
*Cicero and Varro, who lived at the end of the republic. It is
significant that Cicero does not mention the Jews or Judaism
in his philosophical works, but only in his orations in his
speech in defense of Flaccus (Pro Flacco) of 59 B.C.E., and in
his De Provinciis Consularibus of 56 B.C.E. in both instances
his remarks are derogatory. The Jewish religion he defines as a
superstitio, and the Jews themselves are described as a people
born to slavery, but there is no need to draw far-reaching conclusions from his polemical thrusts since they arose from the
fact that the Jews were to be found in the opposite camp from
the one Cicero was representing. In similar situations, other
nations received no more sympathetic treatment at the hands
of the great orator. The stereotyped antisemitic complaints of
the Hellenistic period are, at any rate, not mentioned by him.
In contrast to Cicero, Varro, the foremost scholar in the period of the late republic, treats the Jewish way of life with respect. He praises Jewish religious worship which opposed all
pictorial and plastic representation, and compares it with the
early Roman practice which similarly rejected them in their
worship of the gods.
The growth of the Jewish population in Rome in the
time of Augustus is reflected in the mainstream of contemporary Roman literature. The poet Tibullus alludes to the
Jewish Sabbath; Horace refers to the missionary fervor of
the Jews and to their gullibility; the historian Livy speaks
of the Temple of the Jews in Jerusalem and stresses that the
worship therein is unique in that it contains no representation or any idol whatsoever of the godhead. Ovid was familiar with the Jewish Sabbath, and Augustus himself mentions it in a letter to Tiberius, although like many of the
Greeks and Romans of those days he was under the impression that it was customary for the Jews to fast on the
Sabbath.
The longest description of Judaism extant from the writers of the age of Augustus is that found in the epitome of
*Pompeius Trogus Universal History. He relates the history of the Jews, the origin of their religion and their commonwealth, as well as a description of the physical properties
of their land, in his description of the Seleucid Empire. He
deals with the origin of the nation at length, but only cursorily with its later history. The treaty between Judea and
Rome (161 B.C.E.) is considered to have been a decisive step
toward the achievement of independence from the Seleucid yoke on the part of the Jews. His description of the beginnings of the Jewish people is a potpourri of information gleaned from the Bible, from a Damascene source, and
from the well-known Greco-Egyptian tradition concerning
403
404
roman-ronetti, mose
ROMANO, MARCO (18721942), Bulgarian Zionist leader
and lawyer. Born in Plovdiv (Philippopolis), he participated
in the first Zionist convention in Plovdiv (1898) and contested the *Alliance Isralite Universelle concerning the Jewish national character of schools. The controversy resulted in
the dismissal of teachers and their replacement by Hebrew
teachers. Romano was the representative of Bulgarias Jews at
the Zionist Congresses, even when he lived in Italy. He established and edited the official Zionist weekly in Bulgaria, Shofar, which existed intermittently until 1940. In 1927 and 1938,
Romano wrote several essays on the political problems of
Zionism, Arab-Jewish relations, and the Mandatory government in Palestine (in French). He settled in Palestine in 1937.
Bibliography: A. Romano et al., Yahadut Bulgaryah (1967),
613 and index.
[Getzel Kressel]
ROMANOS MELODOS (first half of sixth century), hymnographer and composer. Romanos was born of a Jewish
family in Emesa (the present Homs), Syria. It is not known
whether his parents had already converted to Christianity or
whether he did so himself in youth. He became a deacon at
Berytus (Beirut) and during the reign of Anastasius I (491518)
went to Constantinople, where he joined the clergy of the Theotokos church. According to legend, he was inspired by a vision of Mary to write, and immediately sing, the work which
became his most famous one the First Kontakion on the
Nativity, thus also creating the poetical-musical form which
was to remain the foremost vehicle of Byzantine liturgical po-
ROMANRONETTI, MOSE (originally Aharon Blumenfeld; 18471908), Romanian author. Born in Oziran, East Galicia, Roman-Ronetti emigrated to Romania in 1867 (using the
identity papers of a dead Romanian peasant named Roman).
He earned his living by teaching Hebrew and Jewish studies,
but in 1869 some friends helped him to get to Germany, where
he was given a scholarship by the Alliance Isralite *Universelle. He studied a variety of subjects, including medicine and
philology, before returning to Bucharest in 1874. For a time he
was a schoolteacher and then became a translator at the foreign ministry, but in 1882 he left the city and became a farmer.
During the peasants revolt of 1907, he fled with his family to
Jassy, where he learned that the peasants had burned his home
and destroyed all his property. He never recovered from the
shock. Roman-Ronetti had already begun publishing articles
on Judaism and Talmud in Hebrew periodicals before he left
Oziran, and he continued to contribute to such periodicals as
Ivri Anokhi (Brody, Ukraine) and Ha-Maggid (Lyck, Poland),
signing himself Moshe Roman.
His first published work in Romanian was a poem, Russia, which appeared in the newspaper Reforma in 1877. In the
same year he put out a pamphlet, Domnul Kanitverstan (Mr.
Kanitverstan), attacking the notorious antisemitic writer V.A.
Ureche, in whose school he had been a teacher. In 1898 he attacked the antisemitic policy of the government in the widely
read newspaper Adevarul. Discussing Jewish survival, he opposed official Romanian policy toward the Jews who, in his
opinion, were entitled to a national life of their own. These
essays were later collected in Doua masuri (Two Measures,
1898). Roman-Ronettis most important work was the play
Manasse (1900), which had a dual theme: the conflict between
three generations of Jews and the antagonism between gentiles
405
[Cvi Rotem]
romanus i lecapenus
and Jews. Performed before the Romanian royal family, the
play had a warm reception by leading critics, but it provoked
serious unrest among antisemitic students, who were opposed
to its production at the Bucharest National Theater. Manasse
was translated into several languages, including Hebrew and
Yiddish, and was staged in many countries. The English version is entitled New Lamps for Old (1913).
Bibliography: E. Lovinescu, Istoria Literaturii Romne Contemporane, 1 (1926), 6070; G. Calinescu, Istoria Literaturii Romne
(1941), 4889; Sadoveanu, in: Foi de Toamna (1916); JC (Jan. 28, 1910);
Jaffe, in: Meassef, 56 (1965/66), 44559.
[Dora Litani-Littman]
406
rome
in Judea against the Hasmonean state (Philo, Legatio 23:155).
Aristobulos II, who precipitated the war against Pompey, embellished the Roman warlords triumph (Plutarch, Life of Pompey XLV). When L.V. Flaccus, propraetor of the Province of
Asia in 62 B.C.E., was accused of the embezzlement of funds,
which included the half-shekel sent by the Jews of Asia to the
Temple of Jerusalem, Cicero took his defense. In the oration
(Pro Flacco 6768), Cicero mentions that Jews sent gold also
from Italy to Jerusalem and also notes the aggressiveness of
the Jewish mobs at political gathering. It is probable that by
then there existed an organized Jewish community in Rome,
which included Jews who had arrived before 63 B.C.E. and of
course the Jewish prisoners of Pompey who had been freed.
The legal status of the Jews living in Late Republican Rome
thus varies from that of citizens, liberti (freed slaves possessing Roman citizenship), peregrines or foreigners, and of course
slaves. The community was organized as a collegium, with a
special status. Moreover this community regularly sent the
half-shekel tax to the Temple in Jerusalem, like all the other
organized Jewish communities in the Diaspora. Last but not
least, it is possible that some of the Jews living in Rome took
the side of the populares, at least according to Cicero. It seems
that Romes Jews supported Julius Caesar. This is quite possible, as the latter restored in part the glories of the Hasmonean
state tarnished by Pompey. In addition, Caesar exempted the
Jewish synagogues from the laws he enacted to curb the power
of the Roman collegia. It is no surprise then that according to
Suetonius (Julius Caesar LXXXIV), Jews as a group mourned
at Caesars funeral in the middle of the Roman Forum.
The Early Empire
Only with Augustus is there clear-cut evidence of an organized
Jewish community in Rome. By then Judea was firmly under
the rule of King Herod, a staunch ally of Rome. Thus Augustus
recognized the Jewish community as a collegium licitum, with
privileges. Jews could send to Jerusalem both the half-shekel
and the first fruits. The Roman state assisted poor Jews with
the annona (free distribution of money or grain). If the distribution was made on the Sabbath, Jews were entitled to get
the money or grain the next day (Philo, Legatio 15658). Most
of the Jews lived in an area across the Tiber, the Transtiberinum. At least three synagogues can be dated to the Augustan
period, the congregations of the Augustienses, of the Agrippienses, and of the Herodians. Jews were quite conspicuous in
Augustan Rome. The proselytizing activity of the Jews aroused
the interest of the poet Horace (Saturae I, 4:14043).
Under the rule of the Julio-Claudians (14 C.E.68 C.E.) a
number of incidents connected with the Jewish community in
Rome are worthy of mention. Thus, under Tiberius, it seems
that Sejanus, the praefectus praetorius tried to expel the Jews
from Rome. The occasion arose when a Roman matrona, Fulvia, wife of the senator Saturninus (Jos., Ant. 18:8184) was
victimized by four Jews. Consequently Tiberius ordered the
banishment of the Jews from Rome in 19 C.E., and around
4,000, were to be sent to Sardinia to fight against the bandits
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
407
rome
the legal situation of the Jews living in Rome. On the contrary
he appears in a positive light as the protagonist of various Midrashim. Hadrian, Trajans successor, enacted around 131 C.E.
a law banning circumcision. Although there is no other data,
it is probable that this law also affected the Jewish community
living in Rome. During the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian the
Roman poet Juvenal was active. His saturae reflects the prejudices of the Romans towards the Jews. Thus once again Juvenal gives a picture of Jewish beggars camping near the Egeria
grove (3:1216), asking for alms near synagogues (3:296), or
telling fortunes to passersby (6:54247). Juvenal also despises
the Roman proselytes who fear the Sabbath, represented as a
day of idleness (14:96106). However, Juvenals poetry does
not reflect any special anti-Jewish feeling. Like most Romans,
Juvenal despised foreigners. His invectives against other ethnic
groups coming from the provinces, like Egyptians and Orientals, are even stronger than those against Jews.
THE LATE EMPIRE. For Late Antiquity, classic texts are supplemented by epigraphic and archaeological evidence. Antoninus Pius, the first ruler of the Antonine dynasty, abolished
Hadrians ban on circumcision. However, he enacted harsh
decrees forbidding the Jews to proselytize. It seems that Marcus Aurelius and Commodus opened public offices to Jews.
According to Callistus, the future pope, he broke into a synagogue to disrupt the Sabbath service. The Roman authorities reacted swiftly, and Callistus was sentenced by the praetor to forced labor in the mines of Sardinia. Under Septimius
Severus and his dynasty the government attitude towards the
Jews continued to be positive. Thus Septimius Severus renewed Marcus Aurelius decree to allow Jews to be eligible
for public office, and he exempted them from such duties
as might interfere with their religious practice (Digesta 27,
1.15.6; 50, 2.3.3). However, Septimius Severus once more forbade Jewish proselytism (Spartianus, Severus 17:1). His son
Antoninus is remembered for his Constitutio Antoniniana,
which granted Roman citizenship to all the free inhabitants
of the Roman Empire, including Jews. The Jewish community
in Rome was probably affected, because Jews living in Rome
under the status of peregrine now became Roman citizens. According to Lampridius (Antoninus Heliogabalus 3:45), Heliogabalus wished to observe both Judaism and Christianity. Alexander Severus was known as the Syrian archisynagogus by
his enemies (Lampridius, Alexander Severus 28:7), stressing a
tie, true or imagined, with the Jews. Moreover he had a high
regard for both Judaism and Christianity. Romes Jews probably suffered from the anarchy and the economic situation of
the third century C.E. following Alexander Severus murder.
But that affected the other peoples of the Roman Empire as
well. In 284 Diocletian became emperor. His reorganization
of the Roman Empire did not affect the Jewish community of
Rome legally. However, with Constantine, who emerged as the
Roman emperor in the West in 313 C.E., the legal situation of
the Jews began to change for the worse.
In Late Antiquity there were various synagogues in
Rome. To the synagogues of the Augustienses, the Agrippienses, and the Herodians, new synagogues were added, such
as the synagogue of the Calcarensians, the Campensians,
Elaea, Hebrews, Secenians, Siburensians, Tripolitans, Vernaclensians, Volumnesians, and perhaps of Severus. Synagogue
membership thus united the congregations according to various criteria. Hence some congregations were created by clients or liberti of a Roman personality (like the synagogues of
the Augustienses, the Agrippienses, the Volumnesians, and
of Severus), other congregations were composed of members coming from the same place (like the synagogue of the
Tripolitans), and still others perhaps took their names from
the profession of most of the congregations members (like
the synagogue of the Calcarensians or lime burners) or from
its location in Rome (Campensis from the Campus Martius
quarter, Siburensians from the Subura quarter). Other synagogues names indicated a social group, such as the synagogue
of the Vernaclensians, or of Roman-born Jews. The synagogue
of the Hebrews probably took its name from the fact that its
members were Hebrew-speaking.
It is not certain that the Roman Jewish community had
a central body as did, for example, the Jewish community of
Alexandria. Most of the scholars do not believe they did. Each
synagogue was headed by an archisynagogus, assisted by archontes. It is possible that some congregations had a gerousia,
or council of elders. Then the gerousia was headed by the gerousiarches. The grammateus office was probably that of secretary of the congregation. The titles Pater Synagogae and Mater
Synagogae were honorary and these were given to some of the
members of the congregation.
The Roman Jewish community was on the whole Greekspeaking. Very few inscriptions are in Latin, or in Hebrew. The
names of Ancient Romes Jews reflect this situation. Most of
the names are characteristic Greek names used by Jews, such
as Alexander, Theodoros, Theodothos, and Zosimos. Latin
names are translations of Jewish names like Benedicta and
Vitalis as well as genuine Roman names like Aurelius and Julius. Sometimes double names are used. Few names are Jewish, like Isaac, Judas, or Sarah. The professions of the Roman
Jews are unknown for the more wealthy members. The more
humble were painters, actors, lime burners, and even a soldier,
a certain Rufinus. In all probably about 10,000 Jews lived in
Late Imperial Rome.
Epigraphy also throws light on the existence of spiritual
life in Ancient Rome. Thus through epitaphs some Teachers of the Law as well as Students of the Sages are known.
The Talmud indeed mentions a Jewish sage from Rome called
Josa Todros (probably *Theodosius). He introduced the minhag of including in the meal on Passover eve a roast lamb in
commemoration of the paschal lamb sacrificed in Jerusalem
(TJ, Pes. 7:1, TB, Ber. 19a). The sages grudgingly accepted the
practice.
Roman Jews used *catacombs to bury their dead. Six Jewish catacombs have been excavated around Rome. The Monteverde Catacombs situated between the ancient Via Aurelia
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In Talmudic Literature
The relationship between Rome and the Jews living in the
Land of Israel was often characterized by periods of strain
and war. Thus Pompeys campaigns in the East ended with the
conquest of the Hasmonean kingdom. The Roman administration of Judea between 6 C.E. and 66 C.E. was often characterized by cruel and corrupt officials. Moreover the Great Revolt
against the Romans (6674 C.E.), which ended in the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, and the Bar Kokhba War
(132135 C.E.), which ended in the destruction of almost all the
Jewish settlements in Judea, could only contribute to a totally
negative image of Rome. It is not surprising then that Rome
is referred to in rabbinic literature by various negative designations *Edom, Esau (see *Esau, In the Aggadah), *Amalek,
Seir, *Tyre; the guilty kingdom; the wanton government; the
fourth kingdom; and other epithets, mostly denigratory. It is
compared, among other things, to the pig and the eagle, both
impure animals (both animals appeared on the Vexilla (standards) of the Roman legions based in the Land of Israel).
The first sages, however, who lived between the destruc-
tion of the Temple and the Bar Kokhba War, were already divided in their attitude towards Rome. Scholars like *Zechariah
b. Avkilus and activists like Akiva as well as R. *Simeon bar
Yoh ai took a totally negative view. The attitude of the moderates found expression in *Joh anan b. Zakkais dictum not
to be hasty to demolish the high places of gentiles lest they
be rebuilt by your hands (Tanh . ed. Hoffman, p. 58; ARN2
31, 66).
While in the time of the tannaim, in the second century,
a time of prosperity for the Roman Empire, there were those
who argued: The government takes in abundance and gives
in abundance (Sif. Deut. 354), in the period of the amoraim,
in the third and fourth centuries, a time of distress for the
Roman Empire, they came to deride the hypocrisy of Rome
which robs and puts on an appearance of innocence and compassion to the poor (Ex. R. 31:11; Tanh . Mishpatim 14; P d RK
95b; Mid. Ps. to 10:6). They were well aware in former times
of the extortion practiced by provincial government officials
(ARN11 11, 46, 47).
The rabbis were aware of the great wealth of Rome (ARN1
28, p. 85; Git. 58a) but also of its arrogance and pride (Sif. Num.
131). They said that the Romans claim that they were brothers
to Israel was mere hypocrisy (Pes. 118b).
The Roman emperor, the ruler of the empire, has a place
apart in talmudic literature. Many Roman emperors are mentioned, such as *Nero, *Vespasian, *Titus, *Trajan, *Hadrian,
*Antoninus, Septimius *Severus, and *Diocletian. Though
many of the statements about them are legendary, it is not always so (cf. the story that Trajans wife gave birth to a son on
the Ninth of Av TJ, Suk. 5:1, 55b with the statement that
his daughter was born on the day the Temple was destroyed
Suetonius, Titus, 5). It is interesting that most emperors, with
the obvious exception of Titus and Hadrian, are depicted often in a neutral and even positive way.
It is important to stress that most of the sages lived in
a period of quite friendly relations between Rome and the
Jews living in the Land of Israel, mainly Galilee, symbolized
by the relationship between *Judah ha-Nasi and the legendary Antoniunus. Thus, beginning with the end of the second
century C.E., the sages began to enjoin not to anticipate the
end of days, which is concealed (Sanh. 97b; DE, ed. Higger, p. 313); they also said that there was an oath extracted
from the Jews not to rebel against the government and that
one must even honor the government (Mekh. Pish a 13). There
were also scholars who actively called for prayers for the welfare of Rome, since but for the fear of it, men would swallow
each other up alive (Avot 3:2; cf. Av. Zar. 4a). On the other
hand stringent criticism was also heard against the Pax Romana of this guilty kingdom, which is engaged in war the
whole time (Mekh. Be-Shallah 1 (89), Amalek 1 (181)) and
which levies recruits from every nation (P d RK, Ha-Kodesh
ha-Zeh, 78990). These criticisms were leveled against Rome
in general and not because of a specific problem between the
Roman government and the Jews. In a bold homily, either of
praise or of delicate ironic sarcasm, Simeon b. (Resh) Lakish
409
and the Via Portuense, the Catacombs of Vigna Cimarra, Vigna Rondanini, and Via Appia Pignatelli (although research
shows that it was used by non-Jews), all situated near the
Via Appia, the Labicana Catacombs situated near Via Labicana, and the Catacombs of Villa Torlonia situated near the
ancient Via Nomentina. These catacombs together contain
about 100,000 graves. Approximately 600 inscriptions have
been found in Greek, many more in Latin, and formulae in
Hebrew. The catacombs consist of a complex of subterranean
corridors and chambers with loculi and arcosolia. Some of the
catacombs (Vigna Rondanini and Villa Torlonia) are decorated with ceiling paintings combining pagan (Nike, peacocks,
dolphins) as well as Jewish symbols (menorah). The inscriptions are sometimes decorated with the menorah, the Torah
ark, the etrog and the lulav. Some sarcophagi have been found.
Again pagan iconography such as the Four Seasons and theater masks are blended with obviously Jewish menorot. Clay
lamps as well as glass objects decorated with Jewish symbols
have been excavated.
The Jews of ancient Rome lived in an environment that
even today could be characterized quite open and friendly.
Imperial law protected them, although with some limitations
(the ban on proselytism). Moreover, with the exception of the
fiscus Judaicus Jews were not discriminated against. Even in
times of tension, such as during the 6670 war, the imperial
government did not revoke any of their privileges. The local
population was never physically hostile (as for example in
Alexandria), even if sometimes the Jews were seen in a negative light, but only because some of them were foreigners or
poor and not because they were Jews. Romes Jews were thus
successful in assimilating many elements of the surrounding
Roman-Italic society, both in the organization of the community and in their material culture, but they still held clearly to
a separate cultural identity.
[Samuele Rocca (2nd ed.)]
rome
praises the government of the country, saying that it is very
good, better than the kingdom of heaven, because it exacts justice for men (Gen. R. 9:13). The criticism of the government
of Rome as inferior to that of heaven (cf. Ber. 28b) is probably
connected with the fact that from the close of the first century
C.E. *emperor worship became official in Rome. They stressed
that Israel was not subject to Rome but to the will of God. The
sages were divided on the question of the political status of
Rome. Some claimed that this nation has been enthroned by
Heaven (Av. Zar. 18a) and that one should submit to it even
at a time of religious persecution.
In everyday life, Rome as such was known to the Jews and
the rabbis living in the Land of Israel through its provincial
administration. Thus the Romans seen in the Land of Israel
were more often than not the governor and the various magistrates responsible for the application of Roman law, officials responsible for taxation, and of course the omnipresent Roman
soldiers. For example, Roman court procedure, including
methods of investigation, tortures, and punishments, are described at length in rabbinic literature, which also recognizes
that in general the Empire was indeed administered according to the law (with its defects) but that in times of persecution the protection of the law was completely removed (Mekh.
Shirata 7; cf. Sif. Deut. 24 and 323). Many descriptions have
been preserved of the deeds of tyrannical and cruel Roman
officials, who on behalf of the government confiscated Jewish lands after the destruction of the Temple and after the Bar
Kokhba Revolt (see, e.g., Kil. 7:6; BK 117a; Sif. Deut. 317; 357;
BM 101a; Lam. R. 5:4).
Roman taxation, mainly in the difficult third century,
is treated at length in talmudic literature. The sources speak
of the baleshet (inspectorate) and balashim (inspectors),
who came chiefly in connection with the payment of tolls and
taxes (see *Taxation), and of collectors and tax collectors, who
were suspected of misappropriating the property of the inhabitants (Tosef., Bez ah 2:6; Toh. 7:6; Tosef., Toh. 8:5). For this
reason most tannaim held it permissible to avoid payment of
tolls and even to swear falsely to the tax collectors (Ned. 3:4;
Tosef., Shevu. 2:14; TJ, Ned. 3:45, 38a; BK 113a); only on rare
occasions during a period of good relations with Rome, is the
reverse opinion heard (Pes. 112b). In a still later period the
halakhah was laid down, out of fear of harsh persecutions,
that he who cheats the tax is as though shedding blood
as if worshiping idols, acting immorally, and desecrating the
Sabbath (Sem. 2:9; cf. Lev. R. 33:6). Instructive descriptions
have also been preserved of the methods both of the tax collectors and of those who avoided the tax (see, e.g., Tosef., Kel.
1:1, BM 3:9, BM 7:12, 8:25), and special halakhic arrangements
were also made to facilitate the orderly collection of taxes (TJ,
Ket. 10:5, 34a, 13:2, 35d). Jewish publicans and inspectors who
cooperated with the government were regarded as guilty of
grave transgressions and were reckoned as robbers whose repentance was exceptionally difficult.
On the other hand there were different and conflicting
views with regard to Jews, including scholars, serving in the
410
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ruling class in the Land of Israel received Roman citizenship.
One of the symbols of this new status was the wearing of the
toga. The sages warns against assimilating to the Roman costume: that thou say not: since they wear the toga, I too will
wear it (Sif. Dent. 81 and cf. ibid. 234). It was also forbidden
to adopt the Roman tonsure, except for scholars who were in
contact with the government, and for the same reason (Sot.
49b), they were permitted to learn Greek and to look into a
mirror (TJ, Shab. 6:1, 7d).
The sages particularly warned against the excessive esteem in certain circles toward Roman law and culture: Perhaps you will say: They have statutes and we do not have statutes? there is yet place for the evil inclination to reflect and
say: Theirs are more suitable than ours! (Sifra to Ah arei
Mot 13:9).
In conclusion the sages were divided in their evaluation
of Rome and its activities. Judah said How becoming are the
deeds of these people: they built markets, they built bridges,
they built bathhouses; however, Simeon b. Yoh ai replied:
Whatever they built they merely did for themselves; they built
markets to settle harlots in, bath houses to delight themselves
in, bridges to take tolls (Shab. 33b; cf. the aggadah on Rome in
judgment before the Holy One in the time to come Av. Zar.
2b). In the opinion of Reuben b. Strobilus: the public buildings and baths and streets which this wicked kingdom makes,
were their intentions for the sake of heaven, they would have
been worthy to possess the world, but their sole intention is
for their own needs (Mid. Hag. to Gen. 44:24); and according
to Gamaliel: the kingdom feeds on four things tolls, baths,
theaters, and taxes (ARN1 28, 85).
Joshua b. Levi, who visited Rome, there saw pillars covered with tapestry so that in winter they should not contract
and in summer they should not split, but in the market he
saw a poor man wrapped in a single mat others say in half
an ass pack saddle (Gen. R. 33:1).
In the diversity of their views on Rome the rabbis are
no different from their contemporaries, as can be seen by
comparison with the evaluations of the Greeks, the Church
Fathers, and even the Romans themselves. The dialogues between the sages and eminent Romans preserved in rabbinic literature are instructive since these conversations have an actual
historical, political, social, or ideological background. It is immaterial whether they actually took place; what is important
is that the subjects of these conversations are not accidental
but characteristic of the time and of the speakers.
of them to the ground. The same took place later under Theodoric (493526) when, in consequence of the punishment
of some Christian slaves for the murder of their Jewish master, the Jews were attacked, their synagogue burned, and that
of the Samaritans confiscated. When Rome was captured by
the Vandals in 455, the Jerusalem Temple spoils preserved
as trophies in the Temple of Jupiter were carried off to Africa. Thereafter the city ceased to be regarded as capital of
the empire, and it lost greatly in importance, prosperity, and
population. There is no detailed information of the lot of the
Roman Jews at this period, but it must be imagined that they
suffered and declined economically with the rest of the inhabitants.
Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the
Christian bishop of Rome, the pope, became the dominant
force in the former imperial city and the immediate neighborhood, with moral authority recognized, to a greater or lesser
degree, over the whole of western Christendom. Hence, over
a period of some 1,400 years, the history of the Jews in Rome
is in great part the reflection of the papal policies toward the
Jews. However, down to the period of the Counter-Reformation in the 16t century, there was a tendency for the papal anti-Jewish pronouncements to be applied less strictly in
Rome than by zealous rulers and ecclesiastics abroad, while
on the other hand the papal protective policies were on the
whole followed more faithfully in Rome itself than elsewhere.
The keynote to papal policy was set by *Gregory I (the Great;
590604), who firmly proclaimed that while the Jews should
not be allowed to presume to more than was allowed them by
law, the minimal rights accorded them of maintaining their
synagogues and performing their religious rites should in no
circumstances be infringed. The Roman Jews (who apparently at this time were engaged in foreign trade extending to
the south of France) were in a position to approach the pope
on behalf of their brethren abroad in case of emergency and
to secure his intervention. His policies were presumably followed by succeeding popes.
411
rome
on in turn to France and Germany. This was the case, in particular, with the liturgical tradition (see *Liturgy) originally
called the Minhag Romi, later the Italian rite, which with the
expansion of Roman Jewry became widely established in Italy and in one or two places overseas and was the parent of
the Ashkenazi rite. The formulation of this is associated with
the name of R. *Menah em b. Solomon b. Isaac, author of the
popular Midrash Sekhel Tov.
Learning continued to flourish in Rome in the succeeding centuries, mainly being centered in the ancient Anau
(Anav) family, including Zedekiah b. Abraham *Anav (13t
century), author of the Shibbolei ha-Leket; his brother Benjamin b. Abraham *Anav, physician and talmudist, author
of the Massa Gei H izzayyon; Jehiel b. Jekuthiel *Anav author
of the Maalot ha-Middot; and several others. *Immanuel of
Rome (1260c. 1328) introduced the complexities of the Spanish tradition of Hebrew poetry to Italy, and was also a prolific writer of verse in Italian probably by no means the only
one.
In 1020 the Jews were said to have caused an earthquake
in Rome by mocking a crucifix, and a number were savagely
punished, but the details are vague and the story may be legendary. On the other hand, from 1130 to 1138 *Anacletus II,
a grandson of the converted Roman Jewish capitalist *Pierleoni, was able to maintain his authority for some time as antipope because of the support of the Roman populace. *Benjamin of Tudela, who spent some time in Rome c. 1159, found
there a community of about 200 whom he described as being of high status and paying no special taxes, some of them
being in the papal service; he singled out Jehiel, grandson of
the author of the Arukh, and mentioned, in addition, half a
dozen other scholars whom he considered outstanding. Since
Benjamin specifically mentioned that one of them lived in
Trastevere, it appears that the Jews now resided on both sides
of the river. A building still standing on the right bank of the
Tiber is believed to be one of the synagogues in use at this
period.
Papal Legislation
The anti-Jewish legislation of the Fourth *Lateran Council
(1215) inspired by Pope *Innocent III does not seem to have
been strictly enforced in the papal capital. Nevertheless, the
record of the community was checkered. There is some evidence that copies of the Talmud were burned here after its
condemnation in Paris in 1245 (see *Talmud, Burning of). In
1270 the cemetery was desecrated. The wearing of the Jewish
*badge was imposed in 1257 and the city statutes of 1360 ordered male Jews to wear a red tabard, and the women a red
petticoat. There was brutal horseplay against the Jews in the
carnival period, in the Circo Agonale and Monte Testaccio;
this abuse was ended in 1312 when the community agreed to
make an annual payment, thereby constituting an unfortunate precedent for special humiliatory taxation. In 1295 Pope
Boniface VIII set the example abusing the Jewish delegation
412
rome
*Lattes as that of *Leo X. Whereas elsewhere in Italy Jewish
loan-bankers were admitted only on a contractual basis, in
Rome the number was not limited. However, the majority of
the community consisted of craftsmen. A professional census
taken in 1527 reveals that 44 Jewish householders out of the 104
whose callings were indicated engaged in various branches of
the clothing industry. In 1541 the Jewish and non-Jewish tailors guilds came to an agreement for the regulation of their
activities, so as to avoid competition.
David *Reuveni was magnificently greeted and received
when he came to Rome in 1524, even by Pope Clement VII,
who was greatly impressed also by Solomon *Molcho and extended barely credible protection to him. In 1524, under the
auspices of the same pope, Daniel da *Pisa, a member of the
famous Tuscan banking family then living in Rome, drew up
a new intercongregational constitution for the Roman Jewish
community at large.
Cardinal *Egidio da Viterbo (c. 14651532) had a profound interest in the Kabbalah, a considerable knowledge
of Hebrew, and maintained Elijah *Levita in his home as his
Hebrew tutor. Jacob *Mantino, personal physician to Paul III,
was nominated lecturer in medicine in the Sapienza in Rome
in 1539 one of the very few authenticated instances of a Jew
holding an academic appointment before the age of Emancipation.
The expulsion from the Spanish dominions in 1492
brought a large body of refugees to Rome who were reluctantly received by the native community, nervous for their
own position. Henceforth, by the side of the communities
following the indigenous Roman liturgy, there were also synagogues according to the Aragonese, Castilian, Catalonian,
and Sicilian liturgical traditions, and for a time also French
and Ashkenazi synagogues.
The Counter-Reformation and the Ghetto Period
The entire tenor of Roman Jewish life suddenly changed for
the worse with the Counter-Reformation. In 1542 a tribunal
of the Holy Office on the Spanish model was set up in Rome
and in 1553 Cornelio da Montalcino, a Franciscan friar who
had embraced Judaism, was burned alive on the Campo dei
Fiori. In 1543 a home for converted Jews (House of *Catechumens), later to be the scene of many tragic episodes, was established, a good part of the burden of upkeep being imposed
on the Jews themselves.
On Rosh Ha-Shanah (September 4) 1553 the Talmud with
many more Hebrew books was committed to the flames after
official condemnation. From now on, notwithstanding occasional periods of relaxation at the outset, talmudic literature
as a whole was banned in Rome, with disastrous consequences
on Roman Jewish intellectual life. Most of this anti-Jewish
action was inspired by Cardinal Caraffa, the embodiment
of the spirit of the Counter-Reformation, who became Pope
*Paul IV on May 23, 1555. Shortly afterward, he issued his bull
Cum nimis absurdum (July 12, 1555) which reenacted remorse-
lessly against the Jews all the restrictive ecclesiastical legislation hitherto only intermittently enforced. This comprised the
segregation of the Jews in a special quarter, henceforth called
the *ghetto; the wearing of the Jewish badge, now specified
as a yellow hat in the case of the men, a yellow kerchief in the
case of the women; prohibitions on owning real estate, on
being called by any title of respect such as signor, on the employment by Christians of Jewish physicians, and on dealing
in corn or other necessities of life; and virtual restriction to
dealing in old clothes and second-hand goods. This initiated
the ghetto period in Rome, and continued to govern the life
of Roman Jewry for more than 300 years.
There were periods of relaxation e.g., in the pontificate
of Pius IV (155965) and of Sixtus V (158590). On the other
hand, Pius V (156672) not only renewed the severity of the
system, but by his bull Hebraeorum gens of 1569 excluded the
Jews from the cities of the Papal States, except Rome and Ancona; a good part of their population took refuge in Rome,
where Di Capua, Di Segni, Tivoli, Terracina, Tagliacozzo,
Recanati, and so on, commemorating their former places of
residence, became characteristic surnames. Similarly, *Gregory XIII (157285) renewed and regulated the iniquitous system of the conversionist sermon, henceforth usual in Rome for
many generations (see *Sermons to Jews). Whereas before the
mid-16t century the Roman Jewish community had probably
enjoyed more favorable circumstances than that of almost any
other city in Italy and perhaps in Europe, from now on, in the
age of the ghetto, the reverse was the case.
The area chosen for the Roman ghetto was a low-lying
dank site on the left bank of the Tiber, subject to intermittent
flooding and therefore highly insalubrious. The total Jewish
population, which at its peak probably exceeded 5,000 the
highest in any city in Italy was crowded in this circumscribed
area. The rapacity of gentile landlords was, however, to some
extent mitigated by the development among the Jews of the jus
gazaga or proprietary right on houses, recognized also by the
non-Jewish authorities. Originally the ghetto was supposed to
have only a single entrance, but this was found impracticable
and ultimately there were several. However, at night, on major Christian holidays, and in the Easter period, from Holy
Thursday to the Saturday, the gates were closed and no Jew
was allowed out of the quarter. The bull of 1555 permitted the
Jews only one synagogue: this was, however, evaded by having five synagogues (or Scuole) according to the different rites
under a single roof.
Among themselves the Jews, as elsewhere in Italy, spoke
a *Judeo-Italian dialect, retaining old local forms and incorporating Hebrew or Spanish terms and written generally in Hebrew characters. The Jewish loan banks were finally suppressed in 1682; henceforth the occupation of the
vast majority of Roman Jews was dealing in old clothes
and second-hand goods, for which purpose they perambulated amid insults and contempt in all the quarters
of the city. There were also a few tailors and petty shop-
413
rome
Jewish population of Rome
Year/Period
Population
Late Roman
1159
16th cent.
1682
18th cent.
1873
1886
1910
1936
1943
1948
1965
2005
10,000
200
5,000
1,750
6,000
4,880
5,600
10,000
13,000
10,000
11,000
12,928
18,000
414
rome
those who remained barely maintained their numbers, Rome
was increased both by immigration and by the vigorous state
of its Jewish proletariat the only one remaining in Italian
Jewry which could be so designated.
Yet in other respects the progress of Roman Jewry was
slow, notwithstanding all efforts. The city corporation took the
lead in destroying the old ghetto quarter, a magnificent new
synagogue with an organ being built on the site in 190004
to replace the old Cinque Scuole (Five Synagogues) which
were accidentally burned around this time. After a succession
of rabbis brought from the Levant (Judah de Leon (Leoni di
Leone), 17961830; Israel Moses *H azzan, 184752) and even
vacancies in the office, the Italian-trained Moses Ehrenreich
was appointed in 1890; he was succeeded by H ayyim *Castiglioni (190311), one of the last of the Italian school of Hebrew
poets, and he in turn by the courageous Angelo *Sacerdoti
(191234). In 18871904 an unsuccessful attempt was made to
reestablish in Rome the once-distinguished rabbinical seminary of Padua (see *Collegio Rabbinico Italiano); it was to return to Rome definitely on a more secure basis in 1930 after a
brilliant interlude in Florence. But it was only during the period after World War I, with the remarkable, development of
Rome itself, that Roman Jewry may be said to have regained
the primacy in Italian Jewish life which it had enjoyed in the
remote past.
Hebrew Printing
In the opinion of most scholars nine or ten *incunabula
printed in square type without date or place-name, probably before 1480, should be ascribed to Rome. Among them
are the Pentateuch commentaries of Rashi and Nah manides,
Maimonides Code Mishneh Torah and Guide of the Perplexed; Nathan b. Jehiels Arukh, Moses b. Jacob of Coucys
Sefer Mitzvot Gadol, Solomon b. Abraham Adrets responsa,
Levi b. Gershoms commentary to Daniel, and David Kimh is
Shorashim. Only one Hebrew Press was licensed in Rome in
the 16t century, and few Hebrew books were brought out by
non-Jewish printing houses. The one Jewish press was run by
Elijah Levita who, with the help of the three sons of his kinsman Avigdor Ashkenazi Kaz av and under a papal privilege,
printed here in 1518 three of his grammatical works. Around
1508 a prayer book was produced by J. Mazzochi and perhaps
a Hebrew grammar a few years later. Between 1540 and 1547
Samuel Sarfati, Isaac b. Immanuel de Lattes in partnership
with Benjamin b. Joseph dArignano, and Solomon b. Isaac
of Lisbon printed a number of works with Antonio Bladao.
Among them were Hebrew grammars by David ibn Yah ya,
then rabbi in Naples, and David Kimh i: the Mahalakh; responsa by Nissim b. Reuben Gerondi, and smaller works.
Between 1578 and 1581, Francesco Zanetti, with the help of
Levitas baptized grandson Giovanni Battista *Eliano, printed
editions of Genesis, the Five Scrolls, and Psalms. Owing to the
reactionary atmosphere which henceforth prevailed in Rome
in the 17t century, only some missionary tracts in Hebrew
Holocaust Period
A few days after the Germans occupied Rome on September 910, 1943, SS Chief Heinrich *Himmler ordered immediate preparations for the arrest and deportation of all Jews
in Rome and the vicinity more than 10,000 persons. As a
first step, SS Major (soon to be Lieutenant Colonel) Herbert
Kappler, the SS commanding officer in Rome, demanded 50
kilograms of gold from the Jewish community on September
26, to be paid within 36 hours. Otherwise, he informed the
community, 200 Jews would be arrested and deported to Germany. The Jews collected the gold, with some help from sympathetic non-Jews, and delivered it on time. Nevertheless, a
special German police force broke into the offices of the Jewish community on September 29 and looted the ancient and
contemporary archives, seizing, among other things, lists of
members and contributors. On October 13, the Germans returned to loot the priceless libraries of the community and
the rabbinical college.
Most Roman Jews were still not alarmed enough to go
into hiding. Many were confident that the presence of the pope
in the city would protect them, since the Germans would not
dare take anti-Jewish actions under his windows. Moreover,
the Jews lacked any precise information about Nazi death
camps. Although they listened illegally to the BBC, it did not
broadcast any specific news on that subject. The Jews also believed that the ongoing diplomatic discussions of Romes status
as an open city would save them from hostile Nazi actions.
On October 16, 1943, German SS police under Kappler and SS Captain Theodor Dannecker launched a massive
roundup of the Jews of Rome. Provided with carefully prepared lists of names and addresses, the police made house-tohouse searches throughout the city and arrested all the Jews
they could find. Some of the non-Jewish population helped
Jews escape, but 1,259 men, women, and children were nevertheless caught and held for two days at the Collegio Militare in
Lungara Street. About 252 of them were released because they
were the children or spouses of mixed marriages, foreigners
from neutral countries, or non-Jews arrested by mistake. The
remaining 1,007 Jews were deported to Auschwitz on October
18. Only 17 of them survived.
On the morning of October 16, Pope *Pius XII received
Princess Enza Pignatelli, who informed him of the ongoing
roundup. He immediately asked the Vatican Secretary of State
Cardinal Luigi Maglione to summon the German ambassador
to the Holy See, Ernst von Weizsaecker. Maglione met with
the ambassador that same day and asked him to stop the arrests of Jews in order that the pope not be obliged to protest.
The ambassador replied that for the sake of good relations between Germany and the Holy See, he preferred not to convey
Maglione and the popes threat of a protest to Berlin. Maglione
accepted this. Jews continued to be arrested and deported.
Pius XII never protested publicly.
415
[Cecil Roth]
rome
Between October 16, 1943, and June 4, 1944, the day of
the liberation of Rome, the methodical roundup of Jews hiding in the homes of non-Jewish friends or in Catholic institutions continued. In this latter period, perhaps as many as
1,200 additional Jews were caught and deported to Auschwitz,
where most of them died. Another 75 Jews were among the
335 prisoners executed in the Fosse Ardeatine, outside Rome,
as a German reprisal measure for an Italian partisan action
in the via Rasella on March 23, 1944, in which 33 German soldiers were killed.
Some 4,000 individual Jews are believed to have hidden
in Catholic institutions in Rome, including Vatican properties. A small number were sheltered behind the walls of Vatican City itself. There is no evidence that Pius XII or his chief
advisors gave instructions for this rescue effort, or even knew
its extent.
[Daniel Carpi / Sergio Itzhak Minerbi (2nd ed.)]
Contemporary Period
When the Allies entered Rome on June 5, 1944, the Jewish population numbered 11,000. That same day a solemn prayer that
united the Roman Jews who had survived a year of terror and
the Jews serving in the U.S. 5t Army, was led by Rabbi David
Panzieri in the small synagogue of the Tiberine Island, which
had been used clandestinely during the German occupation.
An unknown future faced the community. The chief rabbi,
Italo *Zolli, who had abandoned his flock during the war to
find a haven in the Vatican, converted to Catholicism. Only
in 1946 did Rabbi David *Prato take the place of the apostate
rabbi. Under his firm leadership the Jewish community of
Rome could look to a better future. Moreover, Jewish units
from Palestine assisted the community. Rabbi Prato sponsored
a moving ceremony the day the State of Israel was proclaimed
on May 14, 1948, under the Arch of Titus. From that moment
on, for the Jews to pass under the arch that symbolized the Diaspora was no longer a humiliation. In the following years the
community grew due mainly to the natural increase. In 1953
Elio Toaff succeeded Prato as chief rabbi of Rome and Italy.
From 1956 to 1967, after the *Six-Day War, about 3,000 Jews
arrived from Libya. Some of them subsequently immigrated
to Israel but the majority was absorbed by the community. In
1965 the Jewish community reached a total of 12,928 (out of a
total of 2,500,000 inhabitants).
The geographic distribution of the community is still influenced by the continued existence of the traditional ghetto
in the S. Angelo district and adjoining parts of the city, although there is a growing movement to the outlying residential areas. The community of Rome is the only one in Italy
that shows a demographic increase, with a fertility rate not
far below that of the Italian population as a whole, a fairly
high marriage rate, and a limited proportion of mixed marriages. Occupational changes from the traditional fields to
new technical specializations and to the free professions were
rather slow but by the year 2000 it could be considered accomplished. A very serious episode of antisemitism dark-
416
Romm
(1942), index; idem, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (1950), index; idem,
in: JQR, 35 (1944/45), 157; Allon, Toledot, index S.V. Romi; idem, in:
Scripta Hierosolymitana, 7 (1961), 5378; I. Heinemann, Darkhei haAggadah (19542), index; H. Fuchs, Der geistige Widerstand gegen Rom
in der antiken Welt (19642); N.N. Glatzer, in: Politische Ordnung und
menschliche Existenz; Festgabe E. Voegelin (1962), 24357; B. Cohen,
Jewish and Roman Law (1966); E.E. Urbach, H azal; Pirkei Emunot
ve-Deot (1963), index S.V. Romi, Romiyyim; A.H. Cutler, in: JSOS, 31
(1969), 27585; M.D. Herr, in: Scripta Hierosolymitana, 21 (1971). HEBREW PRINTING: A. Freimann, in: J. Freimann Festschrift (1937),
121ff.; H.D. Friedberg, Toledot ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Italyah (19562),
9ff.; Habermann, in: KS, 12 (1935/36), 125ff. HOLOCAUST PERIOD: R.
Katz, Death in Rome (1967); S. Friedlaender, Pius XII and the Third
Reich; a Documentation (1966); M. Tagliacozzo, in: Yalkut Moreshet,
no. 10 (1969), 5559, Eng. summ. and bibl.; A. Foa, ibid., 6071; R.
Surano, ibid., 7278, Eng. summ.; Comunit Israelitica di Roma (ed.),
Ottobre 1943: Cronaca di una infamia (pamphlet printed in 1961); A.
Ascarelli, Le fosse Ardeatine (1945); G. Debenedetti, 16 ottobre 1943
(1945, 19612); R. Leiber S.J., Pio XII e gli ebrei di Roma, 19431944,
in: La Civilt Cattolica, anno 112 (1961), vol. I, quad. 2657 (March
4, 1961), 44958. Add. Bibliography: D. Di Castro (ed.), Arte
ebraica a Roma e nel Lazio (1994); S. Frascati, Uniscrizione giudaica
dale catacombe di villa Torlonia, in: Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana
65 (1989), 135142; P. Galterio and M. Vitale, La presenza ebraica a
Roma dalle origini allimpero, in: Arte ebraica a Roma e nel Lazio
(1994), 1548; J. Goodnick Westenholz (ed.), The Jewish Presence in
Ancient Rome, (Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, 1994); A. Konikoff,
Sarcophagi from the Jewish Catacombs of Ancient Rome (1990); D. Noy,
Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe 2, The City of Rome (1995); P.
Richardson, Early Synagogues as Collegia in the Diaspora and Palestine, in: J.S. Kloppenborg and S.G. Wilson, Voluntary Associations
in the Graeco-Roman World (1996), 90109; L.V. Rutgers, The Jewish Catacombs of Rome Reconsidered, in: WCJS, 10 (1990), 2936;
idem, The Jews in Late Ancient Rome: Evidence of Cultural Interaction in the Roman Diaspora, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World,
vol. 126 (1995). F. Coen, 16 ottobre 1943: La grande razzia degli ebrei
di Roma (1993); R. Katz, Black Sabbath: A Journey Through a Crime
Against Humanity (1969); M. Tagliacozzo, La Comunit di Roma
sotto lincubo della svastica: La grande razzia del 16 ottobre 1943, in:
Gli Ebrei in Italia durante il fascismo: Quaderni del Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea, 3 (November 1963), 837; S. Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy
(2000).
417
romny
bis in Slavuta and more than a hundred rabbis were involved
in the resulting litigation. In 1836 the Russian government
closed all but two Jewish printing houses, the Romm plant
being the only one left in all of Lithuania and Belorussia. In
1841 the plant burned down. JOSEPH REUBEN and his son
DAVID headed the company from 1841 to 1862. After their
deaths, David Romms widow DEBORAH (d. 1903) headed the
company, together with her two brothers-in-law. This is the
origin of the name of the company, which came to be known
as Defus ha-Almanah ve-ha-Ah im Romm (The Press of the
Widow and Romm Brothers). The firm prospered from 1867
to 1888 under the leadership of its literary director, the Hebrew writer Samuel Shraga Feiginsohn (known as ) .
Modern presses were installed, rights to various manuscripts
purchased, many reprints were published, and painstaking
editorship prevailed. Most of the firms income came from
the publication of religious works in editions of tens of thousands of copies. Among the more important publications was
the Babylonian Talmud with over a hundred commentaries
and addenda (The Vilna Shas, first ed., 188086). Romm also
published popular works in Yiddish, such as the books of I.M.
*Dick, *Shomer, and Haskalah works.
After the death of Deborah Romm, the firm declined.
The heirs were not interested in running it and Feiginsohn
was reinstated as director. He remained with the firm even
after it was sold to Baron D. *Guenzburg in 1910 and resold
several years later to the firm of Noah Gordon and H aim
Cohen. During this period, a complete edition of the Jerusalem Talmud was published. The Romm Press continued
in Vilna until 1940. With the Soviet conquest, the plant was
confiscated and turned into a Russian-Lithuanian printing
house.
Bibliography: Feiginsohn, in: Yahadut Lita, 1 (1959),
268302; Kon, in: KS, 12 (1935/36), 10915; Katz, in: Davar (Feb. 8,
1957).
[Yehuda Slutsky]
418
RNAI, JNOS (18491919), first head of the Zionist movement in Hungary. Born in Alba-Iulia, Transylvania, he worked
as a lawyer in Fogaras and Balazsfalva. Rnai wrote a book
against the antisemitic movement in Hungary, led by the
member of parliament G. *Istczy, entitled Kosmopolitismus s Nationalismus klns tekintettel a zsidsg jelenkori
llsra (Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism with Special
Consideration of the Jewish Situation in Our Time, 1875),
in which he justified Jewish national consciousness and the
need to preserve it. In 1897, before the First Zionist Congress
convened in Basle, he published Zion und Ungarn, a polemical book against the opponents of Zionism. He took part in
that Congress and spoke there on the situation of the Jews
of Hungary, warning against the swelling reaction and antisemitism in spite of the existing liberal regime. He founded
sors address, but adverse reaction may partly account for his
subsequent reluctance to lead public opinion toward a firmer
posture against the Axis. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ultimately solved Roosevelts dilemma. Roosevelt openly
detested Nazism and recalled Ambassador Wilson from
Germany in protest at the November 1938 pogroms. He felt
unable, however, to admit more refugees being restricted by
existing law and public opinion. In March 1938 he called a
conference on refugees to meet at Evian les Bains (see *Evian
Conference) to bring order into the chaos caused by Nazi policy and worldwide immigration restrictions, but he accepted
British requests not to discuss Palestine as a haven there
or later at the *Bermuda Conference of 1943. During World
War II Roosevelt, as the ally of Great Britain which administered Palestine, would not act against British policy there,
thus possibly also alienating Arab leaders, on whose neutrality the Allies counted. He unsuccessfully attempted to
promote some settlement of the Palestine question favorable to Jews and acceptable to Arab leaders, principally King
Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. Later he assured the Arabs that
they would be consulted before any decision on Palestine
was reached. The President also issued various pro-Zionist
statements to American Jews, particularly before the 1944
elections.
Roosevelts response to the Holocaust was similarly cautious, and he used the State Department as a foil against agitation directed toward himself on this subject. In January
1944, after Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr.
presented conclusive evidence that the State Department
was sabotaging rescue efforts, he established the War Refugee Board with special powers to quicken rescue work. However, it came on the scene too late to save the major part of
European Jewry.
[Henry L. Feingold]
419
roosevelt, theodore
ican Jews (1956); S. Halperin, Political World of American Zionism
(1961); idem and I. Oder, in: Review of Politics, 24 (1962), 32041;
A. Morse, While Six Million Died (1968); J.M. Bloom, Roosevelt and
Morgenthau (1970); H.L. Feingold, The Politics of Rescue (1970). ANNA
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: New York Times (Nov. 8, 1962), 35ff.; A. Steinberg, Mrs. R.: The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt (1958).
Holocaust Period
On Sept. 7, 1939, Ropczyce was occupied by the Germans. They
immediately set fire to the synagogues including their Torah
scrolls, and proceeded to confiscate Jewish property, deny Jews
the rights of citizens, and send them to forced labor. In the
420
rosanes
leader. When, in September 1526, Moulay Ahmad dethroned
his uncle Moulay Ali ben-Hassan and assumed the sultanate at
Fez, he chose Rosales as his confidant. From then onward, Rosales was entrusted almost exclusively with political relations
with the Christian world and was sent officially to Portugal in
1529. Rosales appears to have been the initiator of diplomatic
relations between Morocco and *France. Pierre de Piton, the
French ambassador, arrived in Morocco with a shipment of
Jewish books for the community (such consignments were
absolutely prohibited by the Church and this breach was like
providing the enemies of Christianity with weapons). In 1534
the sultan entrusted Rosales with opening important negotiations with John III; he was in charge of the negotiations in
Portugal for two years; they led to the signing of a peace treaty
on May 8, 1538, at Arzila. In the meantime Rosales died, probably in Portugal. His successor as counselor, ambassador, and
foreign minister was Jacob (I) *Rote.
ROSALES, JACOB HEBRAEUS (Immanuel Bocarro Frances; c. 1588c. 1668), Portuguese physician, astronomer, astrologer and poet. Born in Lisbon, Rosales was the son of a Marrano physician (Ferdinand Bocarro) and member of a family
that included the poets Jacob *Frances and Joseph Frances.
He studied medicine, mathematics and classical languages at
Montpellier, after which he returned to Lisbon, where he attained a considerable reputation as a physician. Among the
many noble personages he attended was the Archbishop of
Braga. In addition to a thriving medical practice, Rosales developed a serious interest in astronomy, publishing in 1619
Tratado dos Cometas que aparecciao en Novembro de 1618.
Five years later, he published a far more influential astrological work, Status Astrologicus sive Anacephalaeosis da Monarchia Lusitania (Lisbon, 1624), written in verse. The work is
dedicated to King Phillip III of Spain and praises Portugals
kings and nobility. In 1625, together with other Marranos,
Rosales left Lisbon for Rome, possibly out of fear of the Inquisition. In Rome he cultivated a friendship with Galileo,
who had a profound influence upon him and inspired him
to write Regnum Astrorum Reformation (Hamburg, 1644).
During the early 1630s, Rosales made his way to Hamburg,
where there was a settlement of Marranos. On July 17, 1647,
Emperor Ferdinand III bestowed upon him the title of count
palatine in recognition of his scientific achievements. Later,
in Leghorn, Rosales openly called himself a Jew, having assumed the name Jacob Hebraeus. As a consequence, he was
denounced to the Inquisition in Lisbon in 1658 together with
other notable Marranos.
Among his other works are Poculum poeticum, a poem
in honor of his friend, Abraham *Zacuto, printed in the lat-
421
422
Jacob of Coucy. The book also contains his notes and glosses
to Sefer ha-H innukh, attributed to Aaron ha-Levi of Barcelona. Excerpts from the Parashat Derakhim were published
also in the Mikhlal Yofi (Frankfurt on the Oder, 1775) of Isaac
b. Ben Zion of Apta. Some of his responsa are to be found in
the works of his contemporaries. A definite trend toward leniency is discernible in his rulings and commentary. He even
regarded apostates as having been compelled to change their
religion by force majeure.
Rosanes is not to be confused with the Shabbatean Judah
Rosanes who lived in the mid-17t century and was one of
the Constantinople scholars who excommunicated the two
Smyrna rabbis Aaron *Lapapa and *Solomon (Nissim) b.
Abraham Algazi I in 1666, after they excommunicated *Shabbetai Z evi.
Bibliography: Rosanes, Togarmah, 4 (1935), 2009; A. Freimann, Inyenei Shabbetai Z evi (1912), 5355; J. Sasportas, Z iz at Novel
Z evi, ed. by I. Tishby (1954), 1335.
[Abraham David]
rosario
Mordecai Zeev Ornstein who was not a member of the Ornstein family. Rosanes considerable influence is shown by the
large number of authors who sought his approbation of their
works. Of particular interest is his enthusiastic approbation of
the Ahavat David vi-Yhonatan of David ha-Kohen (Lemberg,
1801). This work, as its title indicates, is a commentary on the
novellae of Jonathan *Eybeschuetz, of whom his grandfather
was one of the greatest opponents. His Tesha Shitot (ibid.,
1800), a work distinguished for its acumen and profundity,
also contains his fathers novellae, entitled H ezkat Ahavati.
His wife Judith was a well-known personality and managed a
printing works in Lemberg.
Bibliography: H .N. Dembitzer, Kelilat Yofi, 1 (1888), 1496
506; S. Buber, Anshei Shem (1895), 198; Yaari, in: KS, 17 (1940), 95108;
Margalioth, in: Sinai, 31 (1952), 91.
[Itzhak Alfassi]
423
rose
ROSE (Heb. , vered, mishnaic), the genus Rosa. Two species grow wild in Israel, the white rose, Rosa phoenicea, which
grows on the banks of rivers, in swamps and woods, and the
vered ha-kelev Rosa canina which has pink and sometimes
white blossoms and grows close to water. These wild roses have
five petals and are not particularly beautiful or fragrant. The
fragrant rose arrived in Erez Israel from Persia only during the
Greco-Persian period. Its Persian name was varda whence its
mishnaic name vered (Aramaic varda, Gr. ). The rose is
not mentioned in the Bible, even though according to tannaitic
tradition Jerusalem possessed a garden of roses [in which
fruit trees also grew] that existed from the time of the early
prophets (Maas. 2:5; Tosef., Neg. 6:2; BK 82b), though it was
otherwise forbidden to plant gardens in Jerusalem. The rose
(rodon) is mentioned a number of times in the Greek translation of Ben Sira but, in the Hebrew fragments discovered in
the genizah (Ecclus. 39:13; 50:8), the word shoshan (lily) appears. This substitution of shoshan or shoshannah for vered,
even though erroneous (see *Flowers, of the Bible, Lily), already occurs in the Midrash which speaks of a red shoshannah (i.e., a rose, since the lily is white) and even mentions
a shoshannah of a vered (Lev. R. 23:3). The source of this
mistaken identification lies chiefly in the explanation of the
shoshannah among the thorns (Song 2:2), which was understood to refer to the thorns on the stalk of the rose. The red
rose is mentioned in the Apocrypha (I En. 82:16; 106:2).
In rabbinic literature, the rose is frequently mentioned:
the bridegroom wears a crown of roses (Meg. Taan. 327) and
idolators decorate their shops with them (Av. Zar. 12b). There
is an adage that youth is like a crown of roses (Shab. 152a).
R. Johanans beauty was compared to a crown of red roses encircling a silver cup containing pomegranate seeds (BM 84a).
A white rose is also mentioned (Git. 68b). A handsome man
is called vardinaah (roselike, Nid. 19b and cf. Git. 41a). The
main use of roses was in the preparation of an aromatic oil
made by soaking the petals in olive oil (Shev. 7:6, et al.). It
was apparently also customary to soak rose blossoms in water. The Talmud describes a Persian nobles concept of enjoying life as sitting up to his neck in roses surrounded by naked harlots (Av. Zar. 65a; Rashi: sitting in a bath of roses).
Medieval halakhic literature speaks of rosewater as a medicament. Jam made from rose petals was a favorite food (Sh.
Ar., Oh 204:11).
ROS, ARNOLD JOSEF (Rosenblum; 18631946), violinist. Born in Jassy, Romania, Ros became concertmaster of
the Vienna Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic at the age of
18, after conversion to Catholicism, and held these posts until 1938. In 1882 he founded the Ros String Quartet, which
won fame in Europe and in the United States. He also taught
at the Vienna State Academy of Music until 1924. When the
Nazis invaded Austria in 1938 he fled to England. Ros married Gustav *Mahlers sister, Justine. His brother EDWARD, a
cellist, and his daughter ALMA, a violinist, died in a concentration camp.
ROSE, ARNOLD MARSHALL (19181968), U.S. sociologist. Born in Chicago, Rose taught at Bennington College and
Washington University in St. Louis and from 1952 until his
death was professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota. His interest was primarily in the field of social problems,
especially those relating to the labor movement and race relations. In the latter field he was considered a leading authority.
Rose first entered the complex area of race relations as an assistant to Gunnar Myrdal, the author and editor of An American Dilemma (1944). Rose published a condensed edition of
this classic entitled The Negro in America (1948).
He also wrote Studies in the Reduction of Prejudice (1947,
19482); The Negros Morale (1949); and America Divided; Minority Group Relations in the United States (with C. Rose, 1948,
19492). He edited Race Prejudice and Discrimination (1951)
424
Rose, Fred
and Human Behavior and Social Processes (1962); and coedited Minority Problems (1965). His other works include: Union
Solidarity: The International Cohesion of a Labor Union (1952);
Theory and Method in the Social Sciences (1954); and a widelyused text, Sociology: The Study of Human Relations (1956,
19652). Rose was involved in a lawsuit in 196364 after having been denounced as a security risk because of his alleged
communist activities. He won the case, which he described
in Libel and Academic Freedom, A Lawsuit against Political
Extremists (1968). One of his last works was Power Structure;
Political Process in American Society (1967).
[Werner J. Cahnman]
United States giving Owenite lectures on the science of government, religion, free schools, abolition of slavery and womens rights. From 1843 to 1846, she and her husband lived in an
Owenite commune near Syracuse, New York, while she continued to lecture. She campaigned especially for the passage
of a married womens property rights bill in New York State,
which finally passed the legislature in 1848. In 1850 Ernestine
Rose helped organize the first National Womans Rights Convention, which met in Massachusetts. An acquaintance and
colleague of such abolitionists and feminists as Ralph Waldo
Emerson, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth
Stanton and Susan Anthony, she campaigned vigorously in the
years to come all over the U.S. on behalf of womens property
rights, womens suffrage and reform of divorce laws, especially
in New York State. Together with Susan Anthony she was a
leader of the more radical wing of the suffrage movement that
refused to concede that other social issues, most notably abolition and rights of black Americans, had precedence over
feminist questions, and as such she bitterly attacked the 14t
and 15t amendments for constitutionally emancipating blacks
but not women, and urged their rejection. Along with other
militants, she helped found the Womens Suffrage Society in
1869. In the same year she and her husband returned to England where she lived a life of semi-retirement because of bad
health, though continuing to speak out on feminist issues. Although she seemed to attach no particular significance to her
Jewish background, she did engage in 1863 in a long-published
debate with Horace Seaver, the abolitionist editor of the Boston
Investigator, whom she accused of antisemitic opinions.
Bibliography: Y. Suhl, Ernestine P. Rose and the Battle for
Human Rights (1959).
[Hillel Halkin]
ROSE, ERNESTINE POTOVSKY (18101892), U.S. feminist and social activist. Ernestine Potovsky was born in Piotrkow, Poland, the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi. Early in
life she rebelled against her traditional upbringing and at the
age of 17 she left home and traveled first to Europe and then to
England in 1830. In 1832 she met the English social reformer
Robert Owen, whose disciple she became; the same year she
married another non-Jewish Owenite, William Rose, a jeweler
and silversmith by trade. The couple moved to New York City
in 1836 and Ernestine Rose traveled throughout the eastern
ROSE, FRED (Rosenberg; 19071983), Canadian communist activist, member of Parliament, spy. Rose was born in
Lublin, Poland, and moved with his parents to Montreal in
1916. As a young man he found work in a factory and joined
the Young Communist League and helped organize unions
for the unemployed. Trained as an electrician, in 1929 Rose
became national secretary of the Young Communist League
and visited Moscow the following year. Back in Montreal, he
was closely watched by the RCMP and in 1931 was arrested,
charged with sedition, and sentenced to a year in prison. After
his release, he became a member of the Communist Party of
Canadas covert leadership group and was an active political
pamphleteer. He unsuccessfully stood for public office several times, but in 1943, with the Soviet Union a World War II
ally of Canada, Rose stood for election to the House of Commons for the Communist Labor Progressive Party from the
heavily Jewish Montreal Cartier riding. He won, defeating
both David *Lewis and Lazarus *Phillips. Canadas first and
only communist Member of Parliament, Rose was reelected
in the 1945 federal election. During this campaign, American
singer Paul Robeson personally endorsed Rose and sang at his
campaign headquarters. However, Roses parliamentary career
425
rose, herman
was cut short when he was accused by Soviet Embassy defector Igor Gouzenko of spying for the Soviet Union. Following
a sensational trial, Rose was found guilty of espionage and
served four and a half years of a six-year sentence. Released
from prison in 1951, Rose when into exile in Poland. In 1957
the Canadian government revoked his Canadian citizenship.
Rose died in Warsaw.
[Gerald Tulchinsky (2nd ed.)]
426
ROSE, LEONARD (19181984), U.S. cellist. Born in Washington, D.C., Rose began to study the cello with Walter Grossman at the age of ten. He was awarded a scholarship for further study with Felix Salmond at the Curtis Institute of Music,
Philadelphia, where he remained until 1938 and where he was
head of the cello department from 1951. At the age of 20, after only three weeks with the orchestra, he became first cellist of the NBC Symphony under Toscanini. He then went to
the Cleveland Orchestra for a four-year period, and finally to
the New York Philharmonic. He appeared as cello soloist with
most of the major orchestras in Europe and America; and the
trio which he formed with Isaac *Stern and pianist Eugene
Istomin was similarly acclaimed in chamber music concerts.
Rose was also on the teaching faculty of the Juilliard School
of Music, New York.
[Max Loppert (2nd ed.)]
rosen, carl
He was named to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame
(1994) and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (1996).
[Alan D. Abbey (2nd ed.)]
1955, winning MVP honors in 1954 when he hit two HRs and
had five RBIs. Rosens lifetime batting average was .285, with
192 HRs and 717 RBIs in 1,044 games. He also appeared on the
cover of Sports Illustrated in 1955. When I was up there in the
majors, he once said, I always knew how I wanted it to be.
I wanted it to be, Here comes one Jewish kid that every Jew
in the world can be proud of. Rosen suffered a broken finger in 1954 and had several other nagging injuries that forced
him to retire in 1956. He later served as president of the New
York Yankees (197879), Houston Astros (198085), and San
Francisco Giants (198592), being named Major League Executive of the Year in 1987.
[Elli Wohlgelernter (2nd ed.)]
427
rosen, charles
ROSEN, CHARLES (1927 ), pianist, author and musicologist. Rosen was born in New York City, where he studied the
piano from the age of seven at the Juilliard School of Music,
and later with the great virtuoso pianist Moriz Rosenthal. At
Princeton University, he studied French literature (with special emphasis on the connections between music and poetry in
16t-century France), graduating with the highest honors. This
led to his winning a two-year Fulbright scholarship to study
medieval French music in Paris. On his return to the United
States in 1953, simultaneously with teaching French literature
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he began his career as a concert pianist, the ultimate international success of
which eventually reduced his teaching activities to a minimum.
Rosen won an enviable reputation as a critic, regularly reviewing books on painting, literature and music for the New York
Review of Books, and also as an author. His The Classical Style
(1971), a study of the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven,
received universal critical admiration and won the National
Book Award for Arts and Letters in 1972. Rosens deep understanding of the process of composition and personal insights
in the music itself is also manifested in his study Sonata Forms
(1980). His Harvard lectures on Romantic musical thought
and composition were published under the title The Romantic
Generation (1995). Rosens wide range of musical sympathies
as a pianist from Bach and the classical composers through
Liszt and the virtuoso school to the music of *Schoenberg
and of modern composers such as Elliott Carter and Pierre
Boulez was complemented by a powerful technique and a
profound intellectual grasp of the works he played. All these
factors combined to make Rosen one of the most interesting
and important performing musicians of his day.
Bibliography: NG2.
[Max Loppert / Yulia Kreinin (2nd ed.)]
428
rosen, norma
the maskilim. In 1881 a fire broke out in the city, as a result
of which about 75 of its Jewish inhabitants were left homeless. Rosen placed himself at the head of an organization to
rehabilitate them, and through his organizational ability and
moral influence he succeeded in effecting the rebuilding of the
homes and the erection of new and modern communal buildings. Rosens daughter married Isaac Jacob *Reines.
All his works, which display his profound learning, include his name in their titles. They are: Edut bi-Yhosef (Vilna,
1866), novellae to the Shulh an Arukh, Yoreh Deah; Porat Yosef
(Warsaw, 1884), responsa and novellae to the Shulh an Arukh,
H oshen Mishpat; and Sheerit Yosef (ibid., 1914), responsa and
halakhic clarification.
Bibliography: Pinkas Slonim, 1 (1962), 7273, 85; Yahadut
Lita, 3 (1967), 94.
[Itzhak Alfassi]
ROSEN, NORMA (1925 ), U.S. novelist. Born in Manhattan, Norma Rosen grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. She received a
B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1946, and an M.A. from
Columbia in 1953. In her book Accidents of Influence (1992), an
essay uniquely describes her familys situation in relation to Judaism. Neither devout nor assimilated, her family stood in
a proud and terrible place outside the two cultures. In 1959,
she began writing seriously. Her first novel, Joy to Levine!,
was published in 1962. The book, dealing with parental authority, is slightly sardonic, since it is in part a satire on the
American pastime of getting ahead. Her next book, Green
(1967), a novella and eight short stories, deals with maturity
in relation to the sellout of an artist to commercial art in advertising. The novella, according to Stanley Kaufman, demonstrates Rosens ability to realize men and plunge into sentiment, confident that genuineness and distillation will keep
her from sentimentality.
In the 1960s, Norma Rosen began to confront the psychological damage of the Holocaust. As she later explained in
a 1987 essay, the novel deals with the response of those not
involved directly with the Holocaust except through imagination, and examines its impact on them. Rosens American
women of the novel, Touching Evil (1969), are obsessed with
the testimony of eye witnesses to the Holocaust. As S. Lillian
Kremer states in a 2002 article on Norma Rosen, Touching Evil
is distinctive in its deliberation on American Holocaust
reaction and a feminine perspective.
Rosens next long novel, At the Center (1982), touches on
the theme of abortion and assistance to pregnant women. Robert Miners review states that although Norma Rosen never
429
rosen, pinh as
supports the Right to Life movement, hard questions about
abortion still exist. And this is the books moral strength.
Norma Rosens novel, John and Anzia: An American Romance (1989), re-imagines a brief love affair between a Jewish
immigrant, Anzia Yezierska, and the American John Dewey.
Helen A. Weinberger reviewed the novel and felt that Norma
Rosen wrote a magical novel, mixing fact and fiction in
a kind of transcendental philosophical poem about the cross
between a real early 20t-century America and an always
wished-for land.
The author also published Accidents of Influence: Writing as a Jew and a Woman in America (1992), a volume of essays, and Biblical Women Unbound (1996), a re-staging of Old
Testament stories.
[Mark Padnos (2nd ed.)]
430
431
rosenbaum, jonathan
Rosenbach was a man of enigmatic contradictions. An
astute businessman, he was also for much of his life a confirmed alcoholic; a person of deep Jewish interests, he lived
in a permanent liaison with a Christian woman whom he
reputedly refused to marry because she was not Jewish. He
himself compiled a pioneer bibliographical study, An American Jewish Bibliography (1926), as well as a historical sketch
of Congregation Mikveh Israel (1909), to which he and his
parents belonged. For many years president of the American
Jewish Historical Society, he was also a benefactor of Graetz
College in Philadelphia and the Jewish Division of the New
York Public Library, as well as a founder and first president of
the American Friends of The Hebrew University. Among the
several accounts he wrote of his adventures in the book trade
were A Book Hunters Holiday (1936) and Books and Bidders
(1927). After his death, his private collection was installed in
a library in Philadelphia under the auspices of the Rosenbach
Foundation, which was established by his brother and junior
partner Philip Rosenbach (18631953).
Bibliography: E. Wolf and J.F. Fleming, Rosenbach
(1960).
[Hillel Halkin]
ROSENBAUM, JONATHAN (1947 ), U.S. scholar, administrator and rabbi; president of Gratz College from 1998. A
graduate of the University of Michigan where he received his
B.A. summa cum laude in 1968 and was elected to Phi Beta
Kappa, Rosenbaum then earned rabbinical ordination and an
M.A. at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute-Jewish
Institute of Religion in Cincinnati (1972) and a Ph.D. in Near
Eastern Languages and Civilization from Harvard University
working with Professor Frank M. Cross, Jr. on A Typology
of Aramaic Lapidary Script from the Seventh to the Fourth
Centuries, B.C.E. (1978). He taught in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska and then went to
the University of Hartford, where he was the Maurice Greenberg Professor of Judaic Studies, professor of history, and director, Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, University of Hartford, from 1986 to 1998. He conceived and helped
guide the Henry Luce Forum in Abrahamic Religions, a national program jointly sponsored by the University of Hartford
and Hartford Seminary that is devoted to advancing scholarship concerning and mutual understanding among American
Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In addition, Rosenbaum conceived and oversaw an awards program that recognizes the
best teachers of Holocaust studies in New England.
He also taught in the graduate school at the University
of Connecticut and at its law school as well as the Hartford
Theological Seminary.
A rarity in the contemporary Jewish world, he has served
as a rabbi in Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Congregations. During his student years at HUC, he held a student rabbi
position at Congregation Israel (Reform), Galesburg, IL, from
1970 to 1972. While at Harvard he was assistant rabbi, Temple
Israel (Conservative), Swampscott, MA, (197276), and then a
432
part-time rabbi of Congregation Israel (Conservative), Danville, IL (197684). And finally as his commitment to Jewish
law deepened he was rabbi (mara de-atra) at Congregation
Agudas Achim, a mainstream, century-old Orthodox congregation in West Hartford, CT, from 1994 to 1998.
Among the awards he received were doctor of divinity,
honoris causa, by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion, in March 1997, and doctor of Hebrew Letters, honoris causa, from the Jewish Theological Seminary in November 1998.
Among his works are Making a Life, Building a Community: A History of the Jews of Hartford (co-authored with
David G. Dalin, 1997) and a special issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service (78:4, 2002) devoted to Philadelphia
Jewry that he co-edited with Dr. Ernest M. Kahn.
From 1995 to 1998 Rosenbaum served as a deputy director of the Ein Gedi Archaeological Expedition in Israel, an excavation co-sponsored by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and the University of Hartford. At Ein Gedi he oversaw the
excavations academic program including two courses in archaeology and Near Eastern history. He also organized and
chaired Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East, a
scholarly section of the national meeting sponsored by the
Society of Biblical Literature.
An administrator-scholar, at Gratz he instituted new programs, expanded the faculty and staff, renovated the academic
plant, and balanced the budget. He renewed a distinguished
institute and refashioned its mission in a changing academic
climate. Prior to that at the University of Hartford he initiated
the Greenberg Center and established a major in Judaic Studies along with a minor. He also expanded the full-time faculty
to six and three adjunct faculty. All the while, he continued
with his teaching and writing.
[Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
rosenbaum, semyon
ROSENBAUM, MOSES H AYYIM LITS (18641943), Hungarian rabbi. Rosenbaum was born in Pressburg, and was ordained by Simh ah Bunim Sofer (see *Sofer family). He served
as rabbi of two large communities, in Szilgysomly (Simleul
Silvaniei), Transylvania, from 1888 to 1897, and from 1898 until
his death in Kleinwardein. On the death of R. Koppel Reich in
1929, he was asked to represent Orthodox Jewry in the upper
house of the Hungarian parliament but refused, preferring to
devote himself to his large community. He was an excellent
preacher in Yiddish, German and Hungarian.
He published Meshiv Devarim (2 parts, 190002), responsa on Orah H ayyim and Yoreh Deah by his father Gershon, rabbi of Tallya, adding his own notes. He was also the
author of Leh em Rav (1921), on the prayer book. The bulk of
his writings, however, which fill 15 large volumes, remained in
manuscript; among them is a diary, one chapter of which was
published by N. Ben-Menahem in Aresheth, 1 (1958), that is of
considerable interest. Although an extremist in religious matters, Rosenbaum did not ignore the *Haskalah literature, and
sent a message of congratulation to Leopold *Zunz, founder of
*Wissenschaft, on his 90t birthday. Of his two sons, Samuel,
who succeeded him in Kleinwardein, perished in the Holocaust in 1944, and his grandson, Pinh as Rosenbaum, published
his responsa Elleh Divrei Shemuel (1961).
ROSENBAUM, SAMUEL (19191997), cantor and organizational executive. Rosenbaum was born in New York City
and received his B.A. from New York University in 1940. Simultaneously, he studied music and liturgy privately under
renowned Cantor Jacob *Beimel. He began his cantorial career at the Queens Jewish Center, Queens Village, New York
(194042), which was interrupted by military service in the
U.S. Army during World War II. In 1946, Rosenbaum became
cantor of Temple Beth El in Rochester, New York, where his
innovative work in musical programming won him national
recognition in the form of awards from the Cantors Assembly and the *United Synagogue (1965). Upon his retirement,
he was awarded an honorary doctor of music degree from the
*Jewish Theological Seminary in 1985.
Rosenbaum was active in the Cantors Assembly from its
founding in 1947, serving as the editor of its journal, The Cantors Voice (195166), before being elected president of the association (195659). Following his term of office, Rosenbaum
was appointed the organizations executive director (195997).
Under his leadership, the assembly grew to become the worlds
largest association of cantors and spearheaded the expansion
of its members roles beyond performing at services to becoming involved in congregational and educational programming.
Rosenbaum was also a fellow at the Cantors Institute of the
*Jewish Theological Seminary (1960), where he assisted in placing graduates. In 1970, he became managing editor of the Journal of Synagogue Music, published by the Cantors Assembly.
433
rosenberg, abraham
public activities in *General Zionist circles. He was chairman
of the supreme Jewish peace court, and one of the founders of
the Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics. He wrote many
essays on Zionist and juridical subjects, including his research
Der Souveraenitaetsbegriff (1932).
ROSENBERG, ALFRED (18931946), chief Nazi ideologist and head of the Nazi partys foreign policy department.
Rosenberg was born in Reval (Tallin), Estonia. There is some
doubt about the familys German origin though their name is
German. Rosenberg studied architecture at Riga and Moscow
and witnessed the Russian Revolution, which he believed to
have been engineered by Jewry. He fled to Germany and settled in Munich at the end of 1918, immediately became active
in nationalist, antisemitic circles and published Die Spur der
Juden im Wandel der Zeiten (The Track of the Jews Through
the Ages, 1920). When the German Workers Party (DAP), the
precursor of the NSDAP (Nazi Party), was founded, he joined
it even before *Hitler. Later, as a member of Hitlers inner circle, he became editor (1921) and later chief editor (1923) of the
partys Voelkischer Beobachter. He impressed Hitler with his
linkage of the Jews, the Bolsheviks, and the Masons as supposedly engaging in a conspiracy to destroy the foundations
of German civilization. Rosenberg published antisemitic pamphlets and introduced the Protocols of the *Elders of Zion in
Nazi propaganda. He participated in the 1923 beer hall putsch.
In 1930 he published his main work, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts, which appeared in 24 editions by 1934, constituting
a hodgepodge of ideas from Nietzsche and various racist theories. The book propounds the doctrine of an Aryan race as
the creator of all values and culture. The protagonists of this
Aryan race are the Germanic peoples, while the Jewish race
had corrupted culture in different forms, one of them being
Paulinic Christianity. Bolshevism, he claimed, was a new form
of the Jewish quest for world rule, and, to rid themselves of
Jewish corruption, the German people were obliged to replace
Christianity by a new faith, based on blood and race. With
Hitlers advent to power, Rosenberg achieved renown, became head of all the party indoctrination organizations, and
was later appointed by Hitler chief of the Nazi Partys foreign
policy office (APA), where he ineffectually dabbled in diplomatic affairs. In fact, his office served only for disseminating
antisemitic propaganda. In 1940 Hitler appointed Rosenberg
head of the Hohe Schule, the future ideological University of
Nazism. On its behalf Rosenbergs emissaries ransacked Jewish libraries all over Europe and concentrated their contents
in Frankfurt. He headed a special staff which plundered objects of art and furniture belonging to Jews in occupied Western Europe and French art works from France, which were
brought to Germany. At the outbreak of the war against Russia Rosenberg was appointed minister of occupied countries
in the East and head of their civil administration (November 1941). He did not object to the annihilation of Jews, but
came into conflict with the SS and their collaborators on the
policy of murder, starvation, and repression of the non-Russian minorities in the occupied areas of the U.S.S.R., as it ap-
434
rosenberg, eugene
pears from correspondence in the so-called Braune Mappe
(on the status of the local population in the Soviet territories
occupied by the Germans, including correspondence with
*Eichmann). He preferred more lenient methods in order to
set the minority peoples against the Russians. Finally he accepted the harsher methods advocated by leading personalities of the Reich. Rosenberg, unrepentant and immovable at
his trial, was hanged by sentence of the International Military
Tribunal. The Memoirs of Alfred Rosenberg (ed. by S. Lang and
E. Schenck) appeared in 1949, and Rosenbergs Letzte Aufzeichnungen was published in 1955.
Bibliography: E. Davidson, Trial of the Germans (1966),
12543; IMT, Trial of the Major War Criminals, 24 (1949), index; G.M.
Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary (1947), index; L. Poliakov and J. Wulf (eds.),
Das dritte Reich und die Juden (1955), index; idem, Das dritte Reich
und seine Denker (1959), index; J. Billig, Alfred Rosenberg dans laction
idologique, politique et administrative du Reich hitlrien (1963). Add.
Bibliography: E. Cecil, The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology (1972); F. Noca, Alfred Rosenberg: Nazi Theorist
of the Holocaust (1986); J. Feist, The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits
of Nazi Leadership (1970).
[Yehuda Reshef /Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
was a communist, an allegation that was proved false. Rosenberg worked on increasing the number and use of women in
the military and she helped draft the Universal Military Service and Training Act. When President Eisenhower replaced
her, she returned to decades of consulting work at Anna M.
Rosenberg & Associates. Rosenberg received many honors,
including the Medal of Freedom in 1945; in 1947 she became
the first woman to receive the Medal for Merit. The Department of Defense recognized her with its Exceptional Civilian
Award in 1953, and in 1966 she received the Medallion of the
City of New York for her beautification efforts. As early as the
1930s, she was known for her philanthropic work, serving on
the National Council of Jewish Women, the ORT Reconstruction fund, and the womens division of the Joint Distribution
Committee of Jewish Charities.
Bibliography: C.L. Thurston. American National Biography
(1999); Columbia University houses her oral history.
[Sara Alpern (2nd ed.)]
435
rosenberg, harold
in 1939, and from 1944 practiced as an architect. He made an
important contribution to postwar building in Britain with
his designs for over 50 primary and secondary schools, and
a number of university buildings at Warwick, Oxford, Liverpool, Leeds and Rochdale.
His public buildings include the United States Embassy
in London (together with Eero Saarinen Associates) and a
series of new airports. He also designed hospitals, industrial
buildings, department stores, offices, and a number of housing schemes. He designed the new building for Jews College
London, the synagogue in Belfast, and the London offices of
the Jewish Welfare Board.
436
rosenberg, lazar
In January 1978 the trustees of the Imperial War Museum
in London accepted 15 of his paintings and some 200 manuscripts, and in 1979 there appeared The Collected Works of
Isaac Rosenberg: Prose, Letters, Paintings and Drawings (Oxford) in which he is referred to as the best Jewish poet writing in English that our century has given us. A plaque in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey, London, commemorating
the notable British writers who died in World War I, includes
the name of Isaac Rosenberg, surely the only British Jew officially honored in an Anglican church, and a tribute to his
stature and fame.
Bibliography: Bewley, in: Commentary, 7 (1949), 3444;
D.W. Harding, Experience into Words (1963), ch. 5; F. Grubb, Vision
of Reality (1965), 8594, index; Silk, in: Judaism, 14 (1965), 46274; JC
Lit. Suppl. (May 24, 1968), 3, 7. Add. Bibliography: ODNB online;
D. Maccoby, God Made Blind: Isaac Rosenberg, His Life and Poetry
(1999); P. Quinn (ed.), British Poets of the Great War: Brooke, Rosenberg, Thomas: A Documentary Volume (2000).
two-term president (192830, 194043); and honorary president (193039). He traveled to Europe with a rabbinic delegation in 1919 to organize relief efforts for Jewish communities
devastated by World War I and came to the rescue of Jewish
refugees in Poland. He also headed the Talmud Publication
Society of Agudat Harabbonim, which published a new edition of the Talmud to replace copies destroyed during the war.
Years later, he represented Agudat Harabbonim as a member
of a five-man commission that met with President Roosevelt
in 1942 and received his assurance that Nazis guilty of perpetrating crimes against Jews would be punished.
Rosenberg was an ardent supporter of religious Zionisms aspirations to settle Erez Israel and served as a *Mizrachi delegate to the World Zionist Congresses in London
(1920) and Zurich (1929). He also contributed numerous articles on Jewish law to rabbinic journals, as well as essays to
the Yiddish press.
[Bezalel Gordon (2nd ed.)]
[Jon Silkin]
ROSENBERG, JAMES NAUMBURG (18741970), U.S. lawyer, artist, philanthropist and author. Rosenberg, who was
born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, engaged in private law
practice until 1947; he then retired to pursue an art career; his
paintings were subsequently hung in several major U.S. museums. Active in public and Jewish affairs, Rosenberg served
as chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee in Europe
(1921); founded the Society for Jewish Farm Settlements in
Russia (1926), directing the population transfer of 30,000
Jews to Birobidzhan; helped found the Central Bank of Cooperative Institutions in Palestine; and founded the Agro-Joint.
He was president of the Dominican Republic Settlement association formed to settle the 100,000 refugees that Trujillos
government offered to accept at the 1938 Evian Conference.
Rosenberg led the U.S. delegation (1947) that sponsored the
Genocide Convention adopted by the UN General Assembly
in 1948. An art patron as well as a painter, Rosenberg founded
New Yorks New Gallery which exhibited and sold the works
of unknown artists. Rosenbergs written works include: Corporate Reorganization and the Federal Court (1924); On the
Steppes (1972); Painters Self-Portrait (1958); and Unfinished
Business (1967), including personal papers.
ROSENBERG, LAZAR (18621936), painter. Rosenberg
was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. At the age of 14, he entered
the Vilna Art School, in 1879 he enrolled at the Koenigsberg
Art Academy and in 1881 was admitted to the Academy in
Berlin. There his painting of a copy of one of *Rembrandts
religious works won him a gold medal and brought him into
prominence. In 1890 he moved to Paris and enrolled at the
Acadmie Julian where he was influenced by the work of the
Impressionists. An article on his work in the Zionist monthly
Ost und West, February 1904, written by Julius Levin in Paris,
reveals a series of studies of children and old Rembrandtesque
Jewish heads. His admiration for the great Dutch painter may
have inspired his move to Holland, where he lived from 1910
437
Rosenberg, Louis
to 1935, paying annual visits to his family in Lithuania. He
gained considerable prominence as a painter and draftsman
in Holland, but working outside the main centers of modern
art and being of a retiring nature, he has been unfairly neglected. Rosenbergs mature work is largely concerned with
Dutch subjects landscapes, the fishing village of Volendam,
fishermen and their wives, interiors of Dutch houses, etc. The
influence of Rembrandt remained constant, in the rich, expressive manner of his oil paint; but in the interiors with figures there is evidence of his admiration for older Dutch artists like Vermeer, as well as of Jozef *Israls in his sympathetic
treatment of simple people.
[Charles Samuel Spencer]
438
439
rosenberg case
ROSENBERG CASE, U.S. spy case involving Julius Rosenberg (19181953), his wife, Ethel (19201953), Morton Sobell (1918 ), and others. They were charged and convicted
of conspiracy to deliver U.S. atomic bomb secrets to Russia
(1951). The case was tried in New York before Judge Irving
R. *Kaufman, who declared he sought divine guidance before imposing sentence. The principal witnesses, judge, and
chief prosecutor were Jews. The Rosenbergs were sentenced
to death. There was a worldwide outcry: Some felt that the
Rosenbergs were not guilty; others felt they should be permitted to live in case one day they might be persuaded to talk, and
finally there were those who were against capital punishment
in general or felt that peace-time spying should not be a capital offense. The case was carried to the U.S. Court of Appeals
and then the Supreme Court. After executive clemency was
denied by President Eisenhower, a further effort was made
to secure a Supreme Court review. Justice Douglas granted a
stay during the courts summer recess, but the court was summoned into extraordinary session and, by a narrow vote, set
aside the stay and permitted the sentence to be carried out.
Justice Felix *Frankfurter wrote a dissenting judgment, protesting the unseemly haste and lack of full review. The Rosenbergs were the first civilians convicted as spies to be executed
in the U.S. Sobell was not charged with transmission of the
bomb secrets but with having agreed to supply national defense data. He was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. His
wife and mother worked tirelessly on his behalf and enlisted
many distinguished persons in his cause. His wife raised and
spent $1,000,000 on seven court appeals. Sobell was released
by a United States Court of Appeals in 1969 after having served
17 and a half years. The case remained a highly controversial
one, the subject of many books and articles by objective students as well as proponents of special causes. The Rosenbergs
were executed on a Friday evening, which was regarded by
some as evidence of antisemitism in the case; their children
were raised under the name of their adoptive parents. Robert
and Michael Meeropol have pressed for an opening of some
secret records.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening
of its archives, little doubt remains in the scholarly community over Julius guilt, but the participation of Ethel is seen as
marginal at most. Among those who switched positions was
Smith College historian Allen Weinstein, who said that under todays circumstances Ethel would probably have not been
indicted, let alone executed. She is listed in Soviet archives as
Julius wife but did not have a code name.
Bibliography: Rosenberg Letters (1953); J. Root, Betrayers:
The Rosenberg Case (1963); S.A. Fineberg, Rosenberg Case (1953); G.
Flayfair and D. Sington, Offenders (1957), 186213; J. Wexley, Judgment of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1955); W. and M. Schneir, Invitation to an Inquest (1965). Add. Bibliography: R. Meeropol, An
Execution in the Family: One Sons Journey (2001); A. Weinstein and
A. Vassilev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America The
Stalin Era (1999); R. Radosh and J. Milton, The Rosenberg File: Second Edition (1997); S. Roberts, The Brother: The Untold Story of the
Rosenberg Case (2002). M. SOBELL: National Rosenberg-Sobell Com-
440
rosenblatt, samuel
appeared in 1915, but his best lyrics, ballads, and contemplative
verses were the later works included in the volumes Odems
Kinder (Adams Children, 1944), Mayn Likhtike Nesiye (My
Illustrious Journey, 1944), In Shenstn Tog fun Harbst (On
the Nicest Day of Autumn, 1953), and Far-Nakht (Evening,
1957). Rosenblatt discovered for Yiddish poetry the American
West, especially Californias deserts, mountains, and ocean,
and versified legends of Native Americans. His poems, set to
music by various composers, had a calm, optimistic attitude
and a gentle humor.
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 4 (1929), 299305; J. Glatstein, In Tokh Genumen (1956), 25560; S.D. Singer, Dikhter un Prozaiker (1959), 1418; E. Brownstone, Fun Eygn Hoyz (1963), 96100; S.
Liptzin, Flowering of Yiddish Literature (1963), 197202; Shunami, Bibl,
nos. 419596. Add. Bibliography: B. Rivkin, Yidishe Dikhter in
Amerike (1947), 11936; Y. Pat, Shmuesn mit Yidishe Shrayber (1954),
24360; B. Grin, Yidishe Shrayber in Amerike (1963), 1014; Sh. Niger,
Yidishe Shrayber fun Tsvantsikstn Yorhundert, 1 (1972), 33648; J. Glatstein, In der Velt mit Yidish (1972), 2630; LNYL, 8 (1981), 43033.
[Sol Liptzin]
The extent of his popular appeal and his influence on synagogue music may be gauged from the widespread distribution
of his numerous recordings, which were repeatedly reissued
even many years after his death.
Bibliography: S. Rosenblatt, Yossele Rosenblatt (1954; Heb.
trans., 1961); A. Holde, Jews in Music (1959), 3335; Jewish Ministers
Cantors Association of America, Geshikhte fun Khazones (1924),
1889; idem, Goldene Yoyvl Zhurnal (1947), 1920; P. Szerman, in: Di
Khazonim Velt (June 1934), 12; S. Kaufman, ibid., 34; S. Mandel, in:
Morning Journal (Jan. 20, 1948), 5; I. Goldfarb, in: Proceedings of the
Seventh Annual Conference-Convention of the Cantors Assembly of
America (1954), 2427; Sendrey, Music, indices.
[David M.L. Olivestone]
441
442
443
444
[Leo Picard]
Rosenfeld, Isaac
as is the case in all of Rosenfarbs work (Eng. tr. in 2 vols., Bociany and Of Lodz and Love, 2000). Rosenfarbs novel Briv
tsu Abrashn (Letters to Abrasha, 1992) describes the horrors of the concentration camps. Most of Rosenfarbs essays
and stories appeared in Di Goldene Keyt; some of the stories
appeared in a translated collection, Survivors: Seven Short
Stories (2004). Rosenfarb also published non-fiction in English, notably Feminism and Yiddish Literature: A Personal
Approach, which problematizes the double marginalization
of a woman writer who is also a Yiddish writer. In 1994, she
published a pamphlet called Yiddish Poets in Canada. Rosenfarb was one of the foremost Yiddish writers of the second
half of the 20t century.
Bibliography: N. Ravvin, in: A House of Words (1997),
8598. J. Sharlett, in: Pakn Treger (1997), 5065; E. Naves, Putting
Down Roots: Montreals Immigrant Writers (1998); G. Morgentaler,
in: Holocaust Literature (2003), with bibliography.
[Goldie Morgentaler (2nd ed.)]
445
[Akiva Zimmerman]
rosenfeld, jonah
Shelleys king of kings, was a severe, dictatorial figure. Since
his mother had died when he was just 22 months old, Rosenfeld drew such emotional nourishment as he could from two
spinster aunts, who were the mainstays of childhood.
Passage from Home was an auspicious debut for a young
writer (just 28 in 1946). A postwar disenchantment novel,
typical of its time, it was a public exhibition of his alienation,
in which he wrote passionately about his childhood, as if by
doing so he could stanch his wounds and cleanse his spirit.
The hero, Bernard Miller, a name Americanized as though to
universalize him, is Isaac Rosenfeld in all but name, and his
struggles with his father are the very same that had driven
Rosenfeld from the home of Ozymandias. The Jewish family
in Passage from Home is a weakened institution, in which the
fathers tyranny has been divorced from any semblance of religious authority. An American, Chicago born, Bernard Miller
has learned to borrow a formula from Abraham Joshua Heschel the danger and gloom of this world but not the infinite
beauty of heaven or the holy mysteries of piety.
Rosenfelds essays and some short stories possessed fair
amounts of traction and thrust, and much that remains memorable in his career can be found in posthumous collections
titled An Age of Enormity (essays) and Alpha and Omega
(stories).
Despite a certain dishevelment that marked his fiction,
Rosenfeld was a vivid individual well remembered for his
playfulness and his capacity for mimicry and invention. Bellow recalled his prevailing sense of life as one of hard-headed
gemutlichkeit. His writing at its best was saturated with his
trademark blend of passion and intelligence. In his stories,
essays, and journals, he performed a sort of Reichian character analysis, looking beneath the skin of writing or writers for
blockages, symptoms, armor, and open corridors to feeling. He
wrote as a physician of the will, and as a result his book reviews
tended to be pathograms, CAT scans of malignant tissues.
Rosenfeld died in 1956 of a heart attack at the age of 38.
But his legacy was to be memorialized by others, in memoirs
by Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, and William Barrett, in the
novel To An Early Grave by Wallace Markfield, and, most notably in Bellows Zetland story. Indeed, the character of the
ill-fated poet Von Humboldt Fleisher in Bellows novel Humboldts Gift is thought by some to owe as much to Rosenfeld
as to Delmore Schwartz.
446
rosenhead, louis
uted to many Yiddish publications, including regularly to the
Forverts (190814). With the rise of Di *Yunge in the second
decade of the 20t century, Rosenfeld was displaced from the
canon of modern Yiddish poetry, his works dismissed as politically tendentious and sub-poetic. While this view may be
accurate concerning his earliest poems, Rosenfelds contribution to modern Yiddish literature was his engaging, emotional
portrayal of the immigrant sweatshop worker, which eschewed
politics and focused on the existential struggles of the community represented. Of his 20 published volumes, the most
widely read were his collected works in six volumes, Shriftn
(Writings, 190810), Gevelte Shriftn (Selected Writings,
1912), in three volumes, and Dos Bukh fun Libe (The Book of
Love, 1914). He also wrote biographies of Judah Halevi and
Heinrich Heine, two poets who had exerted a great influence
on his own lyrics. Like other Yiddish writers such as *Sholem
Aleichem, Sholem *Asch, and Isaac *Bashevis Singer, Rosenfeld represented the world of the East European Jew to a wide
international audience.
Bibliography: L. Goldenthal, Toil and Triumph (1960);
C. Madison, Yiddish Literature (1968), 15164; S. Liptzin, Flowering
of Yiddish Literature (1963), 13843; Waxman, Literature, 4 (19602),
10058; A.A. Roback, Story of Yiddish Literature (1940), 17282; Bialostotzky, in: JBA, 20 (1962), 1006; Reyzen, Leksikon, 4 (1929),
14169; B. Rivkin, Yidishe Dikhter in Amerike, 2 (1947), 3548. Add.
Bibliography: E. Goldenthal, Poet of the Ghetto (1998); S. Liptzin,
A History of Yiddish Literature (1972), 9697; L. Wiener, The History of
Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century (1899),12430; A. Tabachnik, Dikhter Un Dikhtung (1965), 732; N.B. Minkoff, Yidishe KlasikerPoetn (1937), 6798; I. Howe, World of Our Fathers (1976), 42124.
[Moshe Starkman / Marc Miller (2nd ed.)]
ROSENFELD, SHALOM (1914 ), Israeli journalist. Rosenfeld was born in Poland and settled in Palestine in 1934. In 1948
he was one of the group of journalists who broke away from
*Yedioth Aharonoth following disagreements with its proprietor to found *Maariv as a journalistic cooperative. He served
as deputy editor (196074) and editor-in-chief (197479). He
then headed the Journalism Studies Program at Tel Aviv University. In 1985 he founded and subsequently directed the Institute for the Study of Jewish Press and Communications, which
later became part of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Center
for the Media of the Jewish People at Tel Aviv University. In
1987 he founded the Institutes journal, Kesher. In 1986 he received the Israel Prize for political journalism and essays.
ROSENHEAD, LOUIS (19061984), British mathematician.
Born in Leeds, Rosenhead began his teaching career in 1931
as an assistant lecturer at the University College of Wales. In
1933 he was appointed professor of applied mathematics at
Liverpool University, a position he returned to in 1946 after
six years war service at the Ministry of Supply. He was dean
of the universitys science faculty in 194547, a member of its
council 195665, and pro-vice chancellor 196165. He spent the
years 195660 at the Haifa Technion, Israel. Elected a fellow
447
rosenheim, arthur
of the Royal Society in 1946, he was on its council from 1956
to 1958. Rosenhead is best known for his work in the field of
fluid mechanics, especially the flow of fluids and the motion
of the surface of the earth. He made a significant contribution
to the theory of the stability of Karman vortex streams. He was
part-author of Index of Mathematical Tables (1946) and A Selection of Tables for Use in Calculations of Compressible Airflow
(1952), and edited Laminar Boundary Layers (1963).
[Julian Louis Meltzer]
448
ROSENHEIM, MAX (Leonard), BARON (19081972), medical investigator and educator. Born in England, Rosenheim
specialized in the research and treatment of kidney diseases
and hypertension. He began his medical career in 1932, holding various hospital posts and traveling fellowships until joining the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1941. In 1950 he became
professor of medicine at the University of London and director of the medical unit at University College Hospital Medical
School. He was made a life peer in 1970.
Rosenheim became president of the Royal College of
Physicians in 1966, and was a member of the World Health
Organizations advisory committee on medical research, and
of the Hebrew Universitys board of governors. He contributed
articles to various medical journals.
[Julian Louis Meltzer]
rosensaft, josef
Deal legislation. In 1943 he resigned judicial office to become
counsel to the president. He edited the 13-volume Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (193850) and described his years with the president in Working with Roosevelt (1952).
After Roosevelts death, Rosenman was instrumental in
assisting President Truman to formulate his domestic program
and in preparations for the *War Crime Trials at Nuremberg.
In 1946 he resigned as counsel but continued to serve as presidential adviser.
In 1943 Rosenman worked with Chaim *Weizmann in
discussions with the State Department on the establishment
of a Jewish state. One of Weizmanns voices in the Truman
White House, Rosenman secretly brought Weizmann the
news in April 1948 that Truman would recognize the Jewish
state if partition was not abandoned by the UN General Assembly before establishment. His activities on behalf of Israel
independence prompted Weizmann to write that it was only
proper that the first letter he addressed as Israels president
be to Rosenman, who had contributed so much of [his] effort and wisdom toward bringing about some of the happy
results.
Bibliography: Hand, in: Journal of American History, 55
(1968), 33448.
[Samuel Hand]
ROSENMANNTAUB, DAVID (1927 ), Chilean poet, musician, and artist. Rosenmann-Taubs parents emigrated from
Poland to South America in the early 1900s. From earliest
childhood, he evinced gifts for both literature and music that
were fostered by his parents. His mother began teaching him
piano when he was two, and by nine he was giving lessons
himself. From the age of seven, he had been sure of his vocation as a poet and had started to write daily. In his teens, he
wrote El Adolescente (which would become his first published
work), and began Cortejo y epinicio, the book that first made
his name and in which such poems as Schabat and Elega
y Kadisch drew on his Jewish background.
He read broadly and thoroughly, acquiring the erudition
that has always informed his poetry especially the knowledge of physics that he considers fundamental to his work. He
continued his musical education, studying piano and composition. In 1948 he graduated from the University of Chile with
the title of professor of Spanish.
The next year, when he was 22, Cortejo y epinicio came
out to wide acclaim, with a reputation-making review from the
preeminent literary critic of Chile, Hernn Daz Arrieta.
In the three decades that followed, Rosenmann-Taub
published more than 10 volumes of poetry in Chile and
Argentina, including Los Surcos inundados (The Flooded
Furrows), for which he received the Premio Municipal
de Poesa, one of Chiles highest literary honors. His poetry
was admired by various critics and authors, among them
Witold Gombrowicz, Victoria Ocampo, and Francis de Miomandre.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
ROSENSAFT, JOSEF (19111975), business executive. Rosensaft, who was born in Bedzin, Poland, was active in the Labor
Zionist movement from his youth. In the years preceding
World War II, he was a scrap metal dealer. In 1943 Rosensaft
449
Berlin (193336). From 1936 to 1941 he was honorary music director of the Nippon Philharmonic, Tokyo, returning there in
1945. He went to the United States in 1946, working with various orchestras until 1948 and conducting at the New York City
Opera in 195256. After conducting in Cologne in 195859, he
returned to the Metropolitan in New York in 196168, directing 175 performances of 16 operas, chiefly works of Mozart,
Strauss, and Wagner.
[Max Loppert / Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
450
rosenthal, A.M.
As an outcome of their relationship, Rosenzweig attempted to construct a philosophy of history that recognizes
two true religions, Judaism and Christianity, which have
their unity in Adam and separate historical configuration. After World War I Rosenstock, in the journal Die Kreatur, attempted to bring Catholics, Protestants, and Jews together for
an exchange of views. On the other hand, he accepted from
Rosenzweig the positive evaluation of the French Revolution
as the Johanine Age. In his early writings he had a negative
attitude to the age of emancipation (Judaism Despite Christianity, pp. 143158).
The philosophy of language that Rosenstock developed
in 1916 in a pamphlet for Rosenzweig later called Angewandte
Seelenkunde (Darmstadt, 1924) was written to explain his theological language theory. In it he took his point of departure in
the saying, God called me therefore I am. Rosenstocks dialogue theory precedes that of Martin *Buber, and in contrast
to the I-Thou of Buber, he emphasized the dynamism of the
situation which changes from instant to instant. They agree
on the fact that the Thou always precedes the I.
In his book Out of Revolution (1938) Rosenstock explained European history in accordance with a cyclical calendrical outlook, in which he considered the repetition of events
as an important factor. This theory developed in the war letter
of 1916 and was accepted by Rosenzweig not in terms of history but in terms of the yearly repetition of the holidays. Both
thinkers gave up university careers after World War I in their
attempt to reach the common people. Rosenstock became interested in labor camps and adult education, first in Germany
and then in the U.S. President Roosevelt invited him to train
leaders for the civilian Conservation Corps. Some of his disciples in Germany attempted a resistance movement against
Hitler during the war, and died in concentration camps. The
interest in his philosophy in Germany has grown considerably since 1945. Rosenstocks other works include: The Multiformity of Man (1949); The Driving Power of Western Civilization (1950); and the Christian Future or the Modern Mind
(1966). Rosenstock tried time and again to convince Rosenzweig of the truth of Christianity. In 1913 he almost succeeded
in bringing his friend to it but Rosenzweig decided to remain
a Jew and with time slowly but enthusiastically discovered
the deeper layers of his Jewish existence. In the intensive correspondence of 1916 Rosenzweig explained the relevance of
his Jewish existence. Yet, also after this exchange of letters,
in which Rosenzweig clearly elucidated his new viewpoint,
Rosenstock did not stop his attempts to convert Rosenzweig.
Of great importance in this context are Rosenzweigs numerous letters to Gritli Rosenstock-Huessy, whom he met in June
of 1917. These Gritli letters are an example of the rare possibility of cross-cultural and transcultural understanding. Unfortunately, scholars do not have Gritlis letters to Rosenzweig.
However, judging from Rosenzweigs letters to Gritli, with
whom he developed a close relationship, Gritli was attentive
to Franzs expressions of his Judaism. She accepted his otherness, making it possible for him to express himself freely. In
contrast to Eugen, she did not wish to convert him, but was
able to support him in his spiritual odyssey that led him to the
discovery of important aspects of Jewish life and finally to the
acceptance of the Law rooted in the experience of love.
451
Bibliography: K. Ballerstedt, E. Rosenstock-Huessy, Bibliography and Biography (1959); P. Smith, Historian and History (1964);
L. Sabine, in: Universitas, 8 (1965/66), pt. 3. Add. Bibliography:
H. Stahmer, Speak that I May See Thee! The Religious Significance
of Language (1968.); E. Rosenstock-Huessy (ed.), Judaism Despite
Christianity (1969); L. van der Molen, A Complete Bibliography of
the Writings of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1989); W. Schmied-Kowarzik, Franz Rosenzweig. Existentielles Denken und gelebte Bewhrung
(1991), 12173 (= Franz Rosenzweig und Eugen Rosenstock. Ein juedisch-christlicher Dialog und die Folgen von Auschwitz); F. Rosenzweig. Die Gritli-Briefe. Briefe an Margrit Rosenstock-Huessy, R.
Inken and R. Mayer (eds.) with a preface by R. Rosenzweig (2002);
M. Brasser, Rosenstock und Rosenzweig ueber Sprache. Die Angewandte Seelenkunde im Stern der Erlsung, in: idem (ed.), Rosenweig
als Leser. Kontextuelle Kommentare zum Stern der Erlsung (2004),
173207; E. Meir, Letters of Love: Franz Rosenzweigs Spiritual Biography and Oeuvre in Light of the Gritli Letters (2006).
[Richard Hirsch / Ephraim Meir (2nd ed.)]
lyn Law School (LL.B., 1949) and New York University (LL.
M., 1952). He was admitted to the New York bar in 1949 and
the Supreme Court bar in 1954. On February 20, 1962, he won
a special congressional election to succeed U.S. Rep. Lester
Holtzman, who resigned. Rosenthal was subsequently elected
to 11 succeeding congresses to represent Queens, and died of
cancer in Washington, D.C., shortly after being sworn in for
his 12t term.
As the senior Jewish member of the House Committee
on Foreign Affairs, he was the person most of his colleagues
turned to for leadership on issues involving Israel. He was the
first in the House to challenge the sale of sophisticated weapons to Israels Arab enemies. He was responsible for drafting
and shepherding through the House generous aid programs
for Israel. As chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
on Europe, he held the first congressional hearings on the
plight of Soviet Jewry.
His outspoken opposition to the war in Vietnam was
unpopular among constituents for many years as well as the
leadership of his own party, but he did not waver. He incurred the wrath of President Lyndon B. Johnson in a 1969
House speech accusing the United States of being virtually a
puppet of the Saigon government. But he stood firm on his
principles, winning the respect and votes of those who
disagreed with him.
Rosenthal was well known for his facile mind, quick wit,
and devastating style of questioning some critics called him
abrasive particularly when it came to deflating the stuffed
shirts who appeared before his committees. He was compassionate and had a strong sense of justice but little tolerance
for those he considered to be acting against the public interest. The Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library at City University of
New Yorks Queens College was named in his memory as was
a street in Queens and a senior center in Flushing.
[Douglas M. Bloomfield (2nd ed.)]
452
rosenthal, herman
62 (1961), 327); Studies of Intermarriage in the United States
(AJYB, 64 (1963), 353); and Jewish Intermarriage in Indiana
(AJYB, 68 (1967), 24364).
[Werner J. Cahnman / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
and became a Sterling Professor in 1967. He resumed his Aramaic studies with his Aramaic Handbook (1967), in which such
scholars as H. *Ritter and H.J. *Polotsky participated (1967).
When he retired from teaching, he was named Sterling Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
at Yale in 1985.
Rosenthals main interest was the history of scholarship
in *Islam. Apart from many papers and editions of smaller
texts, he published: The Technique and Approach of Muslim
Scholarship (1947); A History of Muslim Historiography (1952,
19682); a fully-annotated translation of Ibn Khalduns Muqaddimah (Bollingen Series, 3 vols., 1958); Gifts and Bribes: The
Muslim View (1964); and Knowledge Triumphant (1970). He
also wrote a comprehensive paper of special Jewish interest on
Judeo-Arabic work under Sufic influence (HUCA, 15, 1940).
Together with R. *Walzer, he published and translated into
Latin al-*Frbs De Platonis philosophia, the Arabic original
of Shem Tov b. Joseph *Falaqueras account in Reshit H okhmah
(Plato Arabus, 2, 1943).
His later works include: The Herb: Hashish vs Medieval
Muslim Society (1971); Gambling in Islam (1975); Muslim Intellectual and Social History (1990); The Classical Heritage in
Islam (1994); and Sweeter Than Hope (1997).
Among the many organizations he belonged to and the
numerous honors he received, Rosenthal served as president
of the American Oriental Society and in 1994 was the first recipient of the AOS Medal of Merit.
[Martin Meir Plessner / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
453
rosenthal, ida
was decorated. As a result of the pogroms of 1881, Rosenthal
reached the conclusion that the solution to the Jewish problem in Eastern Europe lay in emigration from Russia and in
agricultural settlement. Organizing a group of 70 people in
Yelizavetgrad, he set out for the United States to pave the way
for their settlement there. In 1882 he established the first agricultural settlement for Russian Jews on Sicily Island, near New
Orleans, Louisiana. After the destruction of the settlement by
the Mississippi floods, he attempted to establish a new settlement, named Crmieux, in Dakota, but this was also shortlived. In later years, Rosenthal continued to foster the idea of
Jewish settlement. He published the newspaper Der Yidisher
Farmer, and in 1891 participated in the establishment of the
ICA colony of Woodbine, New Jersey. In 1901, together with
Abraham H ayyim *Rosenberg, he published the monthly
Ha-Modia le-H odashim. From 1898, Rosenthal headed the
Slavonic department of the New York public library. He was
the editor of the department of Russian Jewry in the Jewish
Encyclopedia and made an important contribution to its high
standard. Rosenthal wrote poems in his mother tongue, German, among them poetic translations of Song of Songs and
Ecclesiastes (1893).
Bibliography: Ha-Meliz , nos. 84 and 86 (1883); A. Menes,
in: E. Tcherikower (ed.), Geshikhte fun der Yidisher Arbeter Bavegung in di Fareynikte Shtatn, 2 (1945), 2237, 471; Z. Szajkowski, in:
PAJHS, 40 (1951), 2458.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
ROSENTHAL, IDA (18861973), businesswoman, dressmaker and inventor of the modern brassiere. Ida Kaganovich
was born near Minsk, in Czarist Russia; her father was a Hebrew scholar and her mother ran a small general store. She
emigrated to the United States in 1904 at the age of 18, following her boyfriend, William Rosenthal, whom she married in
1907. With a Singer sewing machine purchased on an installment plan, Ida made a living as a seamstress. In the early 1920s,
the Rosenthals joined with Enid Bisset to open Enid Frocks,
a small custom dress shop in Manhattan. Unhappy with the
way their expensive dresses fit around the bosom, the partners designed a brassiere with cups that separated and supported the breasts; they called the bra a Maiden form. The
Enid Manufacturing Company they founded to meet the demand for their new product became the Maiden Form Brassiere Company in 1923 and Maidenform, Inc. in 1960. In 1925
they stopped making dresses and made Maiden Form bras
exclusively. Ida Rosenthal managed the sales and traveled
nationally and internationally to open new markets. By the
end of the 1930s, Maiden Form products, eventually including other kinds of womens lingerie and swimsuits, were sold
throughout the world. During World War II, the Rosenthals
had no trouble getting rubber for elastic straps because studies showed that working women who wore the bra suffered
less fatigue than women who did not wear this garment. The
Rosenthals also helped the war effort by producing a pigeon
vest, a cup-shaped cloth that held a courier pigeon. A 1949
454
ROSENTHAL, LEON (Judah Leib; 18171887), Russian financier, maskil and philanthropist. Rosenthal was born into
a wealthy family in Vilna. His father, Moses, one of the first
maskilim in Vilna, educated him in the spirit of the *Haskalah. After his marriage, he went to live in Brest-Litovsk. When
Moses *Montefiore visited Russia in 1846, Rosenthal submitted to him a memorandum claiming that education and modern schools would solve the problems of Russian Jewry. In the
1850s, Rosenthal settled in St. Petersburg, where he became
associated with the *Guenzburg family and was one of the
citys leading financiers and bankers. He corresponded with
maskilim all over Russia, assisting them in their dealings with
the government, distributing their literature, and also supporting them financially. In 1863 Rosenthal was among the founders of the *Society for the Promotion of Culture among the
Jews of Russia; he served as the societys treasurer, contributed
largely to its budget, and participated actively in its work. Advocating the spread of Hebrew language and literature and opposing assimilationist trends, he was influential in the societys
support of Hebrew journals and books. In his later years, he
began to write the history of the society, Toledot H evrat Marbei
Haskalah be-Yisrael be-Erez Rusyah (2 vols., 188590), which
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
rosenthal, max
also contains records and documents from the societys archives and is of great value for the history of the Haskalah in
Russia. He was also one of the founders of the society for promotion of crafts and agriculture among Jews in Russia, ORT,
and was one the main contributors to the society.
Bibliography: J.L. Kantor, in: L. Rosenthal, Toledot H evrat
Marbei Haskalah, 2 (1890), introd.; E. Tcherikower, Istoriya Obshchestva rasprostraneniya prosveshcheniya sredi yevreyev, 1 (1913),
passim.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
and confidant. After conducting Parisian orchestras, he became leader of the National Radio Orchestra in 1934. During
World War II, he was a prisoner in Germany and at the end
the war he conducted, at the French Radio in Paris, the concert given to mark the liberation (September 28, 1944), which
included the first performance of Messiaens Chant des dports for choir soprano, tenor and orchestra (published in 1945).
He became instructor of composition at the College of Puget
Sound in Tacoma, Washington, in 1948 and was the conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra from 1949 to 1951. In
April 1973, he conducted the first performance to mark the
reopening of the Paris Opera. Rosenthal also appeared on
many occasions at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and
in 1987 he conducted the Russian premire of Pellas et Mlisande. He was professor of conducting at the Paris Conservatoire (196274) and made recordings of the music of Debussy
and Ravel. As a composer, he rejected the compartmentalized
aesthetics of French music in the interwar period and put his
individual language into his work. He wrote in almost every
musical genre, including opera (such as Rayon des soieries,
opra-bouffe, 192628), ballet (such as Un baiser pour rien,
192829) chamber, and orchestral music, as well as choral and
sacred music Cantate pour le temps de la Nativit (194344);
and Missa Deo gratias, (1953).
Bibliography: Grove Music Online; D. Saudinos, Manuel
Rosenthal (1992); M. Marnat (ed.), Ravel: souvenirs de Manuel Rosenthal (1995).
[Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
ROSENTHAL, MANUEL (Emmanuel; 19042003), conductor and composer. Born in Paris, he studied solfge with
Mme. Marcou and the violin with Jules Boucherit at the Paris
Conservatoire (191823). He was also Ravels student and was
among his masters closest disciples, a privileged interpreter
455
[Jacob H. Copenhagen]
rosenthal, moriz
in Baltimore was found objectionable due to the phylacteries
which Rosenthal included on Jesus forehead and right arm. A
Catholic church then offered a substantial sum for the work if
the artist would paint in a halo, but Rosenthal refused to do so.
A versatile man, Rosenthal also became known for his technical achievements, among them his invention of the sandblast
process of engraving glass. Rosenthal portraits are numerous.
His mezzotint Colonel George Washington displays the future
president as a young man, pensive but determined. Another
mezzotint Portrait of General Smallwood depicts this military
leader in dramatic illumination which imparts the sagging
face of his sitter with flattering chiaroscuro. His son, ALBERT
ROSENTHAL (18631939), was his collaborator on many projects. He was a painter and lithographer but was best known
for his knowledge of 18t and 19t-century American art, and
he often served as an expert both for American museums
and for private collections. Rosenthals works are in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York;
the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; the National Portrait
Gallery; the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts;
the Smithsonian Institution; and the State Museum of Philadelphia, among other museums.
traditional Judaism. An atmosphere of religious study permeated his household: even his wife was acquainted with biblical and talmudic passages in the original. His son-in-law, F.
Gomperz, assisted him in the management of the yeshivah
of Mor. Rosenthals public activities were not confined to his
own community: he was also the spokesman of the whole of
Hungarian Jewry at the court of Vienna under Joseph *II and
the two subsequent monarchs.
His son ELIJAH (17581833) was a businessman and
bibliophile. Between the ages of 13 and 18 he studied at the
yeshivah of Pressburg (Bratislava) and became an accomplished talmudic scholar. From 1785 he lived in Komarom
(Komarno), Hungary, where he kept an inn. His fellow-citizens wanted to give him the freedom of the town in recognition of his charitable acts and public service, but the authorities would not confirm this. Moving to Pest, he opened a shop
for Hebrew books and stationery in 1804. He himself was a
book collector and his library was praised by Leopold *Zunz.
Following the French Revolution (1789), he became active in
the struggle for Jewish civil rights, remembering his own humiliating experience in Komarom. He wrote various memoranda and petitions in pursuit of this aim.
ROSENTHAL, NAPHTALI (17271798), Hungarian talmudist, founder of the Jewish community of Mor. While studying
in Berlin at the yeshivah of David Fraenkel, he made the acquaintance of Moses *Mendelssohn; they became friends and
maintained the friendship by correspondence after Rosenthal
had left Berlin. After staying in Prague, he later settled in Mor,
where his house became a center of learning, hospitality and
456
rosenwald
tion. He was among the moderates regarding the Bunds return
to the Russian Social Democratic Party. During the period of
reaction following 1905, he turned his attention to the problems
of promoting culture and education for adults. In World War I
Rosenthal served at the front. After his discharge at the end
of 1917, he was elected to the central committee of the Bund at
its eighth convention. Resuming his professional and literary
work in Moscow, Kiev, and Petrograd, Rosenthal was authorized to return to Vilna in 1921. Having previously identified
with the internationalist wing of the Bund, in Poland he joined
the short-lived Polish Social Democratic Bund.
A prolific author, Rosenthal had wide and varied interests. His work on revolutions in Western Europe, Vi Zaynen
Forgekumen Revolutsies in Mayrev Oyropa, appeared in 1905.
In his Der Kampf far Velthershaft un Velt-Vegn (The Struggle
for World Domination and World Routes, 1924, first published in Russian, 1923), he included a chapter on the general
role of the Jews. His articles on the history of the Bund are included in Royter Pinkes, 1 (1921), 4563; 2 (1924), 521.
Rosenthals wife, ANNA, ne Heller (1872c. 1940), a dentist, was an early member of the H ovevei Zion group of Vilna
and was later active in both the Jargon Committee and the
Bund committee. With her husband, she took part in the revolt of the exiles in Yakutsk (Romanovka). She later resumed
her Bundist activities. During World War I, Anna was active
in the OSE and the Red Cross. Between the two world wars,
she taught in Vilna in CYSHO institutions, and was active in
YIVO. She was a Bundist delegate at the congress of the Socialist International (1931). Her memoirs were published in YIVO
Historishe Shriftn (vol. 3, 1939). After the occupation of Vilna
by the Soviets, she was arrested and died in prison.
Bibliography: Rejzen, Leksikon, 4 (1929), 1235; LNYL, 1
(1956), 12831; J. Hertz et al. (eds.), Doyres Bundistn, 1 (1956), 15792;
G. Aronson et al. (eds.), Geshikhte fun Bund, 3 vols. (196066), indexes.
[Moshe Mishkinsky]
457
rosenwiller
relief during World War I and the post-war period; pledged
$6,000,000 to promote Jewish agricultural colonization in the
Soviet Union; and gave $500,000 each to the Hebrew Union
College and Jewish Theological Seminary. Rosenwald opposed
Zionism but contributed modestly to educational and agricultural institutions in Palestine. He served for many years as
vice president of the American Jewish Committee. Active in
general civic affairs, Rosenwald was a trustee of the University of Chicago, to which he donated $5,000,000; he pledged
$3,000,000 for the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry;
and he served on the Advisory Commission of the Council of
National Defense during World War I.
LESSING JULIUS ROSENWALD (18911979), the eldest
son of Julius Rosenwald, was a merchant, book collector and
philanthropist. Rosenwald, who was born in Chicago, Illinois,
entered Sears, Roebuck and Company as a shipping clerk in
1911, and worked his way up through the companys ranks. After naval service in World War I, he took charge of the Sears
plant in Philadelphia and, upon his fathers death in 1932, succeeded him as chairman of the board until 1939. During World
War II, Rosenwald served as director of the Bureau of Industrial Conservation. In 1943 he led the foundation of the *American Council for Judaism and was its first president. Rosenwald and the Council campaigned vigorously in the U.S. and
before the UN against the establishment of a Jewish national
state in Palestine. Rosenwald continued the philanthropic
tradition of his family through service and contributions to
Jewish and general civic causes. In addition, he was noted as a
collector of rare books and prints and contributed generously
to the National Gallery of Art and Library of Congress.
WILLIAM ROSENWALD (19031996), the second son of
Julius Rosenwald, was a philanthropist and financier. Rosenwald, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, served briefly as a
director of Sears, Roebuck and Company before concentrating
on his own investments. These included the American Securities Corporation and Ametek, Inc. and Western Union. Rosenwald was one of the outstanding figures in American Jewish
philanthropic activity from the 1930s. He served as chairman
of the national United Jewish Appeal campaign, and vice
chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, American Jewish Committee and United HIAS Service. He also supported
Tuskegee Institute, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society.
not seem to have been effectively carried out, but the number of Jews there remained small. The Rosenwiller community was important because its Jewish cemetery, dating from
at least 1621, served some 20 Jewish communities in the area.
In the second half of the 18t century, almost 100 burials a
year took place there.
Bibliography: M. Ginsburger, in: Souvenir et science, 1
(1930), 2451.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
ROSENWILLER (Rosenweiler), town in Alsace in the department of Bas-Rhin, E. France. There is evidence of Jews in
Rosenwiller from the middle of the 16t century. Although an
expulsion order was issued by the local lord in 1563, it does
ROSENZWEIG, FRANZ (18861929), German Jewish philosopher and theologian. Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany, the only son of well-to-do parents. His father Georg
financially supported many charity institutions, including
the Jewish community, but the familys adherence to Judaism
was minimal. In his youth, Franz came under the influence of
his great-uncle, Adam Rosenzweig, a bachelor, an artist and
a learned Jew, who lived in the Rosenzweig home and spent
many hours with Franz. Through him the young boy learned
of the Jewish world in an otherwise assimilated milieu. Unlike the rest of his family, Rosenzweig fasted on Yom Kippur
(the Day of Atonement) and also took private Hebrew lessons.
In 1905, he enrolled at the university, where he initially studied medicine, as many a Jewish student did, but then turned
to philosophy and history, concentrating on Hegel and German idealism. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on Hegel and
the State.
In 1909, Rosenzweig tended towards assimilation, and
justified the conversion of his cousin Hans Ehrenberg to
Christianity. He did not see the advantage that Judaism could
have over Christianity, the dominant culture, which would
also help him obtain a teaching position, almost impossible for
a Jew to get. Another cousin and friend, Rudolf Ehrenberg was
already born a Christian. Eugen *Rosenstock, a Jewish convert
to Christianity, became Rosenzweigs closest friend. Rosenstock, who would become an important nonconformist Protestant theologian, repeatedly urged him to abandon what he
considered Rosenzweigs merely nominal Judaism and to convert. After months of deep conversations, and especially the
catastrophic conversation with Rosenstock during the night of
July 7, 1913, Rosenzweig decided to convert. But he then made
the condition, to convert not as a pagan, but as a Jew. All
this led to a crisis and almost to suicide. He left his converted
friends for a few years and refrained from having any contact
with them. In the same year, on Yom Kippur of 1913, he attended in Berlin the synagogue of Rabbi Petuchowski and felt
a profound identification with the praying Jewish community.
After a few days he wrote his friends, I shall remain a Jew.
He then reshaped his life, rethought his identity, and devoted
his further life to a sincere return to Judaism, moving from
the periphery of Jewish life to its center.
He developed a very close relationship with the philosopher Hermann *Cohen, who had retired from the University of Marburg and now taught at the Hochschule fuer die
Wissenschaft des Judentums, the institution for adult Jewish
458
Bibliography: M.R. Werner, Julius Rosenwald (1939); Angell, in: AJYB (1932), 14176; E.R. Embree and J. Waxman, Investment
in People: The Story of the Julius Rosenwald Fund (1949); Current Biography (1947), 5514; Forbes, 102 (Sept. 15, 1968), 74. Add. Bibliography: Crisis and Response 19331983. Published in Honor of William
Rosenwalds 50 Years of Leadership in Jewish Philanthropy (1983).
[Morton Rosenstock]
rosenzweig, franz
education in Berlin. Cohen was of enormous importance for
the young returning Jew, who saw in his teacher a great philosopher and someone who represented a source of Jewish
tradition. Only in 1916 did Rosenzweig resume his lengthy
theological correspondence with Rosenstock, after he had
strengthened his renewed Jewish roots; in this correspondence
with his friend he explained his new existential position. Although he disliked Rosenstocks continued attempts to convert
him, the two remained in close contact. Rosenzweig inherited from his friend the idea of revelation as orientation in
life, and devoted his first Jewish theological essay (Atheistische
Theologie) to the idea of revelation, which went beyond what
Rosenstock wrote and debated with Buber.
In World War I Rosenzweig served in the German army,
and, while stationed in the Balkans, planned the revival of Jewish education. He sent his plan to Hermann Cohen as an open
letter called Zeit ists (It is Time, 1917), a letter that had an enormous influence. Towards the end of the war, in the trenches,
with the retreat of the Balkan-troops and in the army hospital he wrote the first draft of his Stern der Erloesung (Star of
Redemption), his main work. At a feverish pace he wrote his
major philosophical work, which contains hundreds of pages.
New light has now been shed on it by Rosenzweigs correspondence with Gritli Rosenstock, which will be discussed below.
The Star of Redemption was written from August 23, 1918, to
February 16, 1919, and published in 1921.
In his return to Judaism, Rosenzweig was supported primarily by Hermann Cohen, but also by people such as Rabbi
Nehemiah Nobel, Martin Buber, Joseph Prager, and Eduard
Strauss. In 1920 he married Edith Hahn, and progressively observed the Jewish laws. Their son Raphael was born in September 1922. Realizing that, as a returnee to Judaism, he could
play a pivotal role in bringing Jews back to their roots, Rosenzweig became interested in Jewish education, and in 1920 was
appointed director of the Freies Juedisches Lehrhaus, an institute of adult Jewish education in Frankfurt on the Main, in
which the participants were invited to express their view on
Jewish problems and to try to understand their identity. The
same year, he turned down an offer by Friedrich Meinecke to
become a professional historian. Instead, he desired to free
himself from what he called dead science and from mere
cognition, so that he could enter into the flow of life, where
real questions demand answers. In the Lehrhaus, he used his
talents not to write books, but to provide living answers to
questions from the public, who were increasingly interested
after the war in the return to Jewish faith.
According to Rosenzweig, the uniqueness of the Lehrhaus was in that people took part in conversations through
questions and counter-questions. Lernen, which in German
means to study, but which, according to Rosenzweig in a 1919
letter to Margrit Rosenstock, in a Jewish context means both
to study and to teach, is possible wherever people come together and try to overcome their estrangement from Judaism.
The Lehrhaus in Frankfurt was not dependent on rabbis or
religious teachers, but on people who knew little, in Rosen-
459
rosenzweig, franz
Rosenzweigs important essay Die Bauleute (The Builders,
1923) discusses the attitude of the Jew to the commandments.
Unlike the orthodox Jew, Rosenzweig did not accept all of the
commandments, but distinguished between the subjective
commandment (Gebot), which addresses the individual in
the present, and which he readily accepted, and objective Law
(Gesetz), which he could not yet accept. His beautiful introduction to Hermann Cohens Jewish writings and his other
Jewish essays further testify to Rosenzweigs steadily growing
interest in Jewish life.
Parallel to his religious evolution, Rosenzweig developed
his existential philosophy and subsequently explicated it in a
more popular way in Das neue Denken (The New Thinking,
1925). The essay shows his dissatisfaction with German idealism and describes his kind of new thinking, which takes
into account the importance of dialogue, pluriform reality,
language, and time. Instead of a philosophy serving history
and politics and knowing nothing about revelation, Rosenzweig posited revelation as leading to a life of community.
Eternity (Ewigkeit) is to be realized in the everyday life in the
community of believers.
In his magnum opus, Rosenzweig conceived of the All collapsing into three separate elements: God, man, and the world.
In opposition to pantheism, materialism, and extreme anthropology, he rejected the philosophical attempt to reduce these elements to one, and pointed to their interaction with each other
in the relationships of creation, revelation, and redemption. In
revelation, God addresses man with the commandment Thou
shalt love, which is the basis of all laws. Judaism and Christianity as collective answers to revelation are two twin communities, which are different, complementary, and critical towards
each other. They are partial truth in history, whereas God as
the ultimate truth transcends them. Yet, as in Judah Halevis
Kuzari, Judaism is given clear priority in the Star.
In opposition to the idealistic attempts to find God in
history and to make the world into a platform of the developing Absolute Spirit as did Hegel, Rosenzweigs Star did not put
history in the center, but revelation and eternity, which are
a rupture of history. Jewish history has no epochs; it transcends time and is eternal. For Rosenzweig, there is a new
form of interaction between philosophy and theology: theology talks about revelation as the objective breach of history,
whereas philosophy approaches the same revelation from the
subjective point of view.
With his revelation-centered philosophy, Rosenzweig
criticized idealism, which was current in the German universities of that time and in which he was well versed. In 1917
he had published Das aelteste Systemprogramm des deutschen
Idealismus, in which he identified as Schellings a manuscript
written in Hegels hand on a unified system of idealism. (Pggler now argues that the program fits Hegel and not the early
Schelling; the subject is in debate.) In 1920 Rosenzweig published his Hegel und der Staat (1920).
However, it was the Star that interested Rosenzweig
most. In it he developed his anti-idealistic thinking, and he
460
rosenzweig, franz
Rosenzweig met Gritli in Kassel and he became her lover for
some time. Whereas Eugen and his other friends wanted to
convert Franz, Franz appreciated the attitude of Gritli, who
was tolerant of the expression of his Jewishness. She did not
try to convert him, and rather said to him in times of crisis:
Franz ich suche dein jdisches Herz (Franz, I search for
your Jewish heart). The Gritli letters give new impetus for
scholarly research into Rosenzweigs philosophy and into the
complexity of his life. Reading the Gritli letters, we see that
the former tendency to write much about Hegel and Schelling
as a source for Rosenzweig does not follow from these letters,
whereas little has been written as yet on Eugen Rosenstock,
Hans and Rudolf Ehrenberg, or Hermann Cohens profound
influence on Rosenzweig. In the letters, Rosenzweig gave
Rosenstock a great deal of credit and he greatly appreciated
Cohen, from whom he borrowed the idea of revelation as a
new creation.
The documents reveal many details about the Star, making it clear that the Star led Rosenzweig from thoughts about
the exteriority of death and suicide to the positive experience
of the life-transforming exteriority of revelation, which nourishes life in the community. In writing the Star Rosenzweig
freed himself from a paralyzing and dead thinking, as well
as from suicidal thoughts. He emphasized that the Star only
elucidates one concept: that of factuality Tatschlichkeit: the
fact (die Tatsache, das Faktum) which stands free from the
idea. In the letters Rosenzweig speaks about his anti-idealistic
thoughts on language, time, and eternity. He discusses the importance of the name, explained why he appreciated anthropomorphisms and attributed a special place to paganism, namely
as the truth in embryonic form, and elucidated his concept of
the miracle (Wunder) of revelation as sign (Zeichen), i.e., as
predicted in creation. He stressed the Jewish character of the
Star, wanted a Jewish publisher for the book, and described
the Star as counterpart of Rosenstocks chief work Im Kreuz
der Wirklichkeit (Cross of Reality).
From these letters, we also learn about many existential
problems, about his mothers suicidal tendencies and Eugens
continual attempts to convert him. Most importantly, the letters contain many remarks on Rosenzweigs progress on his
way to Judaism. He wrote on the Lehrhaus, on his translations,
and on his joy of being of Jew. Noteworthy are his thoughts
on the New Law (neues Gesetz), which is based on the commandment of love, which pertains to the whole of life and is
not restricted to religion. This New Law, being linked to the
divine imperative of love, is not characterized by coercive
force, but by its possible subjectivization: the objective Law,
Gesetz, may become a personal commandment, Gebot. Just
as New Thinking was required for philosophy leading into
life (ins Leben), so the New Law in Jewish life could make a
person alive (lebendig), turning him into a lively, responsive,
and responsible being.
Rosenzweigs thoughts on the complex relationship between religion and revelation remain crucial for any future
Jewish-Christian dialogue. They are an eminent example of di-
461
Influence
The Gritli letters, which contain more than a thousand pages
and were published to a large extent in recent years, aroused
renewed interest in Rosenzweigs writings. Interest is also
growing from another direction, as a result of the great scholarly interest in the work of French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel *Levinas, who clearly recognized and expressed his
debt to Rosenzweig. In May 2005, the Internationale Rosenzweig-Gesellschaft was founded, which organizes scholarly
activities in Europe, the U.S., and Israel. Rosenzweigs impact
on Jewish-Christian dialogue has been profound. His combination of a dynamic interest in Jewish learning, of vast general
culture, and of a non-parochial Judaism has attracted many
Jewish intellectuals.
Bibliography: Y. Amir, Faith-Full Cognition A Study in
Rosenzweigs Star of Redemption (Heb., 2004); L. Anckaert, M. Brasser,
and N. Samuelson (eds.), The Legacy of Franz Rosenzweig. Collected
Essays (2004); L. Batnitzky, Idolatry and Representation. The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered (2000); G. Bensussan, Franz
Rosenzweig Existence et philosophie (2000); M. Brasser (ed.), Rosenzweig als Leser. Kontextuelle Kommentare zum Stern der Erloesung
(2004); R. Burkhardt-Riedmiller, Franz Rosenzweigs Sprachdenken
und seine Erneuerung humanistischer und jdischer Lerntraditionen
(1995); H.M. Dober, Die Zeit ernst nehmen. Studien zu Franz Rosenzweigs Der Stern der Erloesung (Epistemata, Wrzburger Wissenschaftliche Schriften, Reihe Philosophie, vol. 84 (1990)); P.W. Franks,
M.L. Morgan (eds.), Franz Rosenzweig. Philosophical and Theological Writings. Translated and Edited with Notes and Commentary
(2000); R. Freund, Die Existenzphilosophie Franz Rosenzweigs Ein
Beitrag zur Analyse seines Werkes Der Stern der Erloesung (1959);
N.N. Glatzer (ed.), Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought (1961);
idem, On Jewish Learning (1955; paperback ed., 1989) Y. Greenberg
Kornberg, Better than Wine. Love, Poetry and Prayer in the Thought
of Franz Rosenzweig (1996); R. Horwitz, Bubers Way to I and Thou.
The Development of Martin Bubers Thought and His Religion as Presence Lectures (1988; first published in Heidelberg 1978); idem, Franz
Rosenzweig A Selection of Letters and Diary Fragments (Heb., 1987);
W. Licharz M. Keller (eds.), Franz Rosenzweig und Hans Ehrenberg.
Bericht einer Beziehung (Arnoldshainer Texte, Band 42) (1986); E.
Meir, Star from Jacob The Life and Work of Franz Rosenzweig (Heb.,
1994); idem, Letters of Love: Franz Rosenzweigs Spiritual Biography
and Oeuvre in Light of the Gritli Letters (2005); P. Mendes-Flohr (ed.),
rosenzweig, gerson
The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig (1988); I. Rhle, Gott spricht die
Sprache der Menschen. Franz Rosenzweig als jdischer Theologe eine
Einfhrung (2004); N. Samuelson, A Users Guide to Franz Rosenzweigs Star of Redemption (1999); E.L. Santner, On the Psychotheology of Everyday Life. Reflections on Freud and Rosenzweig (2001); R.
Schaeffler, B. Casper, S. Talmon, and Y. Amir, Offenbarung im Denken Franz Rosenzweigs (1979); W. Schmied-Kowarzik (ed.), Der Philosoph Franz Rosenzweig (18861929) Internationaler Kongress- Kassel
1986. Bd.1: Die Herausforderung juedischen Lernens. Bd. 2: Das neue
Denken und seine Dimensionen (1988); idem, Franz Rosenzweig. Existentielles Denken und gelebte Bewhrung (1991); J. Turner, Faith and
Humanism Reflections on the Religious Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig (Heb., 2001); R. Horwitz, Hermann Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig on Creation and Revelation, in: Archivio di Filosofia, 71 (2003),
11529; A. Jospe, The Frankfurt Lehrhaus: A Model for American
Jewish Education? in: E. Jospe and R. Jospe (eds.), To Leave Your
Mark. Selections from the Writings of Alfred Jospe (2000), 8283;
R. Jospe and E. Meir, Franz Rosenzweigs Inexpressible Joy, in: E.
Meir and H. Pedayah (eds.), Festschrift for R. Horwitz; E. Meir, La
presenza biblica nella cultura ebraica contemporanea: M. Buber F.
Rosenzweig E. Levinas, in: S.J. Sierra (ed.), La lettura ebraica delle
Scritture (1995), 46595; idem, Goethes Place in Rosenzweigs Star of
Redemption, in: Daat A Journal of Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah,
48 (2002), 97107 (Heb.); idem, The Unpublished Correspondence
between Franz Rosenzweig and Gritli Rosenstock-Huessy in the Star
of Redemption, in: Jewish Studies Quarterly, 9 (2002), 2170; H. Putnam, Introduction to F. Rosenzweig, Understanding the Sick and the
Healthy. A View of World, Man and God, tr. Nahum N. Glazer (1999),
120; M. Scwarcz, The Place of Franz Rosenzweig in the Philosophy
of Judaism, in: Introduction to the Hebrew translation of the Star,
942 (Heb.); H.M. Stahmer, Franz Rosenzweigs Letters to Margrit
Rosenstock-Huessy, 19171922, in: Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 34
(1989), 385409.
of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). He published two books of epigrams: Shirim, Meshalim u-Mikhtamim (1893) and H amishah
ve-Elef Mikhtamim (1903; reprinted in Russia).
In the English preface to his Hebrew translations of
America, The Star-Spangled Banner, and Columbia, the
Gem of the Ocean which appeared in the booklet Mi-Zimrat
ha-Arez (1898), he ventured to suggest that the youngest nation is the heir of the oldest, and all that was best in the Jewish
nation is now in the possession of the American nation to be
developed and cultivated for the benefit of all humanity.
Bibliography: E.R. Malachi, Massot u-Reshimot (1937),
17886; E. Silberschlag, in: JBA, 18 (1960/61), 6266; J. Kabakoff,
H aluz ei ha-Sifrut ha-Ivrit ba-Amerikah (1966), 21166; Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 8456.
[Eisig Silberschlag]
ROSETTA (Rashid), town in Egypt, situated on the western bank of the western tributary of the Nile. The *Genizah
documents point to the economic activity of the Jews in Rosetta, e.g., a letter dated February 16, 1000, from Fustat sent
to Yeshua ben Ismail al-Maghrebi in Rosetta. Meshullam of
Volterra mentioned the existence of a Jewish community in
Rosetta in 1481. When, at the beginning of the 16t century,
*Alexandria lost its commercial importance, Rosetta became
the most important transit harbor for the maritime trade between *Egypt and *Turkey. Jews in Rosetta did business with
Jews from Rhodes. There were Jews in the town during the
late Middle Ages, but the Jewish population increased considerably during the 16t century with the arrival of Spanish
refugees. Rosetta became a well-organized community headed
by learned rabbis. These included: R. Moses ibn Abudraham,
R. Judah Meshal, R. Abraham b. Sur, and R. Abraham Medina in the 16t century; the great posek R. Mordecai ha-Levi
(born in Rosetta in 1620); in the first half of the 17t century
the great dayyan R. David Gershon; R. Abraham b. Nathan
(d. 1725); and R. Shabbetai Nauavi, his brother Isaac, and
R. Judah Crispin in the 19t century. Abraham ben H ayyim
Nathan (d. 1725) settled in Rosetta in 1695 and for 30 years
dealt in international trade, employing agents in Turkey and
*Italy in the 18t century. He contributed money to the Viga
Yeshivah in *Jerusalem. Close to the year 1740, there was a
debate about his inheritance, whose result was the foundation of the H esed le-Avraham u-Binyan Shelomo Yeshivah
in Jerusalem in 1747. In the 17t century Israel Crispin and
David Reuel served also as dayyanim. The *Karaite Samuel
b. David, who visited Egypt in 1641, relates that there were
then two synagogues in Rosetta. Israel Benjamin (*Benjamin
II) found 50 families there in the middle of the 19t century.
After the opening of the Mahmudiya Canal which connected
the Nile with Alexandria, Rosetta lost its importance and the
majority of its Jews left, so the community disappeared. The
Jews lived earlier in their own quarter. The Jewish translator
for the French vice consul in Rosetta at the beginning of the
18t century was Abraham Metinoly. In 1709 there was a Jewish dragoman (translator) who served the French merchants
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rosh ha-shanah
in Rosetta.The scholars of the community had good connections with the Jerusalem community. There were Ottoman
Jews, like Joseph Mitinoly who were translators. There were
also Jews in the city who were French subjects. Some were also
customs officers in the Ottoman period.
Bibliography: Neubauer, Chronicles, 1 (1887), 156; J.Saphir,
Even Sappir, 1 (1866), 3a; A. Yaari, Masot Erez Yisrael (1946), 230; Ashtor, Toledot, 1 (1944), 2324; 2 (1951), 113, 423, 445, 486, 506, 537; J.M.
Landau, Jews in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (1969), 31; E.N. Adler, Jewish Travellers (1930), 1634, 223, 3358. Add. Bibliography: N.
Golb, in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 33 (1974), 137; S.Z. Havlin,
in: J.M. Landau (ed), Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Miz raim ba-Tekufah haOtmanit, 15171914 (1988), 275, 301; M. Rozen, in: ibid., 428, 431, 445,
468; E. Bashan, in: ibid., 8485; L. Bornstein-Makovetsky, in: ibid., 149,
194; S.Z. Havlin, in: Shalem, 2 (1976), 152ff.; A. David, in: Peamim, 54
(1993), 11732; M. Gil, Be-Malkhut Ishmael, I (1997 ), 683.
[Eliyahu Ashtor / Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky (2nd ed.)]
ROSEWATER, EDWARD (18411906), U.S. journalist, publisher, editor and politician. Rosewater, who was born in Bukoven, Bohemia, went to the U.S. with his family in 1854. He
soon became a telegrapher, and as a member of the United
States Military Telegraph Corps during the Civil War, he accompanied Union forces and was responsible for transmission
of Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation. Rosewater went to
Omaha as manager of Edward Creightons Pacific Telegraph
Company and also worked as a newspaper correspondent.
He was elected to the Nebraska State Legislature in 1871 and
founded the Omaha Daily Bee in connection with a campaign
to establish an Omaha Board of Education. The rights of the
common man and public improvements were constantly
championed in the pages of the Bee, and though Rosewater
gained numerous enemies, he became one of Omahas best
known and most influential citizens. Active in politics, Rosewater served on the Republican National Committee and its
advisory board, represented the United States at two Universal Postal Congresses, and served on the Mint Commission.
Advocating direct election of U.S. senators, civil service and
labor reforms, a postal telegraph system, and postal savings
banks, and opposed to trusts and unequal taxation, Rosewater
twice unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate. His son
VICTOR ROSEWATER (18711940) succeeded him as editor of
the Bee. He was active in Republican Party politics, chaired
Omahas first home rule charter convention and served on the
University of Nebraska Board of Regents, the Omaha Public
Library Board, and other public bodies. He was also a founding member of the American Jewish Committee. Rosewater
retired from newspaper work in 1920. He was director of publicity for the Sesquicentennial Exposition, and later devoted
himself to writing and lecturing. His books include: Liberty
Bell (1926) and History of Cooperative News Gathering in the
United States (1930).
Bibliography: C. Gendler, Jews of Omaha (thesis, University of Omaha, 1968); J.A. Micks, in: DAB (1935), 1712; New York
Times (July 13, 1940), 13.
[Carol Gendler]
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rosh ha-shanah
The Babylonian name Tishri seems to derive from the
root seru, which means to begin. The ancient Semitic peoples
thought of the year as beginning in the autumn, at the time of
the late harvest; cf. the expressions be-z et ha-shanah (at the
end of the year), and tekufat ha-shanah ((at) the turn of the
year), by which the Feast of Ingathering, or *Sukkot, which
is in a sense the popular equivalent of the more priestly Day
of Remembrance, is dated in Exodus 23:16 and 34:22 respectively. The *Gezer Calendar in fact begins with two Months
of Ingathering. This was the beginning of the economic year,
when crops began to be sold. It is plausible, therefore, that the
biblical feast originally marked the beginning of the agricultural year. If this is correct, the rabbinic name Rosh Ha-Shanah
only makes explicit that which had been implicit in the observance of the day from earliest times. It was on the first day of
the seventh month that Ezra the Scribe read the book of the
Law before the people (Neh. 8:18). The people, conscious of
their shortcomings, were distressed to hear the words of the
Law; but Nehemiah, Ezras companion, said to them: Go your
way, eat rich viands, and drink the sweet beverages, and send
portions to him who has none prepared; for this day is holy
to our Lord; do not be sad; for joy in the Lord is your refuge
(Neh. 8:10). The psalmist is almost certainly referring to this
festival when he proclaims: Blow the horn at the new moon,
at the full moon for our feast day. For it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob (Ps. 81:45). In the critical
view, the Pentateuchal legislation in which the festival appears
belongs to the Priestly Code (P) and, therefore, to the postExilic period, when the Babylonian influences had become
particularly pronounced. The older critical views consider the
whole institution to be post-Exilic, pointing out, for instance,
that there is no reference to it in the lists of the feasts in Deuteronomy (16:117). More recently, however, S. Mowinckel
(The Psalms in Israels Worship, 1 (1962), 120ff.) has advanced
the suggestion that there existed in pre-Exilic Israel an autumnal New Year festival on which God was enthroned as King
(analogous to the Babylonian enthronement of *Marduk). He
claims to have found marked traces in many of the psalms to
substantiate his assertion. Although Mowinckels thesis has
won wide acceptance, it is still the subject of debate.
In Rabbinic Literature
The Mishnah (RH 1:1) speaks of four periods of the year, each
known as Rosh Ha-Shanah (see *New Year). One of these is
the first of Tishri, and it is to this day that the name generally refers. It is a day when all mankind is judged (RH 1:2). R.
Eliezer taught that the world was created in Tishri; R. Joshua
that it was created in Nisan (RH 10b11a). In the Rosh Ha-Shanah liturgy, the reference to the day as the day on which the
world was created follows the opinion of R. Eliezer (RH 27a).
The motif of Rosh Ha-Shanah as a day of judgment is independent of the theme of creation. R. Nah man b. Isaac interprets
From the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year
(Deut. 11:12) to mean that God determines at the beginning of
the year what is to be at the end of the year (RH 8a). Another
The Shofar
The essential ritual of Rosh Ha-Shanah is the sounding of the
shofar. The Mishnah (RH 3:2) rules that the horn of any animal
(e.g. sheep, goat, antelope), except the cow, may be used as a
shofar on Rosh Ha-Shanah. One of the reasons why the horn
of a cow is not used is its reference to the golden calf and a
prosecuting counsel cannot act for the defense (RH 26a). At
a later period, the rams horn was preferred in order to recall
the binding of Isaac for whom a ram was substituted (RH 16a;
see Gen. 22:13). It is considered meritorious to use a curved
shofar, symbolic of man bowing in submission to Gods will
(RH 26b). The silence of the Scriptures as to why the horn is
blown on this day left room for a wide variety of interpretations among later teachers. There are ten frequently-quoted
reasons, which scholars have attributed to *Saadiah Gaon
464
rosh ha-shanah
(see Abudraham ha-Shalem, ed. S. Krauser (1959), 26970):
(1) Trumpets are sounded at a coronation and God is hailed
as King on this day. (2) The shofar heralds the beginning of
the penitential season (from Rosh Ha-Shanah to the Day of
Atonement). (3) The Torah was given on Sinai accompanied
by blasts of the shofar. (4) The prophets compare their message to the sound of the shofar. (5) The conquering armies
that destroyed the Temple sounded trumpet blasts. (6) The
ram was substituted for Isaac. (7) The prophet asks: Shall the
horn be blown in a city, and the people not tremble? (Amos
3:6). (8) The prophet Zephaniah speaks of the great day of
the Lord (Judgment Day) as a day of the horn and alarm
(Zeph. 1:14, 16). (9) The prophet Isaiah speaks of the great shofar which will herald the messianic age (Isa. 27:13). (10) The
shofar will be sounded at the resurrection.
Maimonides (Yad, Teshuvah 3:4) writes: Although it is a
divine decree that we blow the shofar on Rosh Ha-Shanah, a
hint of the following idea is contained in the command. It is as
if to say: Awake from your slumbers, ye who have fallen asleep
in life, and reflect on your deeds. Remember your Creator. Be
not of those who miss reality in the pursuit of shadows, and
waste their years in seeking after vain things which neither
profit nor save. Look well to your souls and improve your character. Forsake each of you his evil ways and thoughts.
The particular shofar sounds blown on Rosh Ha-Shanah
have an extended development. A day of blowing the horn
(Num. 29:1) is, in Hebrew, called yom teruah, and is rendered by the Targum as yom yabbava. The phrase concerning the mother of Sisera who is said to have looked through
the window (va-teyabbev; Judg. 5:28) is interpreted by the
Rabbis as and she wept. Hence the shofar blast is said to be
a weeping sound. According to rabbinic tradition, however,
the teruah-yabbava sound must always be followed and preceded by an extended, unbroken note, tekiah. Since there are
three references to the teruah-yabbava sound (Lev. 23:24; 25:9;
Num. 29:1), it follows that three teruah-yabbava sounds are
required, each preceded and followed by a tekiah (RH 33b,
34a). There are doubts as to whether the weeping sound means
three groaning notes (shevarim) or a series of nine very short
wailing notes (teruah). Is the biblical teruah-yabbava, then, a
shevarim note, or a teruah note, or both together? In order to
eliminate all doubt, the practice arose, and is still followed, of
sounding all three notes. The order became:
tekiah shevarim teruah tekiah (3 times)
tekiah shevarim tekiah (3 times)
tekiah teruah tekiah (3 times).
The final tekiah is especially long and drawnout, and is
known as tekiah gedolah, the great tekiah. This series of 30
notes, first sounded after the reading of the Torah, is again
sounded during the repetition of the *Musaf Amidah (in some
rites in the silent Amidah), and in many congregations also
at the end of the service with an additional ten notes, so as to
make a total of 100. The sounding of the shofar in the synagogue is an occasion of great solemnity at which God is entreated to show mercy to His creatures. The Midrash remarks:
465
rosh ha-shanah
ment. *Hallel is, therefore, not recited. The day is imbued
with an aura of awe as expressed in the prayer: Now, therefore, O Lord our God, impose Thine awe upon all Thy works,
and Thy dread upon all that Thou hast created, that all works
may revere Thee and all creatures prostrate themselves before Thee, that they may all form a single band to do Thy will
with a perfect heart.
Bibliography: N.H. Snaith, Jewish New Year Festival (1948);
S.J. Zevin, Ha-Moadim ba-Halakhah (19429), 2656; L. Jacobs, Guide
to Rosh Ha-Shanah (1959); M. Arzt, Justice and Mercy (1963); S.Y.
Agnon, Days of Awe (1965); Ta-Shema, in: Tarbiz, 38 (1968/69), 398f.;
P. Goodman, Rosh Hashana Anthology (1971).
[Louis Jacobs]
466
the world was created in Nisan or in Tishri (10b12a); the latter view seems to have been accepted in later amoraic times,
as reflected in the Rosh Ha-Shanah prayers of those days. Of
particular interest is the elaboration on the idea of Rosh HaShanah being the day of judgment for every individual as well
as for mankind (16a18a).
Tractate Rosh Ha-Shanah is characterized particularly by
two topics. The first is the intercalation of the year and how
and when and for what reasons intercalation is effected, and
what are the considerations which normally influence the determination of the yearly *calendar. The second is a systematic,
philosophical, speculative discussion on everything concerning providence, and reward and punishment in this world and
in the next. These topics are much better arranged and edited
than others and more systematically than in all other tractates.
The talmudic tractate was translated into English by Maurice
Simon in the Soncino edition (1938).
Bibliography: Epstein, Tannaim, 36372; H . Albeck, Shishah Sidrei Mishnah, 2 (1958), 3059.
[Arnost Zvi Ehrman]
roskies, david G.
Grain crops and deciduous fruit orchards were its characteristic farm branches. In the mid-1990s, the population was approximately 1,820, increasing to 2,210 in 2002 on an area of
7 sq. mi. (18 sq. km.). Many of Rosh Pinnahs residents earned
their livelihoods in the tourist industry, mainly in the areas
guest houses. Some still worked in agriculture.
[Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
467
rosmaryn, henryk
In 1981 Roskies cofounded, with Alan Mintz, Prooftexts:
A Journal of Jewish Literary History, published by the University of Indiana Press. From 1998 he served as editor-in-chief of
the New Yiddish Library, published by Yale University Press.
He also served as a member of the editorial board of the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, and he was a
member of the Association for Jewish Studies.
ROSOWSKY, SOLOMON (18781962), composer and musicologist. Born in Riga, the son of the noted cantor Baruch
Leib Rosowsky, he studied at St. Petersburg under RimskyKorsakov, Glazunov and Liadov. He was a cofounder of the
*Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg (1908), where
he also served as musical director of the Yiddish Art Theater.
In 1920 he founded the first Jewish Conservatory of Music
at Riga. Rosowsky immigrated to Erez Israel in 1925, taught
music there and did research on biblical cantillation. He attempted, in cooperation with Y.L. *Neeman, to present and
analyze the essence of the East Ashkenazi (Poland-Lithuania) style. This resulted in the voluminous work, The Cantillation of the Bible (The Five Books of Moses), published in New
York in 1957. Rosowsky composed songs, chamber and orchestral music, and music for the Hebrew theater. In his quest for
a modern Hebrew style based on traditional and Oriental elements, he was a pioneer. His latter years were spent in New
York, where he taught at the Cantors Institute of the Jewish
Theological Seminary.
ROSS, BARNEY (Barnet, Dov Ber, David Beryl Rasofsky, The Pride of the Ghetto; 19091967), U.S. boxer, threetime champion as lightweight (193335), junior welterweight
(193335), and welterweight (1934, 193538), only Jewish fighter
to win two different world championships, member of Boxing Hall of Fame and International Boxing Hall of Fame. Ross
was born on the Lower East Side of New York to Sarah and
Isadore, religious immigrants from Brest-Litovsk, Russia. The
family moved to the Maxwell Street neighborhood of Chicago
when Ross was two, where his father, who was also a rabbi,
ran Rasofskys Dairy store. A week before his 14t birthday in
December 1924, Ross father was shot to death during a store
robbery. His mother suffered a nervous breakdown and had
to be taken care of by relatives; Ross and his older brother,
Morrie, moved in with a cousin, and the three younger siblings were placed in an orphanage. In his anger, Ross rejected
his Orthodox lifestyle and became obsessed with reuniting his
scattered family. He became a petty thief and numbers runner,
and worked for Al Capone, who reportedly gave him $20 and
advised him to go straight. He turned to the ring, changing his
name to Barney Ross so that his mother would not know he
was boxing, and fought as often as five times a week, pawning
his winning medals for three dollars apiece. In 1929, Ross won
the Western and Inter-City Golden Gloves featherweight titles.
His first professional fight was on August 31, 1929, and his big
break came on June 23, 1933, when he fought Tony Canzoneri
in Chicago for the world lightweight and junior welterweight
titles, winning by a split decision and becoming the first fighter
in the modern era to win two titles simultaneously. Winning
the titles was almost an anti-climax, Ross said later. My big
thrill came a few weeks before the fight. That was when I was
able to take the younger kids out of the orphanage asylum and
reunite them with Mom. His most famous fights were three
welterweight championship bouts against Jimmy McLarnin in
1934 and 1935 Ross won the first and third, the latter despite
breaking his left thumb in the sixth-round which captured
the nations attention and drew huge gates. Ross became only
the third boxer in history to win world titles in three divisions.
His last fight was on May 31, 1938, against Henry Armstrong.
Referee Arthur Donovan moved to stop the bout in the late
rounds and award Armstrong the victory, but Ross pleaded
to allow the fight to continue, saying, Ive got to go out like
a champion. Let me finish. He lost the title in a 15-round decision and retired after the fight, having never been knocked
out in over 300 professional and amateur fights. His record in
81 bouts was 74 wins including two newspaper wins (22 KOs),
four losses, and three draws.
In World War II, Ross fought at Guadalcanal, and while
on patrol on November 20, 1942, he and three comrades ran
into an advance party of Japanese. With the others wounded,
468
ross, herbert
Ross defended them through the night while reciting Hebrew
prayers from memory. He was awarded a Silver Star and a
Presidential Citation. At the military hospital where he was
treated for shrapnel in his legs and sides, Ross became addicted to morphine. His habit cost him $500 a week until Ross
sought admission to a federal drug treatment facility, where
he kicked the habit.
Ross, who was tremendously popular among American Jews, became active in the Emergency Committee to
Save the Jewish People of Europe, also known as the Bergson
Group. He also was active in another Bergson committee,
the American League for a Free Palestine, which sought to
rally American support for the creation of a Jewish state. His
autobiography, No Man Stands Alone: The True Story of Barney Ross (1957) was made into a Hollywood movie, Monkey
on My Back (1957). He is also the subject of a biography, Barney Ross, by Douglas Century (2006). Ross was elected to the
Boxing Hall of Fame in 1956 and to the International Boxing
Hall of Fame in 1990.
[Elli Wohlgelernter (2nd ed.)]
When Israeli-Palestinian negotiations reached an impasse, or when violence threatened to derail the process, Ross
involvement often reached a fever pitch. He led marathon negotiations that led to the signing of the Interim Agreement
(1995), the Hebron Accord (1997), and the Wye River Agreement (1998). Ross worked closely with President Clinton, who
became much more personally involved in the negotiations
at the end of his presidency.
Ross believed strongly in the strategic importance
of an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement and devoted significant
attention to these negotiations, though the talks ultimately
collapsed in early 2000. In the last months of the Clinton
administration, Ross led an intensive effort to reach an
Israeli-Palestinian final status agreement. But this final
push for peace, which included the abortive Camp David
summit in mid-2000, ended in failure as large-scale,
sustained Israeli-Palestinian violence displaced the negotiations.
In his best-selling memoir, Missing Peace (2004), Ross
blamed Palestinian leader Yasser *Arafat for the collapse of the
Oslo process. After leaving government service, Ross took a
senior position at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Ross also became chairman of the Jerusalem-based Jewish
People Policy Planning Institute.
Although American Jews had previously served at
the highest ranks of the foreign policy and national security
establishment, they had generally not been granted overriding authority to manage U.S. diplomacy toward Israel and
its neighbors. He was the first to attain such a dominant position and remained at the helm of Americas peace process
diplomacy under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Bibliography: D. Ross, The Missing Peace, (2004); S. Lewis
The Receding Horizon: The Endless Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, in:
Foreign Affairs (September/October 2004); J. Heilbrun, Dennis Ross
and the Endless Peace Process, in: New Republic (July 8, 1996).
[Scott Lasensky (2nd ed.)]
469
ross, lillian
ROSS, LILLIAN (1928? ), U.S. writer. Born in Syracuse,
N.Y., Ross moved to New York City in her youth and worked
briefly for the newspaper PM before joining the staff of The
New Yorker in 1945. Notoriously reticent about her age, she is
listed in one literary reference work as having been born in
1928, which would have made her 17 when she went to work
for the magazine. There she became one of the better-known
practitioners of a style of fly-on-the-wall reporting in which
the writer never directly imputes motivitation. Nevertheless, her portraits of people like Ernest Hemingway and Adlai Stevenson, among others, were considered to be succinct
and revealing. In 1950, her first portrait of Hemingway was
published in The New Yorker. It was an account of two days
Hemingway spent in New York in 1949 on his way from Havana to Europe. Ross captures Hemingway shopping for an
elephant gun at Abercrombie & Fitch, aiming an imaginary
weapon at the sky while walking along Madison Avenue. To
celebrate the centenary of Hemingways birth, in 1999, Ross
wrote a second portrait, detailing the friendship the two struck
up after the completion of the first article. Together, the two
works provide the definitive sketch of one of Americas greatest writers. Ross stayed with the magazine until 1987 and returned in 1993. She was the author of 12 books, including her
memoir Here but Not Here: A Love Story, about her 40-year
relationship as the mistress of William Shawn, the longtime
editor of The New Yorker.
ROSS, STEPHEN (1942 ), U.S. developer. A native of Detroit, Ross earned a bachelors degree in accounting from the
University of Michigan Business School and a law degree
from Wayne State before obtaining a masters in tax law at
New York University. He worked for two years as a tax lawyer at the Detroit office of Coopers & Lybrand, then a major accounting concern. He was influenced by the success of
his uncle Max *Fisher, who built a business empire in oil and
gas, and became one of the nations leading philanthropists.
Ross yearned to work in New York, and he picked up experience at two investment firms, as an assistant vice president
in the real estate subsidiary of Laird, Inc. and in the corporate
finance department of Bear, Stearns & Co. In 1971 he began
to organize deals by which wealthy investors incurred riskfree tax losses in affordable housing to shelter other income.
He combined the idea of tax losses for wealthy investors with
the procurement of subsidies for affordable properties. In
1972 he founded Related Housing Companies with the goal
of building or rehabilitating housing to blend into the community. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Ross and his team
built on the success to expand into a wider range of developments, starting with Riverwalk, a large, planned mixed-use
development along the East River in Manhattan, which was
never built. Related built its first office complex, with 880,000
square feet, in Westchester. From these beginnings came
diversification into retail, industrial, office and mixed use,
and a name change to the Related Companies, which included
ROSSELLI, Italian family distinguished for its patriotic activities in the 19t and 20t centuries. Settling in London in
partnership with the *Nathan family, parents of Ernesto *Nathan, later mayor of Rome, they kept open house for Italian
conspirators and patriots, especially Giuseppe Mazzini, who
thanked God for the friendship of the family. Giannetta Nathan married Pellegrino Rosselli, and with him continued to
follow the family tradition; it was in their house in Pisa (now
a national monument) that Mazzini died, a fugitive, in 1872.
Their descendants included CARLO ROSSELLI (18991937),
socialist writer and economist, author of Socialismo liberale
(1930, 1945) and of Scritti politici ed autobiografici (1944).
Rosselli was one of the foremost opponents of Fascism, and
founded for this purpose the movement Giustizia e Libert
with its own publication. He led an eventful life, including a
daring escape by speedboat from Fascist confinement at Lipari in 1934 and various commands during the Civil War in
Spain, where he served with the International Brigade and
was wounded in 1936. His brother NELLO (19001937) wrote
Mazzini e Bakunin (1927), Carlo Pisacane nel Risorgimento
Italiano (1932), and other works. He shared his brothers views
and fought with him in the underground against Fascism. At
a Jewish youth movement convention in Leghorn in 1924, he
propounded the thesis that Judaism is above all the religion
of liberty. The two brothers were murdered in Bagnoles de
lOrne, France, by hired assassins of the Fascist government
(June 1937).
470
States, and lived for some time in Ferrara, Ancona, Bologna, and Sabbioneta. When the pope expelled the Jews from
his domains in 1569, Rossi settled again in Ferrara, where he
wrote his major work. Toward the end of his life, he returned
to Mantua, where he died after supervising the printing of his
Meor Einayim (Enlightenment to the Eyes, 157375). Rossi
did not publish anything until he was 60 years old. It seems
that he did not even intend to publish, though a reading of his
major work reveals that there is no doubt that he spent most
of his time studying classical and medieval Latin and Italian
literature as well as Jewish history and literature. An unusual
event caused him to write an important book. In 1571, when he
was living in Ferrara, the city was struck by a disastrous earthquake which lasted intermittently for about ten days. Rossi,
along with the majority of the survivors, fled to the fields outside the city. The event seemed to him to be a direct intervention of God in the life of the city and in his own life, and in
the first chapter of Meor Einayim entitled Kol Elohim (The
Voice of God), he describes the phenomenon in great detail,
giving a vivid description of each phase of the earthquake and
its effect upon the citizens, Jews and non-Jews. He added a
learned discourse on the reasons for, and the significance of,
earthquakes according to classical and medieval non-Jewish
scholars, comparing the natural causes given by the non-Jewish writers with the statements concerning the divine origin
of this phenomenon found in the Bible, the Talmud, and the
writings of medieval Jewish scholars. While outside the city
during the earthquake, Rossi met a Christian scholar who
was then studying the Greek pseudepigraphical work, Letter of *Aristeas (see Apocrypha and *Pseudepigrapha). The
scholar asked Rossi for the true meaning of some part of the
work, assuming that he was familiar with the Hebrew original of the text. When Rossi told him that there was no Hebrew original, and that the work was unknown to the Jews, the
Christian scholar was very much surprised. Since the Letter of
Aristeas is important to the study of the text and development
of the Old Testament (the book describes the translation of
the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek), Rossi decided
to translate the work. He entitled his translation Hadrat Zekenim (The Glory of the Elders), which became the second
part of Meor Einayim. The two chapters comprising Hadrat
Zekenim are quite short, the largest and most important part
of Meor Einayim being the third part, Imrei Binah (Words of
Wisdom), which is divided into 60 chapters. This latter part
is a revolutionary study of the development of the Bible and
of Jewish history, chronology, poetry and culture.
The sources which Rossi used reveal unusual knowledge
and erudition, unequaled by any previous Hebrew literary
scholar and by few subsequent scholars. Knowing very little
Greek, he used Latin and Italian translations of the writings
of the Greek philosophers and writers. He was fluent both in
classical and medieval Latin, and was a master of medieval
and Renaissance Italian literature. More than a hundred nonJewish scholars are quoted in his work (see the list in D. Cassels edition of Meor Einayim, 1866), not only the oft-quoted
471
[Giorgio Romano]
sephus, falsified many historical facts and is therefore unreliable. This disclosure came as a shock to traditional scholars,
who for many generations accepted the Josippon as the main
authority on the history of the Jews during the Second Temple
period. Another important aspect of Imrei Binah is its discussion of the revival of Jewish-Hellenistic literature written in
Greek during the period of the Second Temple and after its
destruction. Rossi was the first Jewish scholar to make use of
these writings in the study of Jewish history, literature, religion
and culture (though Christian scholars used them during the
Middle Ages because they were included in Greek and Latin
translations of the Bible).
Probably the most important part of Imrei Binah is that
devoted to the study of Jewish chronology. In a very detailed
study, Rossi proved that counting the years from the creation
and basing a calendar on this count is a relatively recent Jewish usage; none of the ancient sages in the talmudic or geonic
period, and certainly not in the Bible, used a calendar reckoned from the creation. Even in the early Middle Ages more
ancient calendars were used, especially one based on the conquest of Palestine by Alexander. Thus he exposed the fact that
the calendar accepted in his day was not of ancient origin. In
addition, he tried to prove that the Bible and the other ancient
sources are insufficient for reconstructing the chronology
from the creation to the present time. He thereby indicated
that the calendar was not only untraditional, but that it also
made a false claim. These findings seemed heretical to his traditional contemporaries, and even his friends among the Italian Renaissance scholars could not accept such a radical point
of view. In the same critical manner, Rossi dealt with countless
other subjects archaeology, Jewish coins, the development of
the Hebrew language and the use of Aramaic by ancient Jews,
Hebrew poetics and poetry, etc. Although modern scholarship does not accept many of his conclusions, some are scientifically sound, and, in any case, there is no doubt that Rossis
scholarship was more than 200 years ahead of its time.
The advanced critical spirit and method of Meor Einayim
made the work a subject of controversy for a long time. While
it was being printed in Mantua, rabbis who heard about its
contents raised objections, some of which Rossi answered in
the work itself. When the work was published, the traditional
rabbis in Italy were shocked, especially by Rossis attitude toward talmudic and midrashic legends and his denial of the
validity of the chronology claiming to date from the creation.
Even his friend and associate, Moses b. Abraham *Provenal, fiercely criticized Rossis attitude toward the calendar, as
did Isaac Finzi of Pesaro. In 1574, even before the printing of
Meor Einayim was completed, the rabbis of Venice, headed
by Samuel Judah *Katzenellenbogen, published a proclamation of h erem against possessing, reading, or using the book,
unless one received special permission from the rabbis of his
city. Rossi was not personally attacked, the impeccable conduct of his private life easily meeting Orthodox standards of
behavior. The h erem was followed by similar declarations in
such cities as Rome, Ferrara, Padua, Verona and Ancona, in
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rossi, salamone de
which rabbis warned their congregations against reading the
work. The controversy spread to other Jewish communities;
in Safed a proclamation of h erem was prepared for the signature of Joseph b. Ephraim *Caro, the great halakhist, but
Caro died before signing it, and the h erem was published by
the other rabbis of Safed. Judah Loew b. *Bezalel of Prague,
who defended the absolute truth of the talmudic legends and
traditions, dedicated a major part of his work on the oral tradition, Beer ha-Golah (Prague, 1598), to direct attacks against
Rossi and his teachings. Even in Mantua, where the author was
well known and where the book was printed, persons under 25
were forbidden to read it. Before his death, probably in 1578,
Rossi wrote a reply to his critics, Maz ref la-Kesef (1845; The
Purification of Silver), which deals especially with the problem of the calendar and chronology. Later, Maz ref la-Kesef was
printed together with Meor Einayim. The ban on Meor Einayim persisted for more than a hundred years, during which
time few scholars dared to use or even mention the work.
Renewed interest in the book was aroused only with the beginning of the Haskalah period late in the 18t century, when
maskilim found in Rossis work ideas similar to their own. The
first modern printing of the work (after the Mantua edition)
was published by the maskilim of Berlin in 1794.
ROSSI, SALAMONE DE (Heb. Shelomo Min-ha-Adummim; fl. first third of 17t century), composer from Mantua.
Salamone de Rossi became the leading Jewish composer of the
late Italian Renaissance, and a court musician of the Gonzaga
rulers of Mantua. Very little is known about his life. He was
apparently the son of a certain Bonaiuto (Azariah) de Rossi;
but this Azariah cannot be identical with the well-known philosopher of the same name who expressed regret that he had
no sons to survive him. Rossis published works ranging between the years 15891628 are the only direct documentation
on his life and work. It has been assumed that he was born
about 1570. He entered the service of Duke Vicenzo I in 1587
as a singer and viola player, and soon became the leader of
the dukes musical establishment and of an instrumental ensemble composed most probably of Jewish musicians. This
group achieved a high reputation and was occasionally loaned
to neighboring courts, as in 1612 when Alessandro, duke of
Mirandola, invited the Jew Salamon and his company to his
court. Rossis name as a violist appears on the ducal payrolls
until the year 1622. The death of the last Gonzaga duke and the
sack of Mantua by the Austrian (Hapsburg) army (162830)
put an end to the golden age of Mantuan court music. In that
year, many Jews fled to the Venetian ghetto where the Mantuan music circle found a certain measure of continuation in
the Jewish musical Accademia degli Impediti under the leadership of Rossis sponsor, the famed Leone *Modena, although
it cannot be ascertained whether Rossi himself was still alive
and active in the Accademia. With Salamone de Rossi, a peak
was reached in Jewish contributions to western art music (see
*Music). He was perhaps the last, but certainly the most important, of a long and distinguished list of Jewish court musicians (instrumentalists, singers, dancers, players) who were
active in Mantua throughout the 16t century, and included
Abramo dall *Arpa (c. 1542c. 1577), a harpist, and the son of a
distinguished harpist; Abramino, his nephew; Isacchino Massarano, flutist, dancer, and dancing master (158399); Davit da
Civita, madrigalist (published work, 1616); and Allegro Porto,
composer (works published 1619, 1625).
At the Mantuan court, Rossi developed his abilities
through a constant exchange of views and techniques in composition with the well-known musicians of the court, who included M.A. Ingenieri (his teacher and that of his colleague C.
Monteverdi), G.G. Gastoldi, J. de Wert and L. Viadana.
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rossin, samuel
Like the other Mantuan court musicians, Rossi started as a
madrigalist but soon tried his creative talents at the new style of
ornamental monody, i.e., songs or instrumental pieces with one
leading solo voice supported by a fundamental bass. He is considered the pioneer of these new baroque forms which include
the trio sonata and suite. As a Jewish musician, his lasting contribution is his Ha-Shirim Asher li-Shelomo (published by Pietro
and Lorenzo Bragadini, Venice, 1622/23), 33 settings for three to
eight voices of Hebrew texts, comprising psalms, hymns, and
other religious poems for festive synagogue services. The settings are composed in the then prevailing a cappella style of
Palestrina and G. Gabrieli, with intent to regenerate traditional
musical liturgy with polyphonic choral settings.
Other musicians of the Rossi family included his sister,
known as Madama *Europa, and her sons Anselmo, Angelo
and Bonaiuto. Angelo and his sons Giuseppe and Bonaiuto
were musicians at the court of Savoy in Turin between 1608
and 1649.
Rossis other published works are: Canzonette a tre voci
(vol. 1, 1589; vol. 2, 1592 (lost); reprint, Venice, 1596?); Madrigali
a cinque voci, vol. 1 (1596?; Antwerp, 1598?; Venice, 1600; reprints, Venice, 1603, 1607; Antwerp, 1610?; Venice, 1612?; Antwerp, 1618); vol. 2 (Venice, 1599?; Venice, 1602; reprints, Venice,
1605, 1610); vol. 3 (Venice, 1603; reprints, Venice, 1609, 1620);
vol. 4 (Venice, 1610; reprint, Venice, 1613); vol. 5 (Venice, 1622);
Madrigali a quattro voci (vol. 1, Venice, 1610), Madrigalleti a
due voci (Venice, 1628); Balletto, in: Musiche composte per
la Maddalena, (Venice, 1617). Instrumental music: Sinfonie,
gagliarde, etc. (vol. Venice, 1622; reprint: Venice, 1636?; 1642).
Modern editions 1, Venice, 1607; vol. 2, Venice, 1608; vol. 3,
Venice, 1613; vol. 4, of Rossis works include: S. *Naumbourg
and V. dIndy (eds.), Cantiques de Salamon Rossi (1877; 33 of
the 35 pieces in Ha-Shirim Asher li-Shelomo, and a selection of
madrigals); F. Rikko (ed.), Ha-Shirim Asher li-Shelomo (1967;
2 vols. of transcriptions; the 3rd, with facsimiles and translations of the prefatory matter, not yet published, 1971); F. Rikko
and Joel Newman (eds.), Salamon Rossi Sinfonie, Gagliarde,
Canzone 16071608; E. Werner (ed.), Salomone de Rossi, Three
Hebrew Compositions (1956); others, including arrangements
with organ accompaniment, see Sendrey, Music, index.
Bibliography: MGG; Riemann-Gurlitt; Grove, Dict; Baker,
Biogr Dict; Sendrey, Music, index; C. Roth, Jews in the Renaissance
(1959), 274304; S. Simonsohn, Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Dukkasut
Mantovah, 2 (1964), ch. 7, and passim on other members of the Rossi
family; A. Einstein, in: HUCA, 23 (195051), pt. 2, 38396; E. Birnbaum, Juedische Musiker am Hofe von Mantua (1893), and an updated Italian edition by V. Colorni, in: Civilt Mantovana, 2 (Mantova,
MayJune, 1967), 185216; J. Newman, The Madrigals of Salamon de
Rossi (unpubl. diss. Columbia, 1962), Ann Arbor University Microfilms 636121, incl. also a revised translation of A. Einsteins article
in: HUCA, 23 (see above); Adler, Prat Mus, 5564; I. Adler, in: Jewish
Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies (1967), 3312, 3404.
[Edith Gerson-Kiwi]
ROSTOV, capital city of the Rostov district, Russian Federation. The town was founded in the middle of the 18t century,
and Jews started to settle there in the early 19t century; their
population reached 5,000 in 1880, in a total population of
100,000. Rostovs development dates from the close of the 19t
century, when Jews actively participated in the development
of its commerce. In 1887 the town was transferred (together
with the town of *Taganrog) to the region of the Don Cossacks
474
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rotbaum, jacob
of U.S. diplomatic and military support for Israel, particularly
after the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1969, with the change in the
administration, he returned to teaching economics and history at the University of Texas. When he retired from teaching, Rostow became the Rex G. Baker, Jr. Professor Emeritus
of Political Economy. In 1992, he helped found the Austin
Project and served as chairman of the board and task force
director from 1992 to 1998.
Among his many honors, Rostow received the Order of
the British Empire (honorary, military division, 1945); the Legion of Merit (1945); and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
(with distinction, 1969).
Rostows more than 30 publications include: The Stages
of Economic Growth (1952), a widely influential work in which
Rostow outlined five stages of economic growth through
which societies pass; Dynamics of Soviet Society (1953); The
United States in the World Arena (1960); View from the Seventh
Floor (1964); Politics and the Stages of Growth (1971); How It All
Began (1975); Why the Poor Get Richer and the Rich Slow Down
(1980); Theorists of Economic Growth from David Hume to the
Present (1990); The Great Population Spike and After (1998);
and Concept and Controversy (2003).
Bibliography: D. Wise, in: L. Tanzer (ed.), Kennedy Circle
(1961), 2957; P. Anderson, Presidents Men (1968), 3835; Current
Biography Yearbook 1961 (1962), 3957. Add. Bibliography: C.
Kindleberger and G. Di Tella (eds.), Economics in the Long View: Essays in Honor of W.W. Rostow (1982).
[Joachim O. Ronall / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
ROTBAUM, JACOB (1901 ), Polish producer. Born in Warsaw, Rotbaum acted with experimental groups and traveled in
Europe and in the U.S. Returning to Warsaw, he worked during the 1930s as a professional producer. His first important
production was Roar China by the Soviet writer S.M. Tretyakov. This was followed by Itzik *Mangers The Three Hotzmachs
(based on *Goldfaden) for the Yung Theater, and Shalom
Aleichems Groser Gevins. He also worked in the Polish theater
and produced N.F. Pogodins Man with the Gun (1938). After
World War II he again produced on the Polish stage.
ROTE (Roti, ar-Reuti, Arrueti, Aruety, Aroti, al-Rueti, erRouti, Rutty, Ruti, Rute), Spanish-Moroccan family which
originated either in Rota on the Bay of Cadiz, or in Rueda (At.
Rota), Aragon. The first person known by this name was R.
ISAAC AROTI, a Spanish rabbi whose father settled in *Egypt
together with *Maimonides. During the 14t century several
members of the Rote family ranked among the leaders of various Jewish communities in Spain. Among them were JACOB
BEN SAMUEL AL-RUETI of Pamplona and JUCE (JOSEPH) ARRUETI (d. after 1367) of Saragossa, one of the favorites of King
Pedro IV. During the 15t century, HABRAN (ABRAHAM) ARUETY of Pamplona was highly respected. ABRAHAM ROTE (d.
after 1525), one of the Spanish-Portuguese refugees settled in
Safi, traveled to Lisbon, where he sought a number of privileges from John III and met David *Reuveni.
His son JACOB (I) ROTE was appointed official interpreter
of the Portuguese in *Safi in 1523. In 1536 he settled in *Fez,
after supplying a considerable quantity of arms to the Wattasid ruler; he also became the latters counselor. In this capacity
he participated in the battle of Oued al-Abid, where the army
of the *Wattasids was defeated by the *Sadis. Rote was then
called upon to get John III to support the Wattasids. Honors
476
ROTEM, CVI (Zvi; Erich Rothmller; 19031981), journalist and editor. Born in Slavonia (Croatia), Rotem lived in Zagreb. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Wuerzburg,
and he studied Judaism in Berlin at the Hochschule fuer Jdische Wissenschaften; he also completed the Law School of
477
rotenburg
Canada Matinee. On April 12, 1943, she gave a detailed report
about the Final Solution, condemning the Western nations, including Canada, for their indifference. Asking themselves the
question, Am I my brothers keeper? the democratic nations
of the world, our country among them, answered: No. She
concluded her talk: Some action must be taken at once. If it
is not, within a few months six million people will have been
murdered, and the nations of the world will not be able to escape the charge of being accomplices to the bleakest crime in
history. In 1945, she won the Canadian Womens Press Club
Memorial Award for a radio broadcast titled The Post-War
Woman. It was the first time in its 10-year history that the
award was given in the field of radio writing. In February 1947,
she covered the United Nations Status of Women Commission
at the first formal session of the UN at Lake Success, New York.
She attended the UN annually for several years, broadcasting
for the CBC on the position of women around the world.
settled in Palestine, where he directed the agencys Department of Commerce and Industry until his death. He published
many articles in Hebrew, Yiddish and Polish on economic and
financial matters.
Bibliography: Y. Gruenbaum, Penei ha-Dor, 1 (1957), 2959;
Tidhar, 3 (1949), 144243.
[Getzel Kressel]
ROTENSTREICH, NATHAN (19141993), Israeli philosopher and author. Born in Sambor, Poland, the second son of
Fischel *Rotenstreich, a distinguished leader of Polish Jewry,
Nathan Rotenstreich joined the Zionist movement in his
early youth. He immigrated to Erez Israel in 1932 and soon
became known as an original thinker and prolific writer. In
1951 he joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he taught philosophy for close to four decades.
From 1958 to 1961 he was dean of the Humanities Faculty and
in 196569 rector of the university. An academic philosopher,
who was intensely engaged in the upbuilding of the Jewish
community, the so-called Zionist yishuv, in Palestine, and then
in the State of Israel, Rotenstreich was a public intellectual par
excellence. A prolific scholar, who published some 30 books
and 600 scholarly articles (in English, French, German, and
Hebrew), he tirelessly wrote political and cultural feuilletons
for the Israeli daily press, cultural journals, political forums,
and educational bulletins, responding to issues of the day. His
committed engagement in the public discourse of the State of
Israel was borne by his conviction that philosophical culture
has a direct bearing on the task of furthering human dignity
in the realm of history and politics. Dedicated to systematic,
conceptual clarification a term that, indicatively, recurs
frequently in his writings philosophy should, he held, contribute decisively to heightening the rational understanding
required if human beings are to act within history in a judicious and ethically responsible manner.
Accordingly, the historical dimension of human existence determined much of the thematic thrust of both his
scholarship and popular writings. He contemplated history
not as an account of the past, but as a way of explaining the
present, more precisely, the object of his inquiry was historical knowledge as it is bears on the present. This focus took
his work in two distinctive but related directions: the epistemology of historical knowledge and the cultural function of
historical consciousness, especially within the context of the
modern Jewish experience. As a modern historical consciousness took hold of the Jews, Rotenstreich argued, the structure
of Jewish life and sensibility was radically transformed. Modern Jewish thought is thus straddled with the twin challenge of
historicism which pits the relativistic conclusions of critical
historiography against traditional Jewish memory and selfunderstanding and the return of the Jews to history as
conscious actors in the shaping of their own political destiny.
This process, which is one of the hallmarks of secularization,
Rotenstreich observed, was set into motion by European Jewrys quest for civic emancipation, a protracted struggle whose
478
ROTENBURG, family in Cochin (*Kochi). Probably originating in Frankfurt, the Rotenburgs were one of the leading
White Jewish families in Cochin throughout the 18t century.
The first prominent member of the family was SIMON SAMSON ROTENBURG, whose business trip to Mocha on behalf of
his relative Ezekiel *Rahabi became a cause clbre (173340).
From 1763 to 1772 JOSEPH ROTENBURG came to the attention
of the Dutch East India Company and the rajah of Cochin because of his unauthorized departure from the state. His case
led to an investigation of the legal status of the White Jews in
relation to the company and the rajah. When Cochin was under British rule, NAPHTALI ROTENBURG was a leading figure
in the community and his Hebrew signature is found on many
communal documents. He saved the life of Colonel Macauley,
British resident of Cochin and Travancore, during a rising of
the population in 1808. As a token of gratitude, Colonel Macauley presented the Paradesi Synagogue with a gold and silver crown for the Torah scroll.
Bibliography: Fischel, in: Studia Rosenthaliana, 1 no. 2
(1967), 3244 (Eng.).
[Walter Joseph Fischel]
roth, cecil
dialectic ineluctably led to Zionism and the restoration of Jewish political sovereignty in the Land of Israel.
In contrast with many of the early Zionist thinkers, Rotenstreich deemed the mere renewal of Hebrew as the secular vernacular of the Jewish people to be in and of itself an insufficient
basis to ensure that the emerging culture sponsored by Zionism
would have the requisite energy to engage the minds and souls
of contemporary Jews. Although Hebrew is a necessary condition for the development of an intellectually and spiritually
compelling Jewish national, that is, secular culture, he argued,
it must be supplemented by a well-informed knowledge of the
sources of Jewish tradition. A sound grounding in the classical
texts of Judaism would also facilitate a desired dialogue between
secular Jews and those Jews still bound to the religious beliefs
and practices of the tradition. This dialogue, Rotenstreich affirmed, will allow Judaism to remain, even for the secular Jew,
the grammar of Jewish imagination and creativity.
In his political activity, Rotenstreich identified himself with *Mapai, the dominant party in the Zionist Labor
movement, but in 1961 he joined the break away faction led
by Pinh as *Lavon, Min ha-Yesod, which strongly opposed
to David Ben-Gurions leadership. As a philosopher, he had
a deep interest in German idealism and particularly in Kant
and neo-Kantianism. Widely regarded as one of the leading
contemporary Kantian scholars, Rotenstreich also emerged as
a philosopher in his own right, initiating a series of systematic
treatises on historical knowledge. He developed an original
set of philosophical principles with which he sought to clarify the epistemological and phenomenological character of
various human activities, such as, religious and secular faith.
Rotenstreich was clearly influenced at this stage by *Husserls
phenomenology. His writings contain vigorous criticism of
many philosophical trends, such as existentialism, Marxism,
neo-positivism, linguistic philosophy, and even some specific
approaches within the phenomenological movement. In 1963
he was awarded the Israel Prize in the humanities. At the time
of his death he was the vice president of the Israel Academy
of Sciences and Humanities and a foreign associate of the U.S.
National Academy of Education.
His writings include Between Past and Present: An Essay
on History (New Haven 1958); Jewish Philosophy in Modern
Times: From Mendelssohn to Rosenzweig (New York 1968; 2nd
ed., Detroit 1994); Tradition and Reality. The Impact of History on Modern Jewish Thought (New York 1972); Essays on
Zionism and the Contemporary Jewish Condition (New York
1980); Jews and German Philosophy (New York 1984); Essays
in Jewish Philosophy in the Modern Era, with an introduction
by P. Mendes-Flohr, edited by R. Munk (Amsterdam 1996);
Wege zur Erkennbarkeit der Welt (Freiburg 1983); On Faith, ed.
P. Mendes-Flohr (Chicago 1998).
For a comprehensive intellectual biography of Rotenstreich, see A.Z. Bar-On, Nathan Rotenstreich, in: Interpreters of Judaism in the Late Twentieth Century, ed. by Steven T.
Katz (Washington, D.C., 1993), pp. 22948.
[Paul Mendes-Flohr (2nd ed.)]
ROTH, CECIL (Bezalel; 18991970), Jewish historian; editor in chief of the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica.
Roth, who was born in London, the son of a manufacturer of
building supplies, saw active service in the British infantry in
1918 before being educated at the City of London School and
at Merton College, Oxford, obtaining his doctorate in 1925.
He was trained as a general historian, with a special interest
in Italy, his first major work being The Last Florentine Republic (1925). A traditional, observant Jew who learned Hebrew
from his father and under Jacob *Mann, he was from the first
interested in Judaica: as an undergraduate in 1920, he produced a paper identifying the convert Duarte Brandao with
the military adventurer Sir Edward Brampton. In that same
year, under the influence of Herbert *Loewe, Roth also translated a number of the Kinot (liturgical poems for the Ninth of
Av), foreshadowing a continuing interest in Jewish liturgy, especially of the more recondite rites. He subsequently devoted
himself to Jewish subjects, first as freelance writer and lecturer,
and from 1939 to 1964 as reader in Jewish Studies at Oxford.
Roth combined naturally English ways and loyalties with
Jewish nationalism. When he retired from his Oxford appointment in 1964, he settled in Jerusalem, taking up a visiting pro-
479
480
ROTH, DAVID LEE (1954 ), flamboyant, cocky frontman and lyricist for hard rock giants Van Halen during their
197885 heyday, and successful solo artist in the late 1980s and
1990s. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Roth spent several years
in Massachusetts before moving to Pasadena, California, in
1963. Roth attended Hebrew school, and later said that singing
during Sabbath services gave him a feeling of belonging and
strengthening his self worth. After his bar mitzvah, his Jewish education took a back seat to a lifelong devotion to karate
and to the verbal street poetry he was hearing from people like
Wolfman Jack and Cassius Clay. He visited his Uncle Manny
Roth in New York who owned the famed Cafe Wha?, which
further exposed him to varieties of music. During his senior
year of high school in 1972, he joined a covers band, and it was
on the party circuit that he met the Van Halen brothers, Eddie and Alex. After briefly studying music theory at Pasadena
roth, henry
481
State College, Roth and the Van Halens joined forces in late
1974 along with bassist Michael Anthony, and at Roths urging
named the band Van Halen. They released their self-titled debut in 1978, and their metal-meets-melody style and the Jagger-Richards combination of Roth and Eddie Van Halen made
their albums instant hard-rock classics. Wearing spandex and
strutting around the stage like a rooster, Roth used his fasttalking huckster persona, self-deprecating smile, and athletic
pyrotechnics to become one of the most riveting frontmen in
rock. One critic wrote that Roth simply updated vaudeville.
He wrapped himself in Hollywood hype, plugged in, turned
the volume to 11, and voila, created Diamond Dave, a hedonistic rock & roll character. For Roth, it had more meaning:
Every step I took on that stage was smashing some Jew-hating, lousy punk even deeper in the deck if you were vaguely
antisemitic, you were under my wheels. With tension between Roth and Van Halen mounting, Roth left the band in
1985, just after releasing a successful four-song EP Crazy from
the Heat, featuring remakes of The Beach Boys California
Girls and the vaudeville medley of Just a Gigolo/I Aint Got
Nobody. His solo career kept him in the limelight through
the mid-1990s. In 2004, Roth disclosed that he had trained to
become a paramedic and began working on an ambulance in
the Bronx. He took over Howard *Sterns national radio talk
show in January 2006, but was removed in April due to poor
ratings. He is the author of a well-received autobiography,
Crazy from the Heat (1997).
[David Brinn (2nd ed.)]
roth, joel
Roths work after the correspondence is summed up in this
quote: If most of us, passing through only once, can leave
behind us a work of art comparable to Call It Sleep, we would
have every reason to be proud of ourselves.
It is crucial to mention here Roths debt to the early modernists, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce. In one of his last novels,
From Bondage (1996), Roth reveals this influence: Ulysses
showed how to address whole slagheaps of squalor, and
make them available for art the sorcery of language
to fluoresce, to electrify the mood the Chicago packing
houses used every part of the pig except the squeal. Joyce
elucidated ways to use even the squeal.
The republication of Call It Sleep resulted in a financial
windfall for Roth (the paperback edition in 1964 sold more
than one million copies), and rejuvenated his artistic talent in
the late 1970s. He began work on a four-volume novel entitled
Mercy of a Rude Stream in 1979, picking up on the story of
David Schearl, renamed Ira Stigman. This last literary project
consisted of A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park (1994), where
Ira encounters antisemitism; A Diving Rock on the Hudson
(1995), which reveals tantalizing glimpses of the wholesome,
idealized American boyhood of Iras non-Jewish friends; and
the posthumous volumes From Bondage (1996) and Requiem
for Harlem (1998), where Iras growing intimacy with Edith
(Walton) helps him escape from domestic and sexual tensions.
Sexuality in Roths fiction is discussed in detail in Redemption, Henry Roths biography by Steven G. Kellman, and
a New Yorker article by Jonathan Rosen. Both delve into Roths
psyche, revealing the sexual frustrations of Roths protagonist
and of Roth himself. According to Rosen, Roths characterization of his Harlem exile as a kind of hell makes more sense
when considered alongside the revelation that it was there that
he began an incestuous relationship with his sister, Rose. According to Kellman, Roth had been groping his sister since
he was 12 and she was 10; by the time Roth was 16 he was having intercourse with her. When he was 18, he also seduced his
14-year-old first cousin Sylvia, leading her into the basement
at a bris. Rosen interprets Kellmans Redemption in regard to
David Schearls incest as a dramatic magnification of immigrant insecurity, the newcomers inability to invest their emotions in anything beyond the reassuring confines of the clan.
As a matter of fact, Rosen feels that the guilt that Roth felt
hung over him like a kind of Biblical curse.
Bibliography: Henry Roth (19061995), in: Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 104 (1998), 236332; F.T. Marsh, in: New
York Herald Tribune Books, 2:24 (Feb. 17, 1935), 6; J. Gollomb, in: Saturday Review of Literature, 2:35 (March 16, 1935), 552; H. Ribalow, in:
Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, 3:3 (Fall 1962), 514; F.
Bloch, in: Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century (2003), 46870; S.G.
Kellman, Redemption (2005); J. Rosen, in: The New Yorker (Aug. 1,
2005), 7479.
[Mark Padnos (2nd ed.)]
482
roth, mark
Paris where in a fit of depression he tried to commit suicide
and died in a hospital for the poor.
Apart from many newspaper articles and short stories,
Roth wrote 14 novels, notable for their lucid style. At first a
psychological realist in the tradition of Stendhal and Dostoevsky, Roth was later influenced by the Viennese impressionists such as H. von *Hofmannsthal and A. *Schnitzler.
Always affected by the sufferings of others, Roth projected
recollections of his own unhappy and impoverished youth into
his best-known novel, Hiob (1930; Job, 1931), which describes
the bitter life of an East European Jewish family. Other novels, such as Die Flucht ohne Ende (1927) and Rechts und Links
(1929), depict the social consequences of war and the decomposition of the old order through revolution and inflation. His
last novel, Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker (1939), is a kind
of self-portrait and reflects some of the authors own disappointments. The essays of Juden auf Wanderschaft (1927) deal
with the social position of East European Jewry. A different atmosphere prevails in Roths historical novels. The best known
of these, Radetzkymarsch (1932), nostalgically portrays Austria and the imperial army under Franz Joseph. Three other
novels were Die hundert Tage (1936), Die Geschichte von der
1002. Nacht (1939), and Der Leviathan (1940). Years after his
death, Der stumme Prophet, a work full of forebodings about
totalitarianism, appeared in 1966. Roths collected works were
published with an introduction by Hermann *Kesten (3 vols.,
1956). Roth gained belated recognition as one of Austrias outstanding novelists.
Bibliography: H. Linden, Joseph Roth, Leben und Werk
(1949); H. Kesten, Meine Freunde die Poeten (1953), 16799; A. Werner, in: Jewish Outlook (Feb. 1942), 79; Kinn, in: Tribune, 5 (1966),
206366; H. Kesten (ed.), Joseph Roth: Briefe 19111939 (1970).
[Rudolf Kayser]
ROTH, KLAUS FRIEDRICH (1925 ), English mathematician. Born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), Roth
came to England where he was educated at St. Pauls School,
London, before graduating with a B.A. in mathematics from
Cambridge University (1945). After teaching at Gordonstoun
School in Scotland, he joined the mathematics department
of University College, London (194666) where he gained his
M.A. (1948), Ph.D. (1950) and became professor (1961). He
moved to Imperial College of Science and Technology, London as professor of pure mathematics (196688) and visiting
professor (198896) before returning to Scotland. Roths main
interest is the theory of numbers. He solved the major problem of approximating algebraic numbers by rationals (his solution is now known as Roths theorem) and published Rational Approximations to Irrational Numbers (1962). He made
other important contributions to the theory of natural numbers. His achievements have been recognized by many honors including the Fields Medal (1958), election to the Royal
Society of London (1960) and the award of the Royal Societys
Sylvester Medal (1991).
[Michael Denman (2nd ed.)]
ROTH, MARK (1951 ), U.S. bowler, member of Pro Bowlers Association (PBA) Hall of Fame. Roth, a native of Brooklyn
who lived most of his life in Wall Township, NJ, joined the PBA
483
484
ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER, city in Bavaria, Germany. Individual Jews are mentioned there in 1180. A community is first recorded in 1241, when it paid the small sum
of 10 silver marks in taxes. In the mid-13t century *Meir ben
Baruch, the acknowledged scholarly authority of his era, settled in Rothenburg, attracting pupils by the score; the town
thus became a center of Jewish religious life and the Rothenburg community grew. During the *Rindfleisch persecutions
(1298), the community was almost totally annihilated. On
June 25, 57 were murdered; on July 18, 32 were massacred and
485
rothenstein, michael
to leave and had no outstanding demands. Throughout these
proceedings the word expulsion was avoided in official correspondence and replaced by Beurlauben (leave of absence,
dismissal); the illusion that the Jews had left voluntarily was
maintained. Attempts by the refugees to return failed. In 1659
Jews were allowed to attend the citys fairs but not to display
their wares in public.
A Jewish community was not reestablished until 1875,
totaling 86 persons (1.32 of the total population) in 1880.
Their number declined from 100 in 1910 to 44 in 1933, when
the community possessed a cemetery and mikveh. No Jews returned to Rothenburg after World War II. The medieval Jewish wedding hall was rebuilt.
486
rothschild
at the University of Sheffield. He attained his greatest prominence, however, as principal of the Royal College of Art, London (192035). During World War II, he was attached to the
Royal Air Force as an artist. Rothenstein chiefly painted portraits, still lifes and landscapes. Among his work is a group of
Jewish subjects and synagogue interiors, such as The Talmud
School (1904) and Carrying the Law (1909). He wrote a number of books, mostly portraits of eminent contemporaries. His
two autobiographical works, Men and Memories (193132) and
Since Fifty (1934), offer vivid descriptions of artists and events
he knew. He was knighted in 1934. Rothenstein helped many
impoverished Jewish artists and other artists in need. Volumes
of his correspondence with Max Beerbohm and Rabindrinath
Tagore were published in 1972 and 1975.
His son SIR JOHN ROTHENSTEIN (19011992), who was
educated at Bedales and Oxford, was director of the Tate Gallery, London (193864). He had no connection with the Jewish community and converted to Christianity. He wrote three
volumes of autobiography, published in 196570.
A younger brother of William Rothenstein, ALBERT
DANIEL (18811953), who changed his name to Rutherston
during World War I, was also an artist and illustrator who designed an imaginative Haggadah (1930). Another son, Michael
*Rothenstein (19081993), was a prominent printmaker.
Bibliography: R. Speaight, William Rothenstein, The Portrait of an Artist in his Time (1962). Add. Bibliography: ODNB
online for all three; I. Rogerson, Albert Rutherston (1998); M. Rutherston, Albert Rutherston, 18811953 (1988).
[Charles Samuel Spencer]
487
VIENNA
FRANKFURT
rothschild
AMSCHEL
MAYER
1773 1855
ROTHSCHILD
FAMILY
EVA HANAU
SALOMON
MAYER
1774 1855
CAROLINE STERN
1782 1854
ANSELM
SALOMON
1803 1874
CHARLOTTE
18071859
FERDINAND
JAMES
1839 1898
EVELINA
1839 1866
LOUIS
18821955
BETTINA
1858 1892
Countess HILDEGARD
JOHANNA AURESPERG
18951981
4 others
4 others
LIONEL
WALTER
2nd Baron
1868 1937
NATHANIEL
MAYER
VICTOR
3rd Baron
19101990
LIONEL
NATHAN
1808 1879
NATHANIEL
CHARLES
18771923
1. BARBARA
2. TERESA
CHARLOTTE
1819 1884
ROSZIKA von
WERTHEIMSTEIN
1870 1940
EDMUND
LEOPOLD
b. 1916
LIONEL NATHAN
18821942
ELIZABETH EDITH
LENTNER
MARIE LOUISE
LEOPOLD DAVID
b. 1927
EMMA LOUISA
1844 1935
GUDULE
SCHNAPPER
1753 1849
LONDON
NATHAN
MAYER
17771836
HANNAH
1783 1850
LEVI BARENT
COHEN
4 others
ALFRED
1842 1918
LEOPOLD
1845 1917
MARIE PERUGIA
1862 1937
NAPLES
FRANKFURT
Sir ANTONY
1810 1876
KARL
MAYER
1788 1855
ADELHEID HERZ
1800 1856
CLARICE SEBAG-MONTEFIORE
18941967
SALOMON
ALBERT
1844 1911
NATHANIEL
MAYER
1st Baron
1840 1915
MAYER
AMSCHEL
ROTHSCHILD
1744 1812
ALPHONSE MAYER
1878 1942
CONSTANCE
1843 1931
LOUISA MONTEFIORE
18211910
CYRIL FLOWER
1st Lord BATTERSEA
1843 1902
NATHANIEL
1812 1870
ANNIE
1844 1926
CHARLOTTE
1825 1899
ELIOT YORKE
18431878
ANTHONY GUSTAV
18871961
YVONNE COHEN
EVELYN ROBERT
b. 1931
2 others
MAYER KARL
1820 1886
LOUISA
1820 1894
ADOLF KARL
1823 1901
WHILHELM KARL
1828 1901
MATHILDE
19321924
ALPHONSE
18271905
PARIS
LEONORA
18371911
JAMES
(JACOB)
1792 1868
BETTY
1805 1886
GUSTAVE
1829 1911
CECILIE ANSPACH
1840 1912
SALOMON JAMES
1835 1864
ADELE
1843 1922
EDMOND
1845 1934
ADELAIDE
1853 1935
EUGENE PINTO
488
EDOUARD
1868 1949
GUY
b. 1909
GERMAINE HALPHEN
BATSHEVA
19141999
ALICE CAROLINE
1865 1909
2 others
ALAIN
19101982
3 others
4 others
JAMES
1878 1957
DOROTHY
MAURICE
18811957
EDMOND
19261997
VESELINK HALPHEN
rothschild
to the largest fortune in Europe. By c. 1769 Mayer Amschel
had received the title of court agent and was supplying William with rare coins and printing his own coin catalogs. When
William became landgrave in 1785, Mayer Amschel was only
one of a dozen Jewish court agents competing for the favor of
doing business for a landgrave who lent large sums to other
rulers. Mayer Amschel managed to increase his share of financial transactions very gradually: his close connections with
William IXs confidential financial adviser, C.F. Buderus (who
eventually became his silent partner), were of inestimable importance in securing the confidence of the landgrave.
The major breakthrough occurred after the Battle of Jena
(1806): exiled from his country, William IX entrusted NATHAN
MAYER (17771836), Mayer Amschels son in London, with the
purchase of huge amounts of British securities. By discreet and
brilliant speculation Nathan succeeded in amassing a fortune
without damaging the landgraves interests. Nathan Mayer had
originally settled in Manchester in 1798, a commission agent
dealing in cotton goods, but he moved to London in 1808. In
1806 he married Hannah, the daughter of Levi Barent *Cohen
and sister of Moses *Montefiores wife. He rapidly became the
outstanding figure on the London Stock Exchange. His prime
activity was that of helping the government cover the costs of
Wellingtons army in Spain, including transporting immense
sums even through the heart of France. In this endeavor he
was helped by his brother James (see below) in Paris, while
the father and the elder son, Amschel Mayer (see below), remained in Frankfurt. Another major cooperative undertaking was transmitting the British bullion subsidy to the continental allies in the last stages of the Napoleonic wars. After
the Congress of Vienna the Rothschilds were instrumental in
transmitting the French war indemnity (120,000,000) to the
allies and participated in the many governmental reconstruction loans and bond issues. By the time of his death Nathan
Rothschild was one of the very richest men in Britain, worth
an estimated 5 million, and had become a legendary figure
in British finance. In this period two Rothschild brothers established themselves in Vienna and Naples.
Carl Mayer (17881855), founded the Italian branch in
Naples in 1821, in the aftermath of the suppression of an antiBourbon uprising by Austrian troops. He loaned large sums to
Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples, the Papal States, and other lesser
duchies. His four sons all married members of the Rothschild
family. ADOLF CARL (18231901) succeeded him as head of the
Italian branch but returned to Frankfurt upon the unification
of Italy. Another son of Mayer Amschel, SALOMON MAYER
(17741855), moved to Vienna in 1816, where he was soon on
very friendly terms with *Metternich (during the 1848 Revolution he was accused of helping Metternich to escape) and
was thus able to ignore or overcome the various discriminations to which Jews were subjected in Vienna and Austria
(since a Jew was not allowed to purchase a house, he rented a
whole hotel); in addition he had to contend with the rivalry
of the established banking houses, foremost of which were the
*Arnstein and *Eskeles firms. In 1822 he was ennobled. He was
489
[Henry Wasserman]
rothschild
cus affair and later in the work of the Jewish *Consistory of
Paris, the Central Consistory of the Jews of France, and the
Jewish Charity Committee of Paris which later became the
Paris Jewish Committee for Social Work. James de Rothschild
presented to the community of Paris the Rothschild Hospital,
which is still in existence. James, who was financier to both
the Bourbon and Orlans kings of France, weathered the 1848
Revolution to serve Napoleon III. A pioneer railroad entrepreneur, he feuded with the rival *Fould and *Pereire brothers for governmental railway concessions. A railway accident
released a flood of antisemitic literature, popularizing the slogan Rothschild Ier, Roi des Juifs. His wife Betty, a noted philanthropist, was friend and patron of Heinrich *Heine. James
also maintained close business connections with Leopold I
of Belgium. His son ALPHONSE (18271905) became head of
the French house in 1854 and president of the board of directors of the familys Chemin de Fer du Nord in 1869. After the
defeat of France in 1870/71 Alphonse led war indemnity negotiations with the Prussians and guaranteed their rapid payment. A syndicate of French bankers, partly motivated by antisemitic sentiments, unsuccessfully sought to challenge the
French house in the 1870s. Alphonses philanthropy, benefiting both Jews and gentiles, was on an immense scale. GUSTAVE (18291911), another of Jamess sons, was president of
the Paris Consistory for over 40 years. A third son, Edmond
de *Rothschild (18451934), gave crucial support to the early
settlements in Erez Israel, an expression of his lifelong devotion to Zion and the Jewish people. The son and grandson of
Alphonse, EDOUARD (18681949) and GUY (b. 1909), and the
son and grandson of Gustave, ROBERT PHILIPPE (18801946)
and ALAIN (19101982), were presidents of the Central and
Paris Consistories. Alain also became president of the Fonds
Social Juif Unifi (FSJU). Guy was president of the Comit de
Solidarit avec Israel (1956). Edouards daughter BETHSABE
(Batsheva, 19141999), founded the *Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv in 1964. In addition to the Bathsheva Dance
Company, Bathsheva de Rothschild founded the Bat-Dor
Dance Company, which combines classical ballet and modern dance, in 1967. Among her other endeavors were the project to translate ancient literature into Hebrew, a music library
in Tel Aviv, and a fund for loans and grants to students, outstanding young Israeli scholars, and immigrant scholars. She
received the Israel Prize in 1989 for special contribution in national and social fields. Edmonds eldest son James de *Rothschild (18781957) left France to settle in England, where he
continued his fathers activities, which were later taken over
by Dorothy de Rothschild (18951988), the widow of James
de Rothschild. EDMOND (19261997), grandson of the first
Edmond, was also president of the Comit de Solidarit avec
Israel (1967). The Germans made efforts to capture members
of the family in 1940, but all escaped and passed the war in
England or the U.S. Guy joined the Free French and was an
adjutant to De Gaulles military governor of Paris at the end
of the war.
[Simon R. Schwarzfuchs]
490
tion of the European Jews (1967), 6672; R. Glanz, in: JSOS, 19 (1957),
328; V. Eichsaedt (ed.), Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Judenfrage
(1938), 232f.; L. Kreutzberger (ed.), Bibliothek und Archiv (1970), index S.V. Rothschild; Heine Bibliographie, 2 (1958), index s.v. Rothschild;
B. Brilling, in: BLBI, 7 (1964), 16571; D.S. Lands, in: YLBI, 5 (1960),
20617; K. Grunwald, ibid., 12 (1967), 168ff.; Roth, Mag Bibl, 149, 150,
433; R.P. Lehmann, Nova Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica (1961), 108, 113, 117;
J. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History (19562), index; Y. Toury,
Mehumah u-Mevukhah be-Mahpekhat 1848 (1968), index; W. Verity,
in: History Today, 18 (April, 1968); A. Rubens, in: Transactions, 22
(1970), 7687. Add. Bibliography: ODNB online; N.Ferguson,
The Worlds Banker (1998); R. Davis, The English Rothschilds (1983);
S.D. Chapman, N.M. Rothschild, 17771836 (1977); Lord Rothschild
[Nathaniel, Baron Rothschild], The Shadow of a Great Man (1982).
C. Bermant, The Cousinhood (1961), index.
491
492
493
[Louis Miller]
Rothschild, Kurt
Bibliography: E. Corti, Die Rothschilds (1962), passim; Exchange of Letters Between Mr. James A. de Rothschild, President of Pica,
and Mr. David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel (1957). Add. Bibliography: C. Bermant, The Cousinhood (1961), index.
[Israel Philipp]
494
ROTHSCHILD, ROBERT PHINEAS (19142000), Canadian soldier. Rothschild was born in the small town of Cochrane, Ontario. He received his secondary education in
Montreal before entering the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston in 1932. Fellow students nicknamed him the
baron though he was unrelated to the European Rothschilds;
he graduated in 1936, then earned a degree at McGill University in mining engineering. In 1938, with war threatening in
Europe, he joined the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery as a
lieutenant. In June 1940, Rothschild landed in France as part
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
rothstein, arnold
of the First Canadian division and helped cover the British
retreat at Dunkirk. He was one of the last Canadian soldiers
evacuated from France to Britain five days later. He underwent further training and was promoted to major with the 5t
Canadian Armoured division. He landed with the Canadian
forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and, engaging in heavy fighting, was wounded in action in late July 1944. He returned to
the fighting three weeks later, promoted to lieutenant colonel,
and participated in the Canadian offensives in northern Europe. Believed to be the highest-ranking Jew in the Canadian
Army at the end of World War II, he was twice mentioned in
dispatches and was made a Member of the Order of the British
Empire; he also was made an Officer of the Order of OrangeNassau with swords by the Dutch government in 1945.
After the war, Rothschild was appointed director of the
Canadian Army Staff College in Kingston, then successfully
moved through a series of major staff positions at Canadian
military headquarters in Ottawa including quartermaster
general of the Canadian Army. He also held several overseas
postings. In 1954, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier
and later to major general, the first Jewish general in the Canadian Army. He retired from the Army in 1970.
[Gerald Tulchinsky (2nd ed.)]
ROTHSCHILD, WALTER N. (18921960), U.S. department-store executive. Rothschild was born in New York City.
He began working with his grandfather Abraham *Abraham, a founder of the Brooklyn department store Abraham
and Straus. After serving in the Naval Reserve during World
War I, he was made general manager of the department store
(1925), and under his leadership the store expanded into one
of the largest in sales in the city. In 1929 the store came under the holding company Federated Department Stores, Inc.,
along with *Lazarus of Columbus, Ohio, and Filenes of Boston. Remaining active in the management of Federated and
of Abraham and Straus, Rothschild became president of that
store in 1937, then chairman (1955), and at his death he was
also chairman of Federated Department Stores.
During World War II, Rothschild served as chairman of
the Army-Navy Commission of the National Jewish Welfare
Board, overseeing activities in England for a time; he was also
on the executive commission of the United Service Organization. He served as trustee of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, on the executive commission of the American Jewish
Committee, and as trustee for several other organizations.
His son WALTER N. ROTHSCHILD JR. (19202003) graduated from Harvard in 1942 with a B.A. before enlisting in the
U.S. Army in World War II. He served as an army officer in
Europe in 194246. He joined Abraham and Straus in 1950 and
rose to be president (196369); in the year he stepped down
from that position to pursue a civic career, the store was accounted the third largest in New York City, with annual sales
estimated at $250 million. During his presidency at A&S,
Rothschild was active as liaison agent between the store and
the Brooklyn community, in work for a cleaner urban enviENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
495
rothstein, irma
married a Catholic showgirl in Saratoga, New York, his father
sat shiva for him, and later forbade him to go to synagogue
with his brothers to pray for their dying mother. Nonetheless, Rothstein was aware of his Jewishness, used it during his
criminal career, and was buried in a Jewish cemetery. Rothstein was heavily involved as a financier or organizer of virtually every U.S. major criminal activity of the early 20t century: gambling, stock market swindles, rum running during
Prohibition, and illegal drugs. He was a liaison between the
crooked Tammany Hall organization that controlled New York
City politics for more than a generation and the criminal community. He was a partner of the first generation of U.S. Jewish gangsters, including Irving Wexler (Waxey Gordon), and
mentored a generation of future gangsters, including Meyer
*Lansky, Charles Lucania (Lucky Luciano), and Louis (Lepke)
*Buchalter. Rothstein was involved in but never convicted of
fixing the results of the 1919 World Series, as was his alleged
bag man, Abe *Attell. Rothstein died of a gunshot wound in
1928 in a shooting that may have been motivated by an unpaid
gambling debt but has never been fully explained, and no one
was ever convicted for the murder. Rothstein was the inspiration for Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby and Nathan
Detroit in Guys and Dolls.
[Alan D. Abbey (2nd ed.)]
ROTTEMBOURG, HENRI (17691836), French army officer. Born in Phalsbourg, Moselle, Rottembourg enlisted in the
French army in 1784 and fought against Austria from 1792 to
1797. Rottembourg became an officer in Napoleons Imperial
Guard, and fought in Prussia and Poland. He was wounded
at the battle of Wagram (1809) but later recovered to serve in
Spain and was promoted to major general. He later became
496
rouen
according to another, in 1902 the community numbered 448
in 17 localities. In 1910 there were 320 Jews in Roudnice (3.5
of the total population); in 1921 there were 194 (2.2); and
in 1930, 166 (1.7). When the community was liquidated by
the Nazis in 1942, the contents of the synagogue were sent to
the Central Jewish Museum in Prague (see *Museums). No
congregation was reestablished after World War II. Richard
*Feder served as rabbi of Roudnice. In 1953 the 17t-century
synagogue was converted into a boarding house.
Bibliography: Loewy, in: H. Gold, Juden und Judengemeinden Boehmens (1934), 5228; Pek, in: JGGJ, 7 (1935), 135; JE, 10
(1906), 332; Feder in: eskoidovsk kalend, 40 (1920/21), 19f.; 41
(1921/22), 106; 42 (1922/23), 43; 43 (1923/24), 125; 44 (1924/25), 180;
45 (1925/26), 176; 46 (1926/27), 182; Boleslav, in: Schweizerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung (1968), 4650, 7475, 7981, 10711. Add.
Bibliography: J. Fiedler, Jewish Sights of Bohemia and Moravia
(1991), 16162.
[Jan Herman / Yeshayahu Jelinek (2nd ed.)]
ROUEN, former capital of Normandy, capital of the department of Seine-Maritime, northern France. The presence of
Jews in Rouen goes back to at least the early 11t century. Under Richard, duke of Normandy, Rouen Jewry suffered from
the persecutions that affected the Jews of France in general
beginning in 1007 or 1009. A notable of the town, Jacob b.
Jekuthiel, interceded with Pope John XVIII, who called for
a cessation of the persecutions throughout France. With the
exception of Metz, Rouen was the only locality in what is today France where several Jews were put to death and others
forced to accept baptism at the time of the First Crusade. At
that time, Rouen, like the rest of Normandy, was under the
dominion of the English crown. It was probably to these Jews
that the English king William II (Rufus) granted the legal
right to practice their faith. Archaeological discoveries in the
1970s and the study of manuscripts have revealed that, owing to the wrong identification of places mentioned in these
manuscripts, many of them relating to Rouen (the capital of
Normandy in the Middle Ages) were ascribed to other cities.
The ancient Latin name Rothomagus was shortened in the
Middle Ages to Rothoma or Rodom and the latter name was
then variously transcribed as , and ;those names
were thereafter often wrongly copied as ( south), ,
and . As a result, many documents and scholars belonging to Rouen were associated with such places as Rhodez in
Languedoc and *Dreux, southwest of Paris. Thus, for example, Solomon b. Judah the Saint mentioned in the first edition of the Judaica as being at Dreux was actually of Rouen.
As a result, Rouen is now known to have been the seat of a
much more important Jewish community than was previously assumed. During the 12t century, the Jews of Rouen
were placed under the authority of a local bailiff rather than
under the commissioner of the Jews of Normandy, who may
have been *Peter of Cluny mentioned in a number of documents as the Jewish king of Rouen. A number of Jews from
London owned houses in the Jewish quarter of Rouen, while
some Jews of Rouen had debtors in England. Nevertheless,
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
Rouens Jews were engaged in moneylending to a lesser extent than the Jews of England. The Jewish quarter, the Rue as
Gyeus, became the modern Rue des Juifs. One house at the
beginning of the street is said to have served as a synagogue
and another as the school. The cemetery, situated outside the
town, was referred to as Mont-aux-Juifs.
Rouens return to French sovereignty in the 12t century
appears to have been followed by a decline in the Jewish community, as evidenced by its modest contribution to the poll
tax levied on the Jews of Normandy. A new and even smaller
community was reestablished in Rouen after 1359. (Its existence is confirmed at the latest in about 1380.) After the final
expulsion of Jews from France in 1394, there were no Jews in
the city until the arrival of some *Marranos at the close of the
16t century. The fate of the community remained uncertain
throughout the 17t and 18t centuries. In 1605, 40 *Marrano
Jews were living in Rouen, but by 1609 they had dispersed. A
few years later a new wave of Marranos followed them. In the
new community the family of Gonalo Pinto Delgado (father
of the poet Joo Pinto *Delgado) played a principal role. In
addition to merchants, the community also included several
physicians. Although outwardly practicing Christian observances, the Jewish community of Rouen owned its own cemetery. From 1632, however, the so-called Portuguese merchants were accused of Judaizing. In spite of several severe
judgments against them, other Marranos continued to arrive
in Rouen. In 1648 alone 20 new families settled in the city. Few
Jews arriving in Rouen in the 17t century remained there,
however. Those who came at the beginning of the 17t century
eventually emigrated to Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg;
while those arriving in the second half of the century left to
join the new Jewish community in London. By the early 18t
century the Marrano community had all but disappeared. In
its place, a new Jewish community was established in mid-century, composed almost entirely of Alsatian Jews, who owned a
cemetery from at least 1786. Another community was formed
immediately after the French Revolution.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz and Norman Golb /
David Weinberg (2nd ed.)]
The Rouen synagogue, destroyed during the bombardment in 1940, was rebuilt by the small community in 1950. The
community grew to 500 members in 1960 and, after the influx
of Jews from North Africa, numbered around 1,000 in 1971.
In 1987, it was estimated that there were 1,200 Jews in the city.
Rouen is the seat of a rabbinate.
[Georges Levitte]
Bibliography: Gross, Gal Jud, 622ff.; B. Blumenkranz, Juifs
et Chrtiens (1960), 136; H.G. Richardson, English Jewry under Angevin Kings (1960), index; C. de Beaurepaire, in: Bulletin de la commission des antiquits de la Seine-Infrieure, 9 (1891/3), 196200; 12
(1900/2), 89; I.S. Revah, in: Mlanges Isidore Lvy (1953), 53952; C.
Roth, in: REJ, 88 (1929), 11355; Z. Szajkowski, Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer (1966), 266; N. Golb, Toldot ha-Yahudim be-Ir Rouen
bimei ha-Beinayim (History and Culture of the Jews of Medieval
Rouen, 1976); idem, in: Archaeology, 30 (1977), 3145; idem, in: Pro-
497
rouffach
ceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research (1980), 1001;
B. Blumenkranz, Comptes Rendus de lAcademie des Inscriptions et
Belles Lettres (1976), 6637. Add. Bibliography: Guide du judasme franais (1987), 39.
ROUFFACH (Ger. Rufach), town in the Haut-Rhin department, E. France. The earliest indication of the presence of Jews
in Rouffach dates from 1288. Accused by the townsmen of having expressed support for Emperor Adolf of Nassau, against
whom they were at war, the Jews were massacred at the beginning of 1298. By 1308 Jews were again living in the town. Many
lost their lives in the *Armleder persecutions of 1338. Having
returned to the town at the latest in 1340, they were all massacred at the time of the *Black Death (1349). Since then, there
has been neither a Jewish community nor even individual Jews
in Rouffach. The Judenhof (Jewish courtyard) mentioned in
1338 possibly refers to the area of the synagogue, which was
built in about 1300 and was still in existence in 1970, after having been rediscovered in 1905. The former Judengasse (Jewish
Street) is now known as the Hassengasse.
Bibliography: M. Ginsburger and C. Winkler, in: Schriften
der Gesellschaft fuer die Geschichte der Israeliten in Elsass-Lothringen,
22 (1906); S. Dietler, in: Die Gebweiler Chronik, ed. by J. v. Schlumberger (1898), 22: Th. Walter, Rouffach (1958); Germ Jud, 2 (1968),
723f.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
ROULEAU, ERIC (Elie Rafoul; 1926 ), journalist and diplomat. Rouleau was born in Cairo. From 1953 to 1960 he was an
editor for the Middle East service of the Agence France Presse
and from 1956 a reporter for Le Monde, writing a column on
the Near and Middle East from 1960. In the 1970s he spent
some time in the United States; in 1974 he was a research associate at the University of California and in 197879 a research
associate for the Council of Foreign Affairs in New York and
a lecturer at Princeton University. In 1983 he became an adviser to the Television Franaise 1.
Rouleau is a noted journalist whose recognized expertise
is in the areas of the Arab world and Middle Eastern subjects.
He has links to excellent sources in Arab countries, particularly in the radical ones. During the course of his career he
has interviewed almost all leaders in the Middle East since
the 1950s. In 1985 French president Mitterrand appointed him
ambassador to Tunisia, but he was forced to resign after a little over a years service because of opposition to him by the
Tunisian government, which considered him to be associated
with the opposition and the PLO. In 198892 he was ambassador to Turkey and from 1994 Middle East correspondent of
Le Monde. He published: Le Troisime combat (1967), in collaboration with J. Lacouture and O.F. Held, Biographie de Kurt
Waldheim (1977), Entretien avec Abu Iyad (1979), and Etude
sur les Palestiniens (1984).
498
[Gideon Kouts]
rovigo
Jews of Roussillon to travel to France for business purposes.
In addition to engaging in such occupations as commerce
(including peddling) and moneylending, Jews of Roussillon
worked as bookbinders, tailors, goldsmiths, and especially as
dyers. The anti-Jewish persecutions of 1391 in Spain reached
the Jews of Roussillon in 1392. There was a similar delay of one
year a century later at the time of the expulsion from Spain
(1492), when a number of Jews from there sought refuge in
Roussillon, only to be expelled in 1493, along with the Jews
of Roussillon.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
Cultural History
The Jews of Roussillon produced scholars who distinguished
themselves through their mastery of many different branches
of learning, both secular and Jewish. Most notable were the
Jewish physicians who served in the towns and villages of the
province, such as Bernard de Jorena in Perpignan in 1226,
Solomon Moses de Villemany a in Elne in 1327, and Jacob
de Guanges in Elne in 1380. Jacob Bonjuhes functioned in a
similar capacity in Ille in 1407 and Thuir in 1410. Many Jews
of Roussillon studied science and medicine at the University
of Montpellier in the 14t century, a period when Perpignan
flourished as a center of learning. There was much literary interest as well; poets included Jehoseph *Ezobi and *Phinehas
b. Joseph ha-Levi. The study of Bible flourished; an intense
polemic developed at the beginning of the 14t century between the partisans and opponents of the study of philosophy. At the center of the controversy was Levi b. Abraham of
Villefranche-de-Conflent, probably the grandfather of *Levi
b. Gershom, who brought down upon himself the ire of the
Orthodox of his time, including Solomon b. Abraham *Adret,
for his support of philosophic studies; he also studied astronomy. By the end of the 14t century, Perpignan had become a
center for the study of astronomy. Rabbinic studies also were
not lacking. The most prominent scholars of Roussillon were
Menahem b. Solomon *Meiri (12491306), Abraham b. Isaac
*Bedersi, and Isaac b. Judah de Lattes. Prominent in an earlier generation was Abraham b. David de Roussillon, Meiris
grandfather. Among the Hebrew manuscripts at the University
of Bologna is a mah zor with glosses by a R. Judah Roussillon
(REJ, 120, 124). Jews continued to pursue their intellectual and
cultural interests until their expulsion in 1493.
[Alexander Shapiro]
Bibliography: Gross, Gal Jud, 632f.; P. Vidal, in: REJ, 15
(1887), 1955; 16 (1888), 123, 170203; J.G. Gigot, in: Cerca. Centre
dEtudes et de Recherches Catalanes des Archives, 30 (1965), 2537.
ROUTTENBERG, MAX JONAH (19091987), U.S. Conservative rabbi and organizational executive. Routtenberg
was born in Montreal, Quebec, and received a B.S. from New
York University in 1930. In 1932, he was ordained at the *Jewish
Theological Seminary, where he earned a D.H.L. in 1949. He
became rabbi of Kesher Zion Synagogue in Reading, Pennsylvania (193248), where he created an educational center that
helped establish Conservative Judaism in eastern Pennsylva-
499
500
Bibliography: C. Roth, Venice (1930), index; Roth, Italy, index; Milano, Italia, index; Milano, Bibliotheca, index; idem, in: RMI,
33 (1967), 2112, and 8 illustrations; F. Luzzatto, ibid., 6 (1932), 50925;
G. Bachi, ibid., 12 (1938), 2189, 300; R. Cessi, Gli ebrei el il commercio della lana in Rovigo nel secolo 18 (1906); M.A. Shulvass, in: Sinai,
20 (1947), 198205; A. Yaari, ibid., 34 (1954), 36774; S.J. Sierra, in:
Scritti Bedarida (1966), 27181; J. Pinkerfeld, Battei Keneset be-Italyah (1954), 21, and tables 2426. Add. Bibliography: F. Brandes,
Veneto Jewish Itineraries, Venice (1996), 9297.
[Alfredo Mordechai Rabello / Samuele Rocca (2nd ed.)]
rovno
he prepared to emigrate to Jerusalem, but he was always held
up in the final stages. In 170001 he spent a whole year seeing through the press the Zoharic commentaries of Mordecai
Ashkenazi, in Fuerth, a place that seemed more sympathetic
to secret Shabbateans than Mantua or Venice. Finally, in 1702
he traveled to the Holy Land, accompanied by his family and a
group of scholars, and founded a yeshivah in Jerusalem, most
of whose members were supporters of Shabbateanism. A description of this journey by one of his company has been published by Jacob Mann (see bibl.). Considered a man of great
influence and independent means, he was prevailed upon by
the rabbis of Jerusalem to serve as an emissary to Europe,
first in 170407, and a second (and perhaps third) time in
171013. He traveled through many countries Poland, Germany, Holland, and Italy and died on his last mission while
passing through Mantua. Important sections of his extant papers remained unknown to collectors and libraries until the
1920s; these have proved very valuable sources for the history
of Shabbateanism.
Bibliography: Moses Zacuto, Iggeret ha-Remaz (Leghorn, 1780), passim; J. Mann, in: Zion, 6 (1934), 5984; G. Scholem,
H alomotav shel ha-Shabbetai R. Mordekhai Ashkenazi (1938); I. Sonne,
in: Sefer ha-Yovel A. Marx (1943), 89103; idem, in: Sefunot, 34
(1960), 3969; 5 (1961), 27595; A. Yaari, Iggerot Erez Yisrael (1943),
22342; Yaari, Sheluh ei, 34751; S. Assaf, in: Zion, 6 (1941), 156f.; J.
Leveen, in: Semitic Studies in Memory of I. Loew (1947), 32433, I.
Tishby, Netivei Emunah u-Minut (1964), index S.V. Rovigo.
501
[Gershom Scholem]
Holocaust Period
Under Soviet rule (193941), Jewish organizations ceased to
function, Bund and Zionist leaders were imprisoned, Jewish
businessmen were discriminated against, and Hebrew schools
were closed down. Many Jewish refugees from western Poland found shelter in Rovno, which soon became one of the
important centers of underground Zionist activity, helping
Jews to escape to *Vilna and southward to the Romanian and
Hungarian borders. With the outbreak of the Soviet-German
war (June 22, 1941), young Jews joined the Soviet army. Rovno
fell to the Germans on June 29, and on the same day 300 Jews
were slaughtered. Murder and torture were rampant. Between
October and November 1941, the number of Jews killed exceeded 1,000. A Judenrat was set up by the former director of
one of the Jewish secondary schools, Dr. Bergman. With the
introduction of the German policy of extermination, a Judenrat member, Leon Sucharczuk, committed suicide. Murder on
the largest scale was committed on Nov. 6, 1941, when some
18,000 Jews from Rovno were machine-gunned in a pine grove
in Sosenki. After this Aktion, a ghetto was established for the
remaining Jews. Starvation and disease claimed many victims
despite mutual help and attempts to reduce epidemics. On
July 12, 1942 the 5,000 surviving Jews were brought to the vicinity of Kostopol and murdered there in a forest. Rovno Jews
joined the partisan groups operating in the district and helped
to liberate Rovno from the Nazis in February 1944.
Bibliography: Rovnah: Sefer Zikkaron (1956); Sownik geograficzny Krlestwa polskiego, 9 (1888), 81823; Regesty i nadpisi, 1
(1899), no. 569; 3 (1913), no. 2321; Avatih i-Hadari, in: Yalkut Vohlin, 1
no. 8 (1947), 821. Add. Bibliography: Sh. Spector (ed.), Pinkas
ha-Kehillot Poland, vol. 5 (1990).
Contemporary Period
After the war about 1,200 Jews were living in an area around
the Great Synagogue. Only 100 were survivors from the original Rovno community. A search was made to find Jewish
children among the peasants in the nearby villages and to
mark the sites of the mass graves of Jews murdered by the
ROWLEY, HAROLD HENRY (18901969), English Protestant theologian and Bible scholar. Rowley was associate professor of biblical literature at the Shantung Christian University
(192429); assistant lecturer in Semitic languages at University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff
(193034); professor of Semitic languages, University College
of North Wales, Bangor (193545), and lecturer in the history
of religions (194045); vice principal (194045) and dean of
Bangor School of Theology (193645); and professor of Semitic languages and literatures at the University of Manchester (from 1945). He was, among other things, president of the
Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland (195758).
Rowley wrote a number of works on the unity, importance, and relevance of the Bible. He argued that the pure
monotheism of the prophets is rooted in the Mosaic period.
He maintained that Deutero-*Isaiahs understanding of the
Servant of the *Lord underwent a development from the symbolic suffering of the people of Israel to the vicarious death
of an individual. He staunchly maintained that the Book of
*Daniel, apart from secondary additions, was the work of a
single author writing in the years of Antiochus *Epiphanes
persecution of Judaism, and held that the reform of Josiah
rooted in Deuteronomy was at first welcomed by Jeremiah and
then rejected by the prophet because of its dangerous implica-
502
rewicz, tadeusz
tions. He commented upon every major problem of biblical
history from Moses to Qumran, including the problems of the
Exodus, the Samaritans, sacrifice, and the Qumran sectarians.
His only full-length biblical commentary was on Job, and was
published posthumously.
In addition to semi-popular dictionaries on biblical
names and themes (1968), he wrote: From Joseph to Joshua
(1950); The Servant of the Lord (1952); Prophecy and Religion
in Ancient China and Israel (1956; Jordan Lectures, 1954); The
Faith of Israel (1956); The Zadokite Documents and the Dead
Sea Scrolls (1952); The Aramaic of the Old Testament (1929);
Darius the Mede and the Four World Empires in the Book of
Daniel (1935, 19592); Teach Yourself Bible Atlas (1960); and
Men of God (1963). He was also editor of: Studies in Old Testament Prophecy (T.H. Robinson Festschrift, 1950); The Old
Testament and Modern Study (1951, 19615); Journal of Semitic
Studies (19561960); Peakes Commentary on the Bible (with
Martin Black, 1962); M.A. Beeks Atlas of Mesopotamia (1962);
Hastings Dictionary of the Bible (19632 with F.C. Grant); Companion to the Bible (1963); The Century Bible (1967); and the
series Recent Foreign Theology, in: Expository Times, 5881
(194670).
Bibliography: For a select bibliography of the works of
Rowley until 1954, see M. Noth and B.W. Thomas (ed.), Wisdom in
Israel and in the Ancient Near East (1955).
[Zev Garber]
ROZENMACHER, GERMN (19361971), Argentine playwright and short-story writer. He was born to a religious family
in Buenos Aires, where his father was a h azzan and mohel. He
graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and went on to
work as a teacher of Hebrew, a journalist, a theater critic, and a
playwright for television. Rozenmacher was considered to be
one of the foremost Argentine writers to emerge in the 1960s,
first earning recognition for his short stories and later for his
plays. He was killed in an automobile accident in August 1971.
Rozenmacher achieved fame with his collection of stories Cabecita negra (1962), which examines the influence of
Peronism on Argentine society in a variety of innovative and
interesting settings. While the majority of the stories speak to
the general Argentine population by depicting the solitude,
despair, poverty, and frustration occasioned by social injustice, three of the stories deal specifically with the often difficult Jewish experience in Buenos Aires.
Rozenmacher gained permanent renown for his four
dramatic works, which have become classics of Argentine
theater. His first play, Requiem para un viernes a la noche was
presented in 1964 at the Yiddishes Folks Teater IFT (Jewish
Popular Theater) in Buenos Aires. It played for two years and
continues to be produced. It has been studied mainly as a play
about generational conflict, cultural identity, and assimilation.
It is clear that the play reflects many aspects of his own life: he
married a Catholic woman, and he dedicated the play to both
his parents and his wife. Rozenmacher offers no solution to
the problems presented in the play. Indeed, the work seems to
signal the fact that there is no reconciliation possible between
the opposing stances represented by father and son in the play
and therein lays the tragedy. His play El Lazarillo de Tormes
presented in 1971 was based on the 16t-century Spanish picaresque novel of the same title. Jewish themes are present only
obliquely in the play, mainly when the topic of the Inquisition
arises. Simn Brumelstein, el caballero de Indias was written
in 1971, but not performed until 1982 and finally published in
1987. It is often considered to be his most ambitious and accomplished play. Simn, the main character, lives in a fantasy
world and struggles with his deep desire to assimilate wholly
into Argentine society and shed his Jewishness. However, he
is constantly reminded that he will never be permitted to be
completely Argentine. Ultimately, Simn Brumelstein is about
the clash of cultures, assimilation, antisemitism, and crises of
identity. His works have stood the test of time and found their
place in the Argentine literary canon of the 20t century.
[Darrell B. Lockhart (2nd ed.)]
REWICZ, TADEUSZ (1921 ), Polish poet and dramatist. Born in Radomsko, Rewicz studied art history at the
503
rozin, joseph
Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The terrors of the Nazi occupation dominate Rewicz earlier verse collections, such
as Niepokj (Anxiety, 1947). Influenced by Ionesco and Beckett as a dramatist, he also produced 15 highly acclaimed plays
along with a dozen books of poetry in the modernist manner as well as stories and satires. Among his works translated
into English are The Card Index, & Other Plays (1969), Faces
of Anxiety: Poems (1969); The Witnesses & Other Plays (1970),
The Survivor and Other Poems (1976), Conversation with the
Prince: and Other Poems (1982); Mariage Blanc and the Hunger Artist Departs: Two Plays (1983), Forms in Relief and Other
Works (1994), Reading the Apocalypse in Bed: Selected Plays
and Short Pieces (1998), and Recycling (2001).
ROZIN (Rosen), JOSEPH (18581936), Polish talmudic genius, called the Rogachover after his birthplace (Rogachov).
His erudition and profundity were phenomenal. It is said that
when he was eight years old, the local scholars felt incompetent to teach him, for he knew the whole of the talmudic order
of Nezikin with its commentaries. When he was 13, his father
took him to Slutsk where J.B. *Soloveichik taught him together
with his own son H ayyim. From there he went to Shklov,
where he frequented the court of the h asidic rabbi of Kapost,
of the Chabad sect. He spent the next eight years studying in
Warsaw. In 1889 he was appointed rabbi of the h asidic community of Dvinsk. During World War I, as the German army
drew near, he fled to St. Petersburg [later Leningrad], where
he remained as rabbi of the h asidic community for ten years,
thereafter returning to Dvinsk.
A man of penetrating intelligence, Rozin possessed a
phenomenal encyclopedic knowledge and great powers of industry. He knew the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds,
all the known tannaitic and amoraic literature, and most early
books without needing to consult them. He visited Rogachov
each year on the anniversary of his fathers death, on one occasion remarking that he had studied half of the Talmud during his journey there and would finish it on the return journey. He saw a subject as a whole and in its detail, analyzing it
carefully and getting to the core of the halakhah. He would
show by comparison with other passages which basic concepts were involved, give relevant rules and definitions, and
make the subject clear. He frequently explained the Talmud in
a way fundamentally different from that of the standard commentators. This is especially noticeable in his treatment of the
Jerusalem Talmud which has no early commentary: Rozins
work contains thousands of new explanations. In speaking
he was fluent and lucid; his writing, however, is obscure. He
refers to his sources by a mere vide so and so, making tens
of references but neither quoting the passage nor explaining
its relevance. Despite his difficult style, he was a prolific correspondent who enjoyed writing, and he encouraged correspondents to send him their problems. He answered without
any effort all who wrote to him on any topic, and thousands
of his letters are to be found throughout the world. His ability to find sources in the Talmud was extraordinary. He often
504
quoted a passage from a subject apparently completely unrelated to the matter under discussion, and inferred from it
a persuasive proposition which answered the question. For
Rozin, the Talmud was decisive. When he found a source for
a custom in the Talmud he practiced it, but not otherwise.
He traced to the Talmud the philosophical ideas of Maimonides and the latest discoveries of science. Because of this,
great scientists enjoyed conversing with him. His remarkable
knowledge of philosophy and science is revealed in his commentary on the Pentateuch. He possessed a keen critical sense
and when what purported to be the lost text of the Jerusalem
Talmud on Kodashim appeared, his insight recognized it for
the forgery it proved to be.
Rozins imposing and majestic appearance made a deep
impression on all who saw him. Though one of the greatest
scholars of any age, he was essentially a humble man. He was
courteous, striving to see things from the other mans point
of view. He bore the physical pain of his closing years stoically, though grudging the time it took him from learning,
and continued to answer all who consulted him, whether in
writing or in person.
During his lifetime, Rozin published a commentary on
Maimonides Mishneh Torah in five volumes (190308) and
two volumes of responsa. Four further volumes of responsa
were published in 193538. During World War II, one of his
students, I.A. Sufran-Fuchs, photographed all the manuscripts he could collect and sent the films to a relative in the
U.S. There they remained in a box until they were shown to
R. Menah em *Kasher in the 1950s. He appreciated their true
value, and they have subsequently been in the process of publication. All his works appear under the title Z afenat Paneah .
A number of volumes of the novellae and the commentary on
the Pentateuch have appeared (5 vols., 196065). Rozin died
in Vienna and his remains were buried in Dvinsk.
Bibliography: O. Feuchtwanger, Righteous Lives (1965),
7578; M. Grossberg, Z efunot ha-Rogachovi (1958); M.S. Kasher, HaGaon ha-Rogachovi ve-Talmudo (1958); A. Shurin, Keshet Gibborim
(1964), 24953; S.J. Zevin, Ishim ve-Shittot (19663), 87153.
[Ernest Hamburger]
rozwj
Ha-*Mizrachi in Vilna (1902), as well as in the Second and
Sixth Zionist Congresses, and the *Minsk Conference of Russian Zionists (1902). In the educational controversy between
religious and secular Zionists, he supported the proposal to
establish two separate educational communities within the
Zionist Organization, so as to enable each to conduct its own
policy in matters of culture and education.
Bibliography: H.H. Markon, in: Ha-Mizrah , 1 (1903),
3802.
[Yitzchak Raphael]
Holocaust Period
In 1939 the Jewish population of Rozwadow numbered more
than 2,000. On Sept. 24, 1939, the town was captured by the
Germans and on October 2 they ordered it to be evacuated
within 24 hours. The Jews were deported across the San River
into the Soviet-held area of Poland. The deportees dispersed in
the Soviet-occupied zone. In the summer of 1940, many were
exiled to the Soviet interior. Later Jews were permitted to return to Rozwadow. In September 1940, 400 Jews lived there
legally. The first head of the Judenrat was Eliezer Perlman, the
second was B. Gorfinkiel. In the summer of 1941, the community had to provide workers for the labor camp at Pustkow.
The final expulsion took place on July 21, 1942. All the
Jews in Rozwadow were assembled in the market square; many
were killed on the spot, others were placed into railroad cars
and taken to Debica, where Jews from the entire vicinity were
concentrated. Some were killed in a nearby forest; others were
deported to camps at Tarnobrzeg, Pustkow, Rzeszow, Mielec,
Stalowa Wola, and other localities. A labor camp was established in Rozwadow. On Sept. 1, 1942, 80 Jews were brought
there from Sieniawa, Lezajsk, and the vicinity. As the rate
of expulsion of Jews from the vicinity grew, 600 male Jews,
mostly from Wieliczka, were brought to the camp. On Sept. 15,
1942, 450 Jews from Wolbrom arrived. Late in 1942, there were
more than 1,200 prisoners, including Jews from Przemysl and
Rzeszow. The prisoners worked in the steel factories of Stalowa
Wola. Working conditions were hard and anyone who could
not withstand the physical strain was shot. More than 1,000
Jews died in the camp.
[Aharon Weiss]
Bibliography: M. Baliski and T. Lipiski, Staroytna Polska (1845), 482; B. Wasiutyski, Ludno ydowska w Polsce w wiekach
XIX i XX (1930), 118; R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun
Tsifern (1958), index; N. Blumenthal (ed.), Sefer Yizkor Rozvadov veha-Sevivah (Heb. and Yid., 1968), incl. Eng. introd.
505
rsha
tional-Democratic Party (*Endecja), bearing the official name
Organization for the Support of Polish Trade and Industry.
Its rise was due to Polish-Jewish tensions in Warsaw after the
elections to the Fourth *Duma in 1912, which reached a climax
in the announcement of an anti-Jewish boycott (see Rman
*Dmowski). The goal of Rozwj was to assure the nationalists influence on the Polish petite bourgeoisie by means of
demagogical propaganda slogans, emphasizing the liberation
of the Polish homeland from Jewish and other foreign influences. Apart from the economic areas, the organization was
active in publishing tendentious literature and propaganda,
such as Rozwj (191819) and Gazeta Niedzielna (192425).
Party membership increased markedly after 1917, and in 1923
reached 80,000. Since it was believed that the assassination of
G. Narutowicz, Polands first president, was partly due to antiJewish agitation and popular demonstrations, the government
of W. Sikorski ordered a temporary ban on Rozwjs activities
at the beginning of 1923. As a result, the partys influence declined somewhat but eventually Rozwj was successful in constantly assuming new forms and remaining a pressure group,
largely through urging an anti-Jewish boycott.
Bibliography: I. Schiper et al. (eds.), ydzi w Polsce odrodzonej, 2 vols. (1932/33).
[Moshe Landau]
506
With the German conquests, the RSHA sent representatives to all the occupied countries to run foreign branches
on the model of the headquarters in Berlin. But neither in
Germany nor abroad were services fused on a local level.
Abroad the RSHA acted through Einsatzgruppen (mobile
killing units), which functioned in the rear of the army.
With the end of combat operations the Einsatzgruppen became local branches of the RSHA. Heydrich remained chief
of the RSHA even after he was appointed protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Following Heydrichs death, Himmler provisionally headed the RSHA, but the actual direction was left
to Heinrich Mueller and Schellenberg. Ernst *Kaltenbrunner was appointed chief in January 1943, and served until the
end of the war.
The RSHA assumed the powers of its parent organization over the Jews, became the supervising authority over the
*Reichsvereinigung, and took over the Zentralstelle (emigration center). At its outset, the RSHA handled Jewish affairs,
its Section IIB4 dealt with research, and Section IVB3 dealt
with Jewish enemies. Section IVB4 was set up at the end of
1939 under Adolf *Eichmann, who was already head of the
Zentralstelle and had achieved notable success in the forced
emigration of Jews from Vienna. With the onset of the War,
Eichmanns section organized evacuations following the decision to drive the Jews and Poles out of the western provinces
of Poland. At the same time, the Einsatzgruppen killed tens
of thousands of Jews and Poles. The RSHA helped in the ghettoization of Jews in the East and was instrumental in the promulgation of anti-Jewish legislation. RSHA delegations in the occupied countries had Jewish sections and dispatched special
commandos, e.g., to *Salonika (1943) and to *Hungary (1944).
The Einsatzgruppen murdered more than 1,000,000 Jews in
Russia. Under Heydrich the RSHA became the instrument of
the Final Solution, i.e., the murder of European Jewry. The
headquarters of the Final Solution was Section IVB4, which
later became IVA4b. The local branches of the RSHA rounded
up the Jews, confiscated their property, and deported them to
death camps. The RSHA sought more efficient killing methods.
It invented the gas vans and serviced them in its own vehicle
section. Through its Zentralstelle in Prague, the RSHA ran the
*Theresienstadt ghetto. It decided the fate of every transport,
which was dispatched to the East. After the war the International Military Tribunal declared the *Gestapo and the SD
components of the RSHA criminal organizations.
Bibliography: H. Krausnick et al., Anatomy of the SS State
(1968), 17287 and index; R. Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews
(1961), 1817 and index; G. Reitlinger, SS, Alibi of a Nation (1956), index; E. Crankshaw, Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny (1956), index. See
also bibliographies for *Gestapo, *SS, and *SD.
[Yehuda Reshef / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
ruAH ha-kodesh
spirit of prophecy which comes from God, a divine inspiration giving man an insight into the future and into the will of
God. Traditionally the Pentateuch was given directly by God
to Moses, but the other canonical writings were all produced
under the inspiration of Ruah ha-Kodesh. Thus the determination of what should be included as canonical scripture turns
on whether or not a given work was composed with the aid of
the Holy Spirit (see Tosef., Yad. 2:14; Song R. 1:1, no. 5). This
power of the spirit was given to the prophets in unequal measure (Lev. R. 15:2), and could be passed on to a disciple, Joshua
inheriting it from Moses, and Elisha from Elijah (Deut. 34:9;
II Kings 2:910). There are a number of references to the cessation of the Ruah ha-Kodesh from Israel, some dating it from
the end of the First, some from the end of the Second Temple
(cf. Yoma 21b). The most significant passage for the central
use of the term as prophetic inspiration is When the last of
the prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, died, the Holy
Spirit ceased from Israel (Yoma 9b).
Apart from its function as prophetic inspiration the
Holy Spirit also rests on charismatic or exceptionally holy
individuals, who are not prophets in the accepted sense (cf.
SER, 10:48). They are thus possessed of an ability to divine the
future (Er. 64b). When the rabbis were gathered in Jericho a
divine voice announced to them that there were two among
them who were worthy of Ruah ha-Kodesh (TJ, Hor. 3:7; 48c).
The Holy Spirit is also promised to other categories, e.g., those
who teach Torah in public (Song R. 1:1 no. 8), those who study
from pure motives (li-shemah; SEZ, 1), and those who perform even one mitzvah in complete faith (Mekh. Be-Shallah ,
2:6). The Midrash says: All that the righteous do, they do
with the power of Ruah ha-Kodesh (Tanh . Va-Yeh i 13). Ruah
ha-Kodesh may be attained by the saintly man, and the spiritual stages toward its attainment are found in the Mishnah:
Phinehas b. Jair says: Heedfulness leads to cleanliness, and
cleanliness leads to purity, and purity leads to abstinence, and
abstinence leads to holiness, and holiness leads to humility,
and humility leads to the fear of sin, and the fear of sin leads
to saintliness, and saintliness leads to [the gift of] Ruah haKodesh (Sot. 9:15 end; see also Av. Zar. 20b and TJ, Shab. 1:3,
3c for different versions).
A connection between the possession of Ruah ha-Kodesh
and ecstasy, or religious joy, is found in the ceremony of water drawing, Simh at Bet ha-Shoevah, on the festival of Sukkot.
The Mishnah said that he who had never seen this ceremony,
which was accompanied by dancing, singing, and music (Suk.
5:4), had never seen true joy (Suk. 5:1). Yet this was also considered a ceremony in which the participants, as it were, drew
inspiration from the Holy Spirit itself, which can only be possessed by those whose hearts are full of religious joy (TJ, Suk.
5:1, 55a). The people of Israel as a whole were in some way
guided by the power of Ruah ha-Kodesh. Thus when the problem arose among the rabbis as to whether the paschal offering
should be brought on the Sabbath, it was to how the ordinary
people would act concerning the Sabbath restrictions that the
rabbis turned for a decision. Hillel declared: Leave it to them,
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
In Jewish Philosophy
PHILO. To *Philo also the Divine Spirit is that which inspires
the prophet to prophecy. In De Specialibus Legibus (4:49) he
writes that: no pronouncement of a prophet is ever his own;
he is an interpreter prompted by Another in all his utterances, when knowing not what he does he is filled with inspiration, as the reason withdraws and surrenders the citadel
of the soul to a new visitor and tenant, the Divine Spirit (
) which plays upon the vocal organism and
dictates words which clearly impress its prophetic message.
Influenced by Platos notion of divine inspiration or frenzy,
Philo interprets Abrahams deep sleep (Gen. 15:12) as a form
of ecstasy which the prophet experiences: This is what regu-
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ruAH ha-kodesh
larly befalls the prophets. The mind is evicted at the arrival of
the Divine Spirit, but when that departs the mind returns to
its tenancy (Her. 265). According to Philo, the Divine Spirit
comes upon man, fills him, visits him, or speaks to him
only occasionally. But in an exceptional case, such as that of
Moses, the Divine Spirit remains continuously in mans soul.
Philo maintains that the Divine Spirit is a separate spiritual entity a unique corporeal soul whose function is to
act as an intermediary of divine communications to man
(H.A. Wolfson, Philo, 2 (1948), 32). While unique, it is of the
same nature as the incorporeal soul of man or as the angels,
which are unembodied souls. Although Philo does not apply the term *Logos to the Divine Spirit, he does refer to it as
Wisdom, which he identifies with the Logos.
Philo however uses the term Divine Spirit in several
other senses as well: in the sense of the rational soul, as in
De Specialibus Legibus (4:123), where he identifies the Divine
Spirit with the breath of life breathed upon the first man
which is the rational soul (see H.A. Wolfson, Philo, 1 (1948),
395); in the sense of air, the third element, as in Genesis 1:2:
the spirit of God was moving above the water (Gig. 22);
and in the sense of the pure knowledge in which every wise
man naturally shares. Philo bases this last sense of the term
on Exodus 31:2 in which Bezalel is said to have been filled by
God with the Divine Spirit, with wisdom, understanding,
and knowledge to devise in every work (Gig. 23).
The concept of the Divine Spirit in the Dead Sea Scrolls is
similar to that of Philo, insofar as it is regarded as a spirit that
comes upon man or speaks to him. In the scrolls, man, as
a result of purification from carnal pollution (connected with
baptism) is reborn and receives a new spirit. While there are
many Platonic and Gnostic elements in the conception of Divine Spirit found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, D. Flusser maintains
that the origin of the concept is Jewish (Scripta Hierosolymitana, (1958), 252ff.). The influence that the Dead Sea Scrolls
exercised upon the Christian concept of the Holy Ghost is
well known.
[Rivka G. Horwitz]
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rubenovitz, herman H.
subtle spiritual body called the Holy Spirit were shaped the
spiritual forms called the Holy Glory, figuratively called God
(2:4). The Holy Spirit and Glory assume here the role of passive intermediaries. As in the case of Saadiah, Halevi at times
speaks also of non-visible manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
In a passage in which Halevi presents his own commentary
on the Book of Creation he adds that the angels are created
from the Holy Spirit and souls conjoin with it (4:25). The
Spirit is also described by him as enwrapping the prophet
(4:15) resulting in the individuals reception of prophecy, or
in his being aided and strengthened in a given matter. The
same phenomenon occurs during the anointing of a nazirite,
the anointing of the king, and when the High Priest consults
the *Urim and Thummim in order to divine the future. One
passage in the Kuzari alludes to a strong connection between
the Holy Spirit and the Amr Ilahi (Divine Matter or Command), a notion whose definition has been a source of controversy among scholars. Halevi illustrates divine speech by the
speech of the prophets when they are enwrapped by the Holy
Spirit. The Divine Matter directs all their words. The prophet
exercises absolutely no volition in his speech (5:20). Visible
and non-visible manifestations also are true of the Shekhinah
(2:62; 3:19; 5:23), which Halevi at times treats interchangeably
with the Holy Spirit.
One may also interpret the notion of being enwrapped
by the Holy Spirit in a less literal manner and see in it a figurative image for the reception of a special type of knowledge
or ability. In the presentation of the philosophers worldview
in the last part of the Kuzari, based on a short treatise by Avicenna, Halevi writes: In some individuals, the rational faculty succeeds in conjoining with the Universal Intellect. It is
thereby elevated above the use of syllogism and deliberation,
or the toil of learning, by means of inspiration (ilham) and
revelation (wahy). Its special trait is termed sanctity and the
holy spirit (512). In 4:15 Halevi indicates that the prophet
is enwrapped by the Holy Spirit after his soul conjoins with
the angels.
MAIMONIDES. *Maimonides does not use the Holy Spirit to
refer to a spiritual entity but confines his usage to the emanation received by the prophets or other special individuals, such
as the High Priest when he consults the Urim and Thummim.
In Eight Chapters 7 and in Laws of the Principles of the Torah
7:1, 6 he appears to use the term as synonymous with prophecy (though in 7:1 the term may refer to the acquired intellect).
In his discussion of the levels of prophecy in the Guide of the
Perplexed (2:45), on the other hand, he counts the reception
of the Holy Spirit as the two lowest degrees of prophecy and
distinguishes them from prophecy proper. The first of these
degrees consists of divine help that moves an individual to perform a great and righteous action. The next degree consists of a
situation in which an individual finds that a certain thing has
descended upon him and that another force has come upon
him and has made him speak; so that he talks in wise sayings,
in words of praise, in useful admonitory dicta, or concerning
509
rubens, alfred
the United States in about 1890 and lived in Pittsburgh. In
1908, he graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary and
took his first pulpit in Louisville, Kentucky. There Rubenovitz initiated the idea of an association of Conservative synagogues, which eventually took the form of the *United Synagogue of America. In 1910 he became rabbi of Congregation
Mishkan Tefila, Boston, which, over the years, he succeeded in
making Conservative in outlook and in style of worship. Rubenovitz was among the rabbis who, with Mordecai *Kaplan,
developed the Society of the Jewish Renascence in 1920, which
later became the *Reconstructionist movement.
He also was among the founders of the Boston Rabbinical Association, serving as its president for 15 years. He was
active in Jewish education in the Boston area and initiated the
plan for a training school for Jewish teachers. Rubenovitz presided over the Zionist Council in Boston and was chairman of
the New England Board of the Jewish National Fund for four
years. His wife, MIGNON RUBENOVITZ, was an active leader
in Hadassah Womens Organization, in the National Council
of Jewish Women, and in the National Womens League of the
United Synagogue of America. They published memoirs and
letters in The Waking Heart (1967), and Mignon Rubenovitz
published other works under her own name.
RUBENS, ALFRED (19031998), English collector and historian. A London surveyor and estate agent by profession, he
began early in life to collect engravings of Jewish interest and
his Anglo-Jewish Portraits (1935) was based on his collections.
This was followed by a similar work of wider scope, A Jewish
Iconography (1954; rev. ed. 1981) extending to engravings of
scenes of Jewish life and to continental engraved portraits. A
logical outcome was his History of Jewish Costume (1967). Rubens was chairman of the London Jewish Museum for many
years and was president of the Jewish Historical Society of
England (195658).
Add. Bibliography: In Memoriam Alfred Rubens (1903
1998), in: JHSET, 35 (1996/98).
[Cecil Roth]
510
RUBENS, PAUL ALFRED (18751917), playwright and composer. Born in London, the son of a stockbroker, Rubens was
educated at Winchester and Oxford. He wrote lyrics and librettos, for which he often composed musical settings. His
stage successes, mainly written in collaboration, include Lady
Madcap (1904), Miss Hook of Holland (1907), The Balkan Princess (1910), and The Girl from Utah (1913). From 1912 until his
death, he was the principal composer for Londons Gaiety Theatre. He died of tuberculosis at the age of only 41.
Add. Bibliography: ODNB online.
rubin, edgar
won at the world figure skating championships in St. Petersburg, Russia, the first North American figure skater to compete abroad. The championships in St. Petersburg proved to be
very problematic for Rubenstein. Due to widespread Russian
antisemitism of the day, the Canadian Jewish skater expected
he would be unwelcome to compete and came forearmed
with a letter of introduction from Canadas governor-general
Lord Stanley. In spite of police harassment, Rubenstein was
allowed to remain in Russia for the competition, and his performance was so outstanding that not even obviously biased
judging could deny him the gold medal.
In 1891, at the top of his career, Rubenstein retired from
skating. He remained, however, active in the sports world. He
founded the Canadian Figure Skating Association with the objective of standardizing judging in skating competitions. He
also served as president of several different Canadian sports
organizations including bowling, lifesaving, skating, tobogganing, bicycling and curling.
Rubenstein was also active in the larger community.
While active in his familys silver plating business, he was
elected a Montreal alderman, a position he held for 17 years
until his death. For many years he was also president of the
Montreal YMHA. In 1981 Rubenstein joined Fanny Rosenfeld
as the first Canadians inducted into the International Jewish
Sports Hall of Fame in Israel and in 2004 Rubenstein became
the subject of a film produced by the National Film Board of
Canada.
[Avi Hyman and Brenda Cappe (2nd ed.)]
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rubin, gail
Rubins laws governing the selection of the figure were
phenomenological in the tradition of *Husserl. They did not
explain why a figure was selected but merely stated the conditions under which one structure among possible alternatives
was selected. Although not a Gestalt psychologist himself,
Rubins ideas were quickly incorporated into Gestalt theory.
Rubin did not approve of theories and schools of psychology.
His position, as stated in his address to the Ninth International
Congress of Psychology at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1929,
was to let the facts speak for themselves.
Bibliography: W.C.H. Prentice, in: American Journal of
Psychology, 64 (1951), 6089; D. Katz, in: Psychological Review, 58
(1951), 3878.
[Helmut E. Adler]
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rubin, samuel
Street near the Bialik House as well as close to the old municipality building, became the Rubin House Museum.
Most of Rubins pictures expressed the local environment
of Erez Israel. The views reflect the landscapes, the flora, the
fauna, and the variety of types of people he saw in the country, all painted in a unique way combining nave and simplified styles.
The nave image was created mainly by the distortion of
proportions. The lack of shadows, the existence of contour
lines, and the strange perspective were part of the nave style
of the 1930s and expressed Rubins impression regarding the
significance of the location. In a self-portrait he showed himself as a dark-skinned person with a half-open shirt, seated on
a simple stool. The view that appeared through the window
was mostly a view of Jaffa with Arabic figures and houses (Self
Portrait, 1925, Paris).
During the 1940s he described the olive fields of the Galilee. The figures he dealt with were the biblical figures that
he had felt especially close to since he had been a child and
even more so when he was situated in Israel. His picture series Jerusalem the Golden combined the real landscape of the
Judean Mountains and the imaginary temple set in its supposed original place. Later in the windows of the Presidents
Residence he combined fragments from his art works with the
biblical scenes of Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, King David
Enters Jerusalem and Elijah Ascending to Heaven. Although
it was a huge project using a new technique, Rubin, then approaching his 76t year, accepted the assignment with delight.
He declared the windows his gift to the nation.
Bibliography: S. Wilkinson, Reuven Rubin (1975); Tel Aviv,
Rubin museum, Catalogue of the Permanent Collection, 1993.
[Ronit Steinberg (2nd ed.)]
It was also the first time when virtually every leading position
in the Clinton economic team was held by a Jew.
As Treasury secretary, Rubins economic policies included measures for a steep deficit reduction, which ultimately resulted in a federal budget surplus; at the same time,
the U.S. economy experienced both vigorous growth and
very low levels of national unemployment. Internationally,
Rubin urged the support of developing economies, including Mexico and Argentina, orchestrating a substantial loan
guarantee for Mexico. With his deputy secretary Lawrence
Summers (Rubins eventual successor) and Alan Greenspan,
Rubin coordinated the U.S. response to the Asian financial
crisis of the late 1990s.
In 1999 Rubin resigned as secretary and joined Citigroup,
where he served as chairman of the executive committee. He
has served on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Mt. Sinai Hospital and Medical School, the
Securities and Exchange Commission Market Oversight and
Financial Services Advisory Committee, the Mayor of New
Yorks Council of Economic Advisors, and the Governors
Council on Fiscal and Economic Priorities for the State of
New York. He has written, with journalist Jacob Weisberg, In
an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington (2003), a memoir documenting his years in the Clinton administration.
[Dorothy Bauhoff (2nd ed.)]
513
rubin, solomon
New York Bellevue Medical Center, and the Fordham University Medical Library, and endowed the chair of anthropology
at Brandeis University, in addition to supporting numerous
other medical and cultural institutions. In 1955 he donated
$250,000 for the establishment of a chain of community cultural centers in Israeli development areas; he founded a cancer detection clinic at the Rambam Hospital, Haifa. In 1957
the Rubin Foundation, which he founded, provided the funds
to acquire a building to house the Jerusalem Conservatoire of
Music, to which he donated $325,000 through the AmericanIsrael Cultural Foundation, and it was given the name of the
Rubin Academy of Music.
On the 20t anniversary of the Rubin Academy of Music
in 1977, he donated a laboratory for electronic music.
RUBIN, SOLOMON (18231910), Hebrew writer. Born in
Dolina, Galicia, Rubin was one of the most prolific writers
of the Haskalah period; his main subjects were general and
Jewish folklore, customs, superstitions, and the like. Rubins
work was for the most part devoted to the study of thought
and of popular beliefs accepted as sacred. His sympathy for
the victims of intellectual censorship induced him to translate K. Gutzkows Uriel Acosta (1857; see Uriel da *Costa) from
German to Hebrew, and this led him to an interest in Spinoza,
whose writings preoccupied him for an extended period.
He published Moreh Nevukhim he-H adash (2 vols., 1857),
a synopsis of Spinozas two books on the basis of the French
adaptation of Emile Laisset, and, when this resulted in attacks
upon him and Spinoza by Samuel David *Luzzatto, he countered with Teshuvah Niz z ah at (1859). A book on Spinoza and
Maimonides (in German, 1869) earned him his doctorate at
the University of Goettingen. He also wrote on Spinoza in HaShah ar, and published two additional works on the philosopher: Hegyonei Spinoza (1897), on divinity, the universe, and
the soul of man, and Barukh Spinoza (1910). He also translated Spinozas Ethics into Hebrew (H eker Eloha im Torat
ha-Adam; 1885) and his grammar (Dikduk Sefat Ever; 1905),
in the introduction to which Rubin discusses the Sephardi
pronunciation, which formed the basis of Spinozas Hebrew
grammar. Rubin also wrote Tehillat ha-Kesilim (1888), a parody in the style of Erasmus In Praise of Folly, the only book
of its kind in Hebrew.
RUBINER, LUDWIG (18811920), German poet and essayist. Rubiner, a native of Berlin, was a social revolutionary who
campaigned passionately for peace and social justice. A member of no political party, he expounded his ideology in a series of essays collected in the volume Der Mensch in der Mitte
(1917). In his poetry, as in his prose, he was an expressionist.
His own verse included Die indischen Opale (1911) and
Das himmlische Licht (1916). He also edited an anthology, Kameraden der Menschheit, Dichtungen zur Weltrevolution (1919).
This was a collection of manifestos for the fight against the old
world and for the advancement toward a true humanity, and
514
[Getzel Kressel]
rubinstein, amnon
ily. In addition, Rubinow insisted on a compulsory state system because the class which needs social insurance cannot
afford it, and the class that can afford it does not need it. He
prepared the report of the Ohio Social Security Commission
in 1933, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him
as a consultant to the committee that drafted the social security legislation of 1935.
Rubinow was also active in Jewish welfare work. From
1923 to 1928, he was director of the Jewish Welfare Society of
Philadelphia, and from 1927 to 1932 he served as vice president of the National Conference of Jewish Social Service. He
made it clear that poverty among Jews must not be isolated
from conditions in America generally, calling for Jewish participation in national progressive social movements.
Rubinow was an active Zionist, and his medical training
and administrative skills aided him from 1918 to 1922, when
he directed the Hadassah Medical Unit in Palestine. Modern
health services were established for the first time, malaria was
reduced, and the care of children was stressed. Rubinow later
served as executive director of the Zionist Organization of
America (1928). From 1929 to 1936, he was secretary of Bnai
Brith and, after Hitler came to power, he was a leader in the
movement to aid German Jews.
Rubinows works include: Social Insurance (1913); The
Quest for Security (1934); and The Jewish Question in New
York City, a paper published in AJHSP, 49 (1959), 90136.
Bibliography: R. Lubove, The Struggle for Social Security,
19001935 (1968), index.
[Irwin Yellowitz]
RUBINSTEIN, AKIVA (18821961), Polish chess master. Rubinstein studied at various yeshivot and he took up chess at
the age of 17. He became a player of genius, and was as prolific
a producer of chess masterpieces as his younger contemporary, Capablanca. Rubinstein had a phenomenal memory and
an original comprehensive grasp of all aspects of the game.
He also achieved an objective, selfless attitude in play which
earned him the description of the Spinoza of chess.
Most of Rubinsteins victories were gained before World
War I. In 1912 he shared first honors with Emanuel *Lasker at
Vilna, and won many tournaments.
Until 1914 his career qualified him as the likely challenger
for the world championship. Conditions arising from World
War I and its aftermath, however, made it impossible for him
to participate in any contenders matches from 1914 to 1920,
and the challenge was left to Capablanca. Between 1918 and
1930, he won many of the leading European tournaments, but
deteriorating health forced him to retire to a nursing home
in Belgium. It is believed that a Nazi devotee of chess was instrumental in saving his life during the German occupation
and he was eventually able to leave the home a few years before he died.
Bibliography: H. Kinoch (ed.), Rubinsteins Chess Masterpieces (1941).
[Gerald Abrahams]
RUBINSTEIN, AMNON (1931 ), constitutional law professor and politician, member of the Ninth to Fifteenth Knessets.
Rubinstein was born in Tel Aviv. He served as an officer in the
artillery corps. He received a bachelors degree in economics
and international relations (1955) and in 1963 a masters degree
in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his
doctorate in law from the University of London in 1966. Rubinstein was a member of the Haaretz editorial board, and in
196975 taught law at Tel Aviv University, serving as dean of
the law faculty (196974).
After the Yom Kippur War, in 1974 he established a protest movement called Shinui (Change), and two years later
joined the Democratic Movement for Change with other
members of his movement. He was elected to the Ninth Knesset on the DMC list but in 1978 broke away from it due to his
opposition to the role that the DMC was playing in the Begin
government, and formed a parliamentary group by the name
of Shinui, which had five members at the end of the term of
the Ninth Knesset. In 1976 he was appointed one of the deputy
chairmen of the Liberal International, continuing to serve in
this position until 1999.
In the elections to the Tenth to Twelfth Knessets, Rubinstein ran at the head of the Shinui party, which in March 1992
joined with the Civil Rights Movement and *Mapam to form
the *Meretz parliamentary group. Rubinstein ran in the elections to the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Knessets within the framework of Meretz, which became a single party in February 1997.
In the National Unity government formed in 1984, he served
as minister of communications but resigned in May 1987 after the inner Cabinet did not approve the London Agreement
signed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Shimon *Peres with
King Hussein of Jordan, and due to an agreement signed by
Prime Minister Yitzhak *Shamir to bring *Shas back into the
government. In 1989 he was responsible for an amendment
in the laws that enabled the opening of private academic institutions for the teaching of law, which opened the door to
the establishment of numerous colleges that are not financed
from public funds. In the course of the Twelfth Knesset, he
was one of the four Knesset Members who initiated the passing of the law for the direct election of the prime minister. In
the government formed by Yitzhak *Rabin in July 1992, he was
first appointed minister of energy and infrastructures, but after Shulamit *Aloni was forced to resign from the Ministry of
Education, Culture and Sports in May 1994, he replaced her.
In the Fourteenth Knesset, Rubinstein served as chairman of
the Knesset Economics Committee, and in the Fifteenth, first
as chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee,
and then as chairman of the State Control Committee. Rubinstein resigned from the Fifteenth Knesset on October 31,
2002. He returned to academic life, being appointed dean of
the law school at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliyyah.
In 2004 he was appointed to head a public committee to examine parliamentary supervision over the defense establishment, and ways of improving it a committee that submitted
its report in January 2005.
515
toured Spain and Latin America and after the war he moved
to New York. Until then, he had been considered a great performer of Chopin but his interpretative range widened to include Beethoven, Schumann and others. During the ensuing
years, Rubinstein developed into a master pianist of deep insight, whose periodic recitals drew both the general public
and the connoisseurs. At one period, he was giving 150 concerts a year, many of them for charity. He changed his domicile several times. When playing in Europe, he lived in Paris.
In 1937 he moved to Los Angeles but after World War II lived
again in Paris while appearing for seasons on the Continent, in
London, New York and Israel. He also played chamber music
with *Heifetz, with Feuermann, and with *Piatigorsky, making memorable recordings. His later seasons in his 70s and
80s almost had the character of Rubinstein festivals. He raised
his voice against injustice for Israel before the Six-Day War,
against Polands anti-Jewish campaign, and against the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1963 the Artur Rubinstein
Chair of Musicology was established at the Hebrew University by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on the proceeds of
his concerts in Israel, for which he always refused payment.
In April 1976 Rubinstein was awarded an honorary doctorate
by the Weizmann Institute at a special ceremony held in Tel
Aviv, and in April 1977 he was honored as a Yakir Yerushalayim (distinguished citizen of Jerusalem) at a ceremony
closing the Master Piano Competition. In December 1978 he
was one of the five recipients of the newly-instituted annual
Kennedy Center Honors. Rubinstein was also the subject of
a film, LAmour de la vie (1969). The first volume of Rubinsteins autobiography, My Young Years, was published in 1973.
The Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, established in his name, was first held in Israel in 1974 and has
become a regular triennial event. The second volume of his
autobiography, My Many Years, appeared in 1980.
Bibliography: W.E. von Lewinski, Artur Rubinstein (Ger.,
1967); B. Gavoty, Artur Rubinstein (Fr., 1955, Eng. tr., 1956); Grove,
Dict s.v.; The International Whos Who in Music (1951), s.v.
[Uri (Erich) Toeplitz / Max Loppert (2nd ed.)]
RUBINSTEIN, HAROLD FREDERICK (18911975), English solicitor and playwright. Rubinstein was the founder of
the well-known London law firm of Rubinstein, Nash & Co.
(now known as Rubinstein, Callingham, Polden & Gale)
which has specialized in literary cases. His defense of Radclyffe Halls novel, The Well of Loneliness, in 1928 led to his
appointment as legal adviser to various publishing houses.
He wrote the plays: The Dickens of Grays Inn (1931), Israel Set
Free (1936), Unearthly Gentleman (1965), and Shylocks End
(1970). He also edited Four Jewish Plays (1948). His son MICHAEL RUBINSTEIN (19202001) continued in his fathers
footsteps as probably the best-known solicitor defending authors and publishers in England, acting for Penguin Books in
the famous prosecution of D.H. Lawrences Lady Chatterleys
Lover for obscenity in 1960, and in many libel cases. Another
son, HILARY HAROLD RUBINSTEIN (1926 ), is also a well-
516
rubinstein, joseph
known London solicitor and author, whose works include The
Complete Insomniac (1974).
Bibliography: ODNB online for Michael Rubinstein.
517
518
ruderman, david B.
wald on November 24, 1963, took place in the basement of the
Dallas, Texas, police headquarters in full view of television
cameras and millions of viewers. Ruby, a nightclub operator,
was subsequently tried, convicted of murder and sentenced
to death. The case was carried through various courts, and
finally on October 5, 1966, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the murder conviction on the grounds that the
trial should have been removed from Dallas because of the
prejudice there, and because certain police statements were
improperly admitted into evidence. While preparations for a
retrial were going on, Ruby died.
Prior to his involvement in the Oswald killing, Ruby
ran nightclubs and dance halls during the 16 years he spent
in Dallas. In regard to Oswald, the controversy continues
as to whether Ruby acted alone and spontaneously as a
loyal U.S. citizen outraged that his president had been
assassinated or whether he was part of a larger conspiracy,
assigned to silence Oswald and then perhaps silenced himself.
Bibliography: Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1964), index; M.M. Belli, Dallas
Justice: The Real Story of Jack Ruby and His Trial (1964); J. Kaplan and
J.R. Waltz, The Trial of Jack Ruby (1965); M. Lane, Rush to Judgment
(1966); E. Gertz, Moment of Madness (1968); G. Wills and O. Demaris,
Jack Ruby: The Man Who Killed the Man Who Killed Kennedy (1968).
Add. Bibliography: D. Hunter and A. Anderson, Jack Rubys
Girls (1970); R. Pabst, Plodding toward Terror (1974); R. Hartogs and
L. Freeman, The Two Assassins (1976); S. Kantor, Who Was Jack Ruby?
(1978); A. Adelson, The Ruby-Oswald Affair (1988); B. Oliver and C.
Buchanan, Nightmare in Dallas: The Babushka Lady (1994).
[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
RUDAVSKY, DAVID (19031993), U.S. educator and professor of Hebraic studies. Rudavsky was born in Bialystok, Poland, and was taken to New York in 1910. From 1932 to 1942,
Rudavsky was principal of the Florence Marshall Hebrew High
School in New York. He then worked with the Jewish Education Committee (194248), and the Jewish Education Association of Essex County, New Jersey, as executive director
(194856). A frequent contributor to the journal Jewish Education, he was its managing editor in 194446 and associate
editor in 194648. From 1954 to 1957, he was active with the
National Council for Jewish Education as vice president and
then as president.
Rudavsky began teaching at New York University in 1945.
He became program director of the universitys School of Education in 1964, and in 1966 he became acting director of the
Institute of Hebraic Studies in the universitys graduate division of arts and sciences.
He also served as president of the National Association
of Professors of Hebrew (196063) and co-edited that organizations publication, Doron: Hebraic Studies (1965), a collection of essays on Hebraic studies in universities. His articles
in Jewish and general periodicals reflect Rudavskys concern
for Jewish education in the United States. In 1967 he published Emancipation and Adjustment, in which he discusses
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
RUDERMAN, DAVID B. (1944 ), U.S. Reform rabbi, academician. Ruderman was born in New York City and received
his B.A. from City College (1966) and his M.A. from Columbia
University in 1968. He was ordained at *Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1971 and earned a Ph.D.
in Jewish history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
in 1975. HUC-JIR awarded him an honorary D.D. in 1996.
While studying for the rabbinate, he taught Jewish history and
thought at HUC-JIRs School of Education in New York; and
while pursuing graduate work in Israel, he taught the same
subjects to American students studying in Jerusalem. Although ordained as a rabbi, Ruderman chose a career in academia beginning at the University of Maryland in College
Park, Maryland, where he held the Louis L. Kaplan Chair of
519
Conference of American Rabbis (198789), as well as chairman of the CCARs task force for Continuing Rabbinic Education (198992); president of the Association for Jewish Studies
(198083); president of the American Academy for Jewish Research (20004); a member of the Academy Advisory Committee of Hebrew Universitys Mandel Center of Judaic Studies (20026); and a member of the editorial boards of many
scholarly journals. In 2001, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture honored him with its lifetime achievement award
for his work in Jewish history; in 2002, he was named one of
the Top 100 teaching professors in the United States by the
Teaching Company, which offers his audiotaped and videotaped courses for sale to the general public.
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rudin, A. james
[Dora Litani-Littman]
RUDIN, family of U.S. real estate developers. LOUIS RUDINSKY, an immigrant from Poland, went to the Lower East Side
of Manhattan in 1883 with nothing more than the change in his
pocket. He became a grocer and in the 1920s his lawyer suggested he invest in real estate on 54t Street in midtown Manhattan. He bought the property sight-unseen because he had
heard that John D. Rockefeller owned property on that block.
His son, SAMUEL, built his first apartment house, a six-story
tenement in the Bronx. By the time he died in 1975, Sam Rudin
and his sons had developed some of the premier properties
in Manhattan, including 345 Park Avenue, where the Rudin
Management Company had its headquarters.
LEWIS (19272001) concentrated in building management and leasing while his brother JACK (1924 ) handled
construction and development. They were subsequently joined
by Lewiss son WILLIAM (1955 ), who became president of
Rudin Management in 1994. The Rudins presided over 40
buildings valued at $2 billion, including more than 3,500
apartments in 22 Manhattan buildings. Their holdings also
embraced 16 office towers. The family almost never let go of
a property once it was in their portfolio, and rarely ventured
outside New York for real-estate projects. It became intimately
involved in trying to improve New York City as a place to live.
Sam Rudin is remembered each year with the New York Marathon Samuel Rudin Trophy. The family has been a major supporter of the event since the mid-1970s; Sam was a marathon
runner himself. To popularize the marathon, which became
one of the most famous in the world, having grown from 127
runners in 1970 to more than 30,000 by 2005, Lewis Rudin
enlisted corporate executives and labor leaders. He also rallied them to help New York City during its darkest moments,
helped move the United States Open tennis championship
to Flushing, Queens, and helped gain landing rights in New
York for the Concorde jet. When New York faced possible
bankruptcy in 1975, Lewis Rudin persuaded other developers and corporate leaders to prepay $600 million in property taxes, enabling the city to avoid a fiscal disaster. Lewiss
friends spanned a broad stretch of New York figures, and his
annual break-the-fast party at the Regency Hotel at the end
of Yom Kippur drew hundreds of relatives and friends. He
had become a major force in the civic arena in 1971 when he
formed the Association for a Better New York with Howard
521
In 1965 he published Muntele Amintirilor (The Mountain of Memories; Hebrew, Har ha-Zikhronot, 1969), a collection which includes both new poems written in Israel and
some of his previous work. This reveals a significant change
from the sad tone of his Diaspora verse to the brighter note
of his writing in Israel. The book contains verse describing
the landscape of Israel and his joy at its beauty. One section
consists of poems expressing Rudichs revulsion at the crimes
of the Nazis.
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rudnicki, adolf
Paramount passed on. In 2005, after Harvey and Bob *Weinstein left Disney-owned Miramax Films, Rudin announced
he was leaving Paramount for Disney.
[Adam Wills (2nd ed.)]
RUDINOW, MOSHE (18911953), h azzan. Born in Lyubich, Ukraine, Rudinov became a meshorer in Chernigov and
in 1905 alto soloist at the Brodski Synagogue in Kiev, under the leadership of conductor A.I. Dzimitrowski. He also
appeared in Kiev as soloist in the first concert of Joel Engels
music. Rudinow became a member of the Odessa Opera
and conductor of the Ha-Zamir Society in Odessa and
Kherson. In 1917 he married the singer Ruth Leviash with
whom he gave joint recitals in Russia and Poland (192025)
and Palestine (192527). In 1927 he moved to the United
States and joined the musical staff of Temple Emanuel in
New York under the leadership of Lazare Saminsky. After six
months as choir soloist, he was appointed cantor. Rudinow
also appeared in recitals and operatic concerts with Leopold
Stokowski.
RUDMAN, WARREN (1930 ), U.S. senator. Rudman was
a native of Nashua, New Hampshire, where he was educated
in its public schools and where he became an Eagle Scout in
1945 before going to Valley Forge Military School for high
school (1948). He attended Syracuse University for his B.A.
(1952) and Boston College Law School (1960). He was then
admitted to the New Hampshire Bar. He served as attorney
general of New Hampshire from 1970 to 1976 and as president
of the National Association of Attorney Generals for 197576.
Elected to the Senate in 1980 after emerging as the moderate in
a crowded New Hampshire race of 11 Republican primary candidates, he was a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee where he became a budget hawk, seeking a balanced
budget and caps on spending. He is best remembered for the
Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, which he authored together
with the Republican senator from Texas and the Democrat
from South Carolina, that called for a pay as you go budget
and set the climate for a balanced budget that was achieved
during the latter part of the Clinton administration. He was
deeply involved in the Iran-Contra hearings, an investigation
as to whether the Reagan administration had traded arms for
hostages and illegally funneled funds to the Contras contrary
to an explicit act of Congress. Despite considerable popularity,
Rudman left the Senate in 1992, declining to run for a third
term. In private practice he was a member of the Concord
Coalition, a bi-partisan citizen group interested in pushing
budget reform. He was also appointed by President Bill Clinton a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, its
acting chairman in 199596 and chairman in 19972001. He
was on the board of the influential Council on Foreign Relations and spoke out often on issues of foreign and economic
policy, especially in the areas of intelligence.
[Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
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rudolf I
nightmare, antisemitism, and the fate of Polish Jewry dominate many of his later works, which include the cycle Epoka
piecw (Time of the Gas Chambers, 1949) and collections of
short stories such as ywe i martwe morze (1952, 19552; The
Dead and the Living Sea, 1957), Szekspir (Shakespeare, 1948),
and Mode cierpienia (Young Suffering, 1954).
Among Rudnickis other works was the drama Manfred
(1954), and he edited a volume on Auschwitz entitled Wieczna
pamie 1955; Lest We Forget, 1955). In his column Niebieskie
kartki (Blue Cards) which he published regularly in wiat
until 1968, the writer dealt with a wide range of subjects.
Three collections of these columns were lepe lustro tych lat
(The Blind Mirror of These Years, 1956), Przewity (Afterglows, 1957), and Wsplne zdjcie (The Group Photograph,
1967). The suppression of Rudnickis Blue Cards followed
the mounting anti-intellectual and antisemite campaign in
Poland after the Six-Day War of 1967.
Bibliography: Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna, 10 (1967),
188.
[Stanislaw Wygodzki]
RUDOLF II (of Hapsburg; 15521612), Holy Roman emperor and king of Bohemia from 1576. His reign was a period
of growth for the Jewry of his dominions, particularly the
community of *Prague (where he resided most of the time).
He was in constant touch with Mordecai *Meisel, who served
him both as banker and as supplier of objects for his art collections. Rudolf was noted for his patronage of the arts and
crafts and in 1577 he granted the Jewish goldsmith Joseph de
Cerui the privilege of working at his craft in various districts of
524
Prague. In 1586 he granted a similar privilege to Jacob Goldscheider, covering not only Prague but also the royal cities open
to Jewish residence. In 1592 he received *Judah Loew b. Bezalel (Maharal) in audience and in 1598 renewed the permit for
a Jewish printing house (*Kohen) in Prague. In the same year,
he allowed Elias *Halfanus to practice medicine in Vienna. In
1593 he mediated a conflict between the Jewish and the gentile
furriers of Prague. Rudolf created the category of the Hofbefreiter Jude (1582), Jews attached to the court and enjoying such
privileges as exemption from taxes and from wearing the Jewish *badge. Such Jews were under the jurisdiction of the courts
chief marshall (Oberhofmarschall) and had the right to live
wherever the imperial court sojourned. From them the institution of the *Court Jew developed, which led to the de facto
reestablishment of communities in Vienna and in Regensburg.
In 1583 Rudolf II granted his support to the apostate *Elhanan
(Paulus Pragensis) to publish a Hebrew translation of the New
Testament. The mentally unstable emperor fell under the influence of his valet, Philipp Lang von Langenfels (d. 1610), a Jew
from Tyrol who had been baptized in his youth, and thereafter
dukes and ambassadors had to secure von Langenfels support
in order to influence Rudolf. When he was imprisoned in 1608,
von Langenfels was in possession of 300,000 florins. The Jewish Prague of Rudolf s time is mirrored in Leo *Perutz novel,
Nacht unter der steinernen Bruecke, 1953.
Bibliography: Bondy-Dworsk, 2 (1906), nos. 766, 772, 794,
798, 837, 874, 884, 894, 900, 923, 929, 951, 952, 967, 968, 969, 971, 995,
1017; A.F. Pribram, Urkunden und Akten zur Geschichte der Juden in
Wien, 1 (1918), 3437, passim, 38, 89, 208, 452; G. von Schwarzenfeld,
Kaiser Rudolf II (1961); W. Pillich, in: J. Fraenkel (ed.), The Jews of
Austria (1967), 58; idem, in: ZGJ, 4 (1967), 7982; B. Brilling, ibid., 5
(1968), 2126; J. Hrsk, in: Judaica Bohemiae, 2 (1966), 1940 (Fr.);
Wischnitzer, in: JSOS, 16 (1954), 3404; H. Schnee, Die Hoffinanz und
der moderne Staat, 3 (1955), 2334; H. Tietze, Die Juden Wiens (1935),
index; P.J. Diamant, in: Archiv fuer juedische Familienforschung, 2
no. 13, 2 (1917), 1724; and bibliography to article Meisel, Mordecai.
[Meir Lamed]
ruedenberg, reinhold
RUEDENBERG, REINHOLD (18831961), German electrical engineer. Born in Hanover, Ruedenberg was the chief
electrical engineer of a leading German company. From 1917
to 1927, he was a professor at the Technische Hochschule of
Berlin-Charlottenburg. After the Nazis came to power, he
went first to London, and then in 1939 to Harvard Univer-
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ruediger
sity in the U.S. His many books include: Energie der Wirbelstroeme (1906), Theorie der Kommutation (1907), and Elektrische Schaltvorgaenge (1923).
RUEDIGER (Hutzmann), bishop of *Speyer, Germany, from
1073 to 1090. Ruediger enlarged and fortified the city, encouraging Jewish refugees to settle and augment its prosperity and
prestige by granting them a charter of privileges (Sept. 13,
1084), one of the earliest and most magnanimous of medieval
charters. A contemporary Jewish source emphasizes Ruedigers fatherly and benevolent attitude. In 1090 he took steps to
have the rights of the Jews confirmed by his ally, *Henry IV.
His successor saved most of the Speyer Jewish community
from massacre during the First Crusade (1096).
Bibliography: A. Epstein, in: MGWJ, 41 (1897), 2543; Germ
Jud, 1 (1963), 32730.
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RUEHS, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH (17811820), nationalist professor of history and Scandinavian studies in Berlin.
After the Congress of *Vienna, he opposed Jewish emancipation in a pamphlet entitled Ueber die Ansprueche der Juden an
das deutsche Buergerrecht, which was answered by Michael
*Hess, Saul *Ascher, and others. In this work, Ruehs maintains
that Jewry already constitutes a nation complete with laws and
aristocracy (rabbis) and therefore cannot be granted citizenship in a Christian state. An unbridgeable gap exists between
Germans and Jews, stemming from their inherently opposing
natures. Jews may be tolerated only as a subject nation and
the medieval restrictions must be reapplied. The basic characteristics of Judaism being arrogance, authoritarianism, and
abhorrence of work, only full conversion makes a Jew fit for
equality. While Ruehs believed himself to be objective and
free of prejudice, he took pride in never having had any social
contact whatsoever with Jews. J.F. *Fries published a favorable
review of his work.
Add. Bibliography: G. Hubmann, Voelkischer Nationalismus und Antisemitismus im frhen 19. Jahrhundert. Die Schriften
von Ruehs und Fries zur Judenfrage, in: R. Heuer and R.-R. Wuthenow (eds.), Antisemitismus, Zionismus, Antizionismus 18501940,
(1997), 1034; E. Sterling, Judenha. Die Anfnge des politischen Antisemitismus in Deutschland 18151850 (1969); J. Katz, From Prejudice
to Destruction. Anti-Semitism 17001933 (1980).
rufus of samaria
RUFUS OF SAMARIA (c. 100 C.E.), earliest Jewish physician and writer on medicine whose name has been preserved.
Recent studies indicate that Rufus was the first Jew to write
commentaries in Greek on the works of Hippocrates. According to the German scholar Pfaff, Rufus of Samaria was a
learned and wealthy Jewish physician who emigrated to Rome
from Samaria. It is possible that he changed his original Hebrew name to the Latin name Rufus because of its similarity
in sound to rofe, the Hebrew word for physician. He learned
Greek, wrote medical books in that language, and collected an
extensive library of commentaries on Hippocrates, to which
he added several of his own. Although *Josephus mentions
several contemporaries named Rufus, it is not possible to
identify the physician Rufus with any of them. The secondcentury Greek physician *Galen was careful to distinguish
between Rufus of Samaria and his contemporary, the better known Rufus of Ephesus. That Rufus of Samaria was an
eminent medical authority is clear from the fact that Galen
527
ruH amah
[Efraim Orni]
RUKEYSER, MERRYLE STANLEY (18971988), U.S. financial journalist and author. Born in Chicago, Rukeyser was educated at Columbia University. He was financial editor of the
New York Tribune (192023) and the New York Evening Journal (192326). He taught at Columbia Universitys graduate
school of journalism from 1918 to 1935. He wrote a financial
column for the Hearst newspapers (192758) and thereafter a
nationally syndicated column, Everybodys Money. He also
lectured extensively in the United States and Europe.
Rukeysers books include Common Sense of Money and
Investments (1924), Financial Security in a Changing World
(1940), The Attack on Our Free Choice (1963), The Kennedy
Recession (1963), and Collective Bargaining (1969).
528
ruppin, arthur
Elders (Beirat) and organize the machinery of the Jewish selfadministration. In August 1944 the ghetto was liquidated, and
Rumkowski and his family voluntarily joined the last transport
of Jews to Auschwitz and were murdered there.
Bibliography: A.W. Jasni, Die Geshikhte fun Yidn in Lodz,
1 (1960), 35975; J. Trunk, Lodzer Geto (1962); A. Rudnicki, Kupiec
ldzki (1963); F. Kafka, Krta lta (1963), passim; D. Dabrowska and
L. Dobroszycki (eds.), Kronika getta lodzkiego, 2 vols. (196566),
passim; D. Dbrowska, in: BZIH, no. 4546 (1963), passim; no. 5152
(1964), passim; L. Tushnet, in: The Chicago Jewish Forum, 22, no.
1 (1963), 210, incl. bibl.; S.F. Bloom, in: Commentary, 7 (1949),
11122.
[Danuta Dombrowska]
Bibliography: Zunz, Gesch, 105, 194, 283; J.M. Zunz, Ir haZ edek (1874), 172, 66 (second pagination); I.T. Eisenstadt and S. Wiener, Daat Kedoshim (189798), 8384 (first pagination); Watstein, in:
Sefer ha-Yovel Nah um Sokolow (1904), 2945.
[Abraham David]
RUPPIN, ARTHUR (18761943), Zionist, economist, and sociologist; originator of the study of the sociology of the Jews
and father of Zionist settlement in Erez Israel. Ruppin was
responsible for paving the way from political Zionism, which
was to many people more declarative than substantial, to pragmatic Zionism, in which settlement work and political efforts
were only different facets and names for the same project: the
building of the land and the people. Born in Rawitsch (Rawicz), Posen district (then in Prussia), Ruppin was the son of
an affluent family that had become impoverished and moved
from a traditional Jewish community on the border between
Poland and Silesia to Magdeburg, Prussian Saxony, in 1887. His
experiences as a youth undoubtedly had an influence upon
his life and his way of thought and are probably the source
of his understanding of both East and West European Jewry,
his support of basic social changes, and perhaps even his tendency toward planning and computing as exactly as possible
in his personal, academic, and public life. Ruppin was forced
to leave high school at the age of 15 because of his familys financial situation, and worked from 1891 to 1899 in the grain
trade. He passed the examinations for a high school diploma
as an external student and from 1899 studied law and economics at the Univerity of Berlin and the University of Halle;
he also spent time on the natural sciences, especially biology.
From 1902 to 1907, he served in a court and, in the same period (190307), he directed the Bureau for Jewish Statistics and
Demography, which was founded in Berlin by A. *Nossig. In
1903 he received the Haeckel Prize for his research work Darwinismus und Sozialwissenschaft, and in 1904 he published Die
Juden der Gegenwart, in which he laid the foundations for the
descriptive sociology of the Jews.
This work, which was published in a number of editions
and languages, based its discussion of the position of the Jews
upon a demographic and statistical analysis, instead of the
propaganda and rhetoric ideology that governed such discussions at the time. Ruppin corrected and brought the book
up to date in each new edition and expanded it into Soziologie der Juden, published in two volumes in Berlin (193031)
and in four parts in Hebrew (193234). The book appeared in
English under the titles The Jews in the Modern World (1934)
and Jewish Fate and Future (1940).
When the first edition of Die Juden der Gegenwart (1904)
was published, Ruppin was not yet a Zionist (although he
supported the Zionist idea), but the book brought him closer
to the Zionist movement and to its goal of solving the Jewish problem by founding a Jewish society and a state in Erez
Israel based upon systematic urban and rural settlement. In
1907 the young sociologist traveled to Erez Israel on behalf of
the Zionist Organization to study the situation there and probe
529
RUMPLER, EDUARD (18721940), German pioneer aircraft manufacturer. Rumpler, who was born in Vienna, began in 1908 to make his Rumplertaube, an observation plane
capable of flying at what was then the great height of 25,000
feet. He built several types of plane. His planes made the first
long-distance land flights in Germany, and were used by the
Germans in World War I. After the war, he conceived plans
for 150-seater transatlantic airplanes. However, a German aircraft industry was prohibited under the terms of the Versailles
Treaty. Rumpler had also worked in the Daimler and Adler
works on automobiles, and so he concentrated his postwar
work in this field. In 1919 he introduced the Rumplertropfenauto, and in 1926 he brought out the first car with front axle
drive. He was forced to retire by the Nazis in 1933.
[Samuel Aaron Miller]
ruse
530
russia
Ruse, affiliated with the local branch of the nationwide Shalom organization. (For further information on the Holocaust
Period, see *Bulgaria.)
Bibliography: S.A. Rosanes, Istoriah di la Cominidad Israelitah di Rustchuk, 1 (1914).
[Simon Marcus / Emil Kalo (2nd ed.)]
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532
face of hostile public opinion. Some Jews nevertheless penetrated into Russia during this period, while the authorities
did not disturb those living in the territories conquered from
Turkey in 1768 (Crimea and the Black Sea shore) and even
unofficially encouraged the settlement of additional Jews in
these territories. The question of the presence of Jews within
the borders of the empire was however decided by historical circumstances, when at the close of the 18t century hundreds of thousands of Jews were placed under the dominion
of the czars as a result of the three partitions of Poland (1772,
1793 and 1795).
Within the Russian Empire: First Phase (17721881)
The Jews who lived in the regions annexed by Russia (the
Western Region and the Vistula Region in the terms of
the Russian administration) formed a distinct social class. In
continuation of their economic functions in Poland-Lithuania,
they essentially formed the middle class between the aristocracy and the landowners on the one hand, and the masses of
enslaved peasants on the other. Many of them earned their
livelihood from the lease of villages, flour mills, forests, inns
and taverns. Others were merchants, shopkeepers or hawkers. The remainder were craftsmen who worked for both landowner and peasant. Some of them lived in townlets which had
mostly been founded on the initiative of the landowners and
served as centers for the merchants and the craftsmen, while
others lived in villages or at junctions of routes. It is estimated
that the occupational structure of the Jews at the beginning
of the 19t century was as shown in Table: 19t-Century Jewish Occupations, Russia.
19th-Century Jewish Occupations, Russia
Occupation
30
30
15
1
21
3
russia
to the peasants. This struck at the source of livelihood of thousands of Jewish families. The legislation therefore declared that
Jews would be allowed to settle as peasants on their lands or
on the lands which would be allocated to them by the government. Government support was also promised to factories
which would employ Jewish workers and to craftsmen.
In 1817 Alexander I outlawed the *blood libel which had
caused terror and suffering to the Jewish communities in the
18t century.
A short while after the publication of the Jewish Statute,
the expulsion of the Jews from the villages began, as did their
settlement in southern Russia. It was, however, soon evident
that agricultural settlement (see *agriculture) could not rapidly absorb the thousands of Jewish families who had been removed from their livelihoods. The expulsion order was therefore delayed, this being also due to the political and military
situation in Russia during the war against Napoleon. Only in
1822 was the systematic expulsion of the Jews from the villages,
especially in the provinces of Belorussia, resumed. An unsuccessful attempt was also made to induce the Jews to convert to
Christianity by promises of *emancipation and government
support for their settlement on the land.
UNDER NICHOLAS I. The reign of *Nicholas I (182555) forms
a somber chapter in the history of Russian Jewry. This czar,
notorious in Russian history for his cruelty, sought to solve
the Jewish Problem by suppression and coercion. In 1827 he
ordered the conscription of Jewish youths into the army under
the iniquitous *Cantonists system which conscripted youths
aged from 12 to 25 years into military service; those aged under 18 were sent to special military schools also attended by
the children of soldiers. This law caused profound demoralization within the communities of Lithuania and the Ukraine (it
did not apply to the Jews of the Polish provinces). Nobody
wished to serve in the army in the prevailing inhuman conditions and the trustees responsible on behalf of the communities for filling the quotas of conscripts were compelled
to employ snatchers (khapers) to seize the youngsters. The
military obligations of the Jews in Russia brought no alleviation of their condition in other spheres, and the expulsions
of Jews from the villages continued with regularity. The Jews
were also expelled from Kiev, and any new settlement of Jews
in the towns and townlets within a distance of 50 versts of the
countrys borders was prohibited in 1843. On the other hand,
the government encouraged agricultural settlement among
Jews. The settlers were exempted from military service. Many
Jewish settlements were established on government and privately owned lands in southern Russia and other regions of
the Pale of Settlement.
During the 1840s, the government began to concern itself
with the education of the Jews. Since the Jews had not made
use of the opportunity which had been given to them in 1804
to study in the general schools, the government decided to
establish a network of special schools for them. The maintenance of these schools would be provided for by a special
533
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HASKALAH IN RUSSIA. From the middle of the 19t century, *Haskalah became influential among Russian Jewry. Its
first manifestations, combined with signs of assimilation, appeared in the large commercial cities (Warsaw, Odessa, Riga).
Among the Russian adherents of Haskalah, there was a trend
to preserve Judaism and its values; hence they tended to seek
changes based mainly on a thread of continuity. Although
there were also circles which stood for complete assimilation
and absorption in Eastern Europe (the Poles of the Mosaic
Faith of Poland, nihilist and socialist circles in Russia), the
majority of the maskilim sought a path which would preserve
the national or national-religious identity of the Jews, while
some of them even developed an indubitable nationalist ideology (Perez *Smolenskin). The herald of the Haskalah in Russia
was the author Isaac Dov (Baer) *Levinsohn. In his Teudah
be-Yisrael (Vilna, 1828), he formulated an educational and
productivization program. The most distinguished pioneers
of Haskalah in Russia were the author Abraham *Mapu, the
father of the Hebrew novel, and the poet Judah Leib *Gordon.
Even though the maskilim were at first opposed to Yiddish,
which they sought to replace by the language of the country,
some of them later created a secular Yiddish literature (I.M.
*Dick; Shalom Yankev *Abramovitsh (Mendele Mokher Seforim); and others). At the initiative of the maskilim, there also
emerged a Jewish press in Hebrew (*Ha-Maggid, founded in
1856; *Ha-Meliz ); in Yiddish (*Kol Mevasser); and in Russian
(*Razsvet, founded in 1860; Den). The H evrat Mefiz ei Haskalah (*Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of
Russia), founded in 1863 by a group of wealthy Jews and intellectuals of St. Petersburg, was an important factor in spreading
Haskalah and the Russian language among Jews.
These books and newspapers infiltrated into the batteimidrash and the yeshivot, influencing students to leave them. Severe ideological disputes broke out in many communities, often
between father and son, rabbi and disciples. The government assisted the spread of Haskalah as long as its adherents supported
loyalty to the czarist regime (as expressed by J.L. Gordon to
your king a serf ) and cooperated in promoting educational and
productivization programs, as well as in its opposition to the
traditional leadership. By the 1870s, the activity of the maskilim
began to bear fruit. The mass of Jewish youth streamed to the
Russian-Jewish and general Russian schools. The general conscription law of 1874 encouraged this process, and thus began
the estrangement of the intellectual youth from its people and
Jewish affairs to the despair of the nationalist wing of the Haskalah which resigned itself to this situation. However, the rise
of the antisemitic movement within Russian society during the
late 1870s (see above) resulted in a nationalist awakening among
this youth. This was expressed in the development of a JewishRussian press and literature dealing with the problems of the
Jews and Judaism (Razsvet; Russki Yevrey; *Voskhod).
ECONOMIC POSITION. The natural growth resulted in increased competition in the traditionally Jewish occupations.
The numbers of small shopkeepers, peddlers and brokers
rose steadily. Many joined the craftsmens class, a step which
in those days was considered a fall in social status. A Jewish
proletariat began to develop; it included workshop and factory workers, daily workers, male and female domestics, and
porters. At the same time there also emerged a small but influential class of wealthy Jews who succeeded in adapting to
the requirements of the Russian Empire and established contacts with government circles. The first members of this class
were contractors engaged by the government in the building
of roads and fortresses, or purveyors to army offices and units.
During the reign of Nicholas I, many Jews engaged in leasing
the sale of alcoholic beverages which had become a government monopoly. From the 1860s, Jews played an important
role in the construction of railroads and the development
of mines, industry (especially the foodstuff and textile industries), and export trade (timber; grain). They were among
the leading founders of the banking network of Russia. This
class of Jews was prominent in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa,
Kiev and Warsaw. This upper bourgeoisie, headed by the
*Guenzburg and *Polyakov families, considered themselves
the leaders of Russian Jewry. They were closely connected with
Jews who had acquired a higher education and had penetrated
the Russian intelligentsia and the liberal professions (lawyers, physicians, architects, newspaper editors, scientists and
writers). The wealth and the status of this small class was however unable to alleviate the suffering of the destitute masses.
After the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, the serious lack
of land for the Russian peasants themselves became evident
and the government ceased to encourage Jewish settlement
on the land. Emigration became the only outlet. Until the
1870s, the migration was mainly an internal one, from Lithuania and Belorussia in the direction of southern Russia.
While in 1847, only 2.5 percent of Russian Jews lived in
the southern provinces, the proportion had increased to 13.8
percent in 1897. Important new communities appeared in
this region: Odessa (about 140,000 Jews), Yekaterinoslav
(*Dnepropetrovsk), Yelizavetgrad (*Kirovograd), *Kremenchug, etc. The famine in Lithuania at the end of the 1870s
encouraged emigration toward Western Europe and the
United States.
535
russia
der II. Confusion reigned throughout the country. The revolutionaries called on the people to rebel. The regime was compelled to protect itself, and the Russian government found a
scapegoat: the notion was encouraged that the Jews were responsible for the misfortunes of the nation. Anti-Jewish riots
(*pogroms) broke out in a number of towns and townlets of
southern Russia including Yelizavetgrad (Kirovograd) and
Kiev. These disorders consisted of looting, while there were
few acts of murder or rape. Similar pogroms were repeated in
1882 (*Balta, etc.); in 1883 (Yekaterinoslav, now Dnepropetrovsk, *Krivoi Rog, Novo-Moskovsk, etc.); and in 1884 (NizhniNovgorod, now *Gorki). The indifference to and at times
even sympathy for the rioters on the part of the Russian intellectuals shocked many Jews, especially the maskilim among
them. Revolutionary circles which hoped to transform these
disorders into a revolt against the landowners and government also supported the rioters. The new czar, *Alexander III
(188194), and his cabinet underlined these trends in their policy toward the Jews. Provincial commissions were appointed
in the wake of the pogroms to investigate their causes. In the
main, these commissions stated that Jewish exploitation had
caused the pogroms. Based on this finding, the Temporary
Laws were published in May 1882 (see *May Laws). These prohibited the Jews from living in villages and restricted the limits
of their residence to the towns and townlets. In an attempt to
halt the flood of Jews now seeking entry to secondary schools
and universities, and their competition with the non-Jewish
element, the number of Jewish students in the secondary and
higher schools was limited by law in 1886 to 10 percent in
the Pale of Settlement and to 35 percent outside it. This *numerus clausus did much to accomplish the radicalization
of Jewish youth in Russia. Many went to study abroad; others
were able to enter Russian schools only if showing outstanding ability. All became embittered and disillusioned with the
existing Russian society. In 1891 the systematic expulsion of
most of the Jews from Moscow began. The pogroms were indeed halted in 1884 but instead administrative harassment of
Jews became worse. The police strictly applied the discriminatory laws, and the expulsion of Jews from towns and villages where they had lived peacefully during the reign of Alexander II was effected, either under the law or with the help
of bribery, to become a daily occurrence. The press (which
was subjected to severe censorship) conducted a campaign
of unbridled antisemitic propaganda. K. *Pobedonostsev, the
head of the Holy Synod (the governing body of the Russian
Orthodox Church), formulated the objectives of the government when he expressed the hope that one third of the Jews
will convert, one third will die, and one third will flee the
country.
This policy was also continued under *Nicholas II (1894
1918). In reaction to the growth of the revolutionary movement, in which the radicalized Jewish youth took an increasing part, the government gave free rein to the antisemitic press
and agitation. During Passover in 1903, a pogrom broke out in
*Kishinev in which many Jews lost their lives. From then on
536
russia
Number of
Jews
% of total
population
Ukraine, Bessarabia
Lithuania, Belorussia
Russian Poland
Total in Pale of Settlement
Interior of Russia, Finland
Caucasus
Siberia, Russian Central Asia
Total Russian Jewish Population
2,148,059
1,410,001
1,316,576
4,874,636
208,353
58,471
47,941
5,189,401
19.3
14.1
14.1
11.5
10.34
10.63
10.35
14.13
1
2
In certain provinces of the Pale of Settlement, the percentage of Jews rose above their general proportion (18.12 percent in the province of Warsaw; 17.28 percent in the province
of Grodno). The overwhelming majority of the Jews in the Pale
lived in towns (48.84 percent) and townlets (33.05 percent).
Only 18.11 percent lived in villages. The Jews of the villages
nevertheless numbered about 890,000. A decisive factor in the
social pattern of Russian Jewry was its concentration in the
towns and townlets. The townlet (see *shtetl) a legacy of the
social structure of ancient Poland was a center of commerce
and crafts for the neighboring villagers and its population was
mostly Jewish. There Jewish tradition, cohesion, and folkways
were well preserved, serving as the basis and starting point for
both the conservative and innovative forces in Jewish culture.
In the larger cities, the majority of the Jews also resided in the
same locality and led their own social life.
The largest Jewish communities in Russia in 1897 appear
in Table: Jewish Communities in Russia, 1897.
Largest Jewish Communities in Russia, 1897
City
Warsaw
Odessa
Lodz
Vilna
Kishinev
Minsk
Bialystok
Berdichev
Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk)
Vitebsk
Number of
Jews
219,128
138,935
98,676
63,831
50,237
47,617
41,903
41,617
40,937
34,420
% of total
population
32.5
34.4
31.8
41.5
46.5
52.3
63.4
78.0
36.3
52.4
Commerce
Crafts and industry
Domestics and daily workers
Liberal professions and administration
Transport
Agriculture
Army
Without regular source of livelihood
Total
38.65
35.43
6.61
5.22
3.98
3.55
1.07
5.49
100.00
537
russia
sian revolutionary movement in the Pale of Settlement. It regarded itself as part of the all-Russian Social Democratic Party
but gradually came to insist upon certain national demands
such as: the right to cultural autonomy for the Jewish masses,
recognition of Yiddish as the national language of the Jews,
the establishment of schools in this language, and the development of the press and literature. The Bund was particularly
successful in Lithuania and Poland, where after a short time it
raised the social status of the worker and the apprentice, and
implanted in them the courage to stand up to their employers and the authorities.
Another response of the Jews to their oppression in Russia found expression in the Zionist movement. Zionism originated in the *H ibbat Zion movement which came into being
after the pogroms of 188183 (see also Leon *Pinsker). A few of
the hundreds of thousands of Jews who left for overseas turned
toward Erez Israel and established the first settlements there.
H ovevei Zion societies in Russia propagated the idea of this
settlement and raised funds for its maintenance. The movement gained great impetus with the appearance of Theodor
*Herzl, the convention of the First Zionist Congress in Basle,
and the founding of the World Zionist Organization (1897).
Because of the political regime of Russia, the central institutions of the Zionist Organization were established in Western
Europe, even though the mass of its members and influence
came from Russian Jewry. Zionism won adherence among all
Jewish groups: the Orthodox and maskilim, the middle class
and proletariat, the youth and intelligentsia. It encouraged
national thought and culture among the masses. The Zionist
press (*Haolam; Razsvet, etc.) and Zionist literature in three
languages Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian gained wide popularity. The movement was illegal and the attitude of the government ranged from one of reserve, seeing that the movement could divert the Jewish youth from active participation
in the revolutionary movement, to one of hostility. Zionist
congresses and meetings were held openly (Minsk, 1902) and
clandestinely. The failure of Herzl to obtain a charter from the
Turkish sultan and the debate over the Uganda *project resulted in a grave crisis within the Zionist movement in Russia.
Herzl largely based his case for accepting the Uganda project
on the urgent need for a Nachtasyl for the suffering Russian
Jews, but it was the majority of the Russian Zionists, led by
M. *Ussishkin and J. *Tschlenow, who on principle opposed
the Uganda proposal. Some of the proposals supporters later
resigned from the Zionist movement and founded territorialist organizations (see *Territorialism), the most important
of which was the *Zionist Socialist Workers Party (SS). Immigrants and pioneers from Russia formed the greater part of
the Second Aliyah and it was from their ranks that the founders of the labor movement in Erez Israel emerged.
Within a relatively short period, the revolutionary movement and the Zionist movement brought a tremendous change
among Jewish youth. The battei-midrash and yeshivot were
abandoned, and dynamism of Jewish society now became
concentrated within the new political trends.
538
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russia
539
russia
THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION (1917). The nine months following the February Revolution of 1917 constituted a brief
springtime in the history of Russian Jewry. The Provisional
Government abolished all the restrictions affecting the Jews
on March 16, 1917, as one of its first measures. Jews were immediately given the chance to hold office in the government
administration, to practice at the bar, and rise in the army
ranks. All at once opportunity opened up to them for free
development in every sphere of life, both as citizens of the
state and as a national group. The hatred of the Jews, which
had served as a political weapon in the hands of the ancient
regime, became incompatible with the Revolution and was
forced underground.
Naturally the Jews supported the Revolution and participated in the active political life which began to flourish in the
country. There were Jews in all the democratic and socialist
parties at all levels, from the leadership to the rank and file.
The leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets)
included the jurist M. *Vinawer; among the Socialist Revolutionaries there was O. *Minor, who was elected mayor of
Moscow, and I.N. *Steinberg, who later became commissar
for justice in the first Soviet government headed by *Lenin.
Other leaders included, among the Mensheviks, J. *Martov,
and F.I. *Dan; and among the Bolsheviks, L. Trotsky, Y.M.
Sverdlov, L.B. *Kamenev, and G. *Zinoviev. Many Jews led
the revolutionaries in the provinces, which were poor in intellectual forces. Despite their numbers in the general revolutionary movement, these revolutionaries were only a minute
section of the vast numbers of Russian Jews who remained attached to their national and religious culture and society. This
adhesion was expressed by the tremendous progress made by
the Zionist movement in 1917. In May 1917 the seventh conference of the Zionists of Russia, representing 140,000 members, was held in Petrograd. Youth groups under the name of
*He-H alutz, who prepared themselves to settle in Erez Israel,
were formed in many towns and townlets. The Zionists also
promoted an intensive cultural activity. The H ovevei Sefat
Ever (Lovers of the Hebrew Language) society founded under the czarist regime, became the *Tarbut society. In Moscow
a Hebrew daily, Ha-Am, was published and Hebrew publishing houses financed by the wealthy arts patrons Stybel (Stybel Publishing) and Zlatopolsky-Persitz (Omanut Publishing)
were established. Training colleges for teachers and kindergarten teachers were founded, as well as elementary and secondary schools. The first steps were taken for the establishment of
540
russia
541
russia
the Jews at Fastov (with 1,500 dead). Their attacks on the Jews
were even more severe at the time of their disorderly retreat
southward at the end of 1919. It is difficult to assess the losses
suffered by Ukrainian Jewry in these pogroms. S. Dubnow estimated that 530 communities had been attacked. More than
1,000 pogroms were perpetrated in these communities. There
were more than 60,000 dead and several times this number of
wounded. In the western Ukraine and Belorussia, the suffering
of the Jews was caused mainly by the Polish army. Although
pogroms did not take place, the Jews were terrorized and hundreds were executed without trial as suspects of Communist affiliation (Pinsk 1919, etc.). The Ukrainian and Russian
volunteer units (under General Balachowicz-Bulak) which
fought with the Poles also attacked the Jews.
During those years, Jewish self-defense units were formed
in many places in the Ukraine. These efforts were, however,
local. They were successful in several large towns and in a
few townlets only. At the beginning of the civil war, a Jewish
Fighting Battalion led by a nucleus of demobilized soldiers
and officers was formed in Odessa. This battalion obtained
many arms and saved the Jews of Odessa from pogroms. The
defense units of the small towns managed to protect the Jews
from small local bands, but were powerless when confronted
by army units or large bands of peasants. Occasionally the attackers took cruel vengeance against the inhabitants for the
resistance offered by their youth when they entered the locality (the *Pogrebishche massacre). During the last two years of
the civil war, as Soviet rule strengthened, these self-defense
organizations at first received political and military support.
However, since nationalist and Zionist elements prevailed in
them, they were disbanded later during the suppression of
non-Bolshevik elements in 192122.
Under the Soviet Regime
By 1920 the borders of Soviet Russia took shape. A considerable number of Jews who had formerly been included within
the borders of the Russian Empire remained in the states
which had broken away from it (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia,
Estonia, and Bessarabia, incorporated into Romania). Only
about 2,500,000 Jews remained within the limits of Soviet
Russia. The fate of the Jews within the borders of Soviet Russia was to a large extent determined by the theory and practice
of the Communist Party. Its outlook was defined and crystallized during the 20 years which preceded the Revolution. Like
all the other socialist and liberal parties, the Bolshevik Party
repudiated antisemitism, while the civic emancipation of the
Jews, as that of the other Russian peoples, formed part of its
program. It took some time until the party recognized Jews
as a nationality. Under the influence of assimilated Jews, who
carried weight in the circles of the socialist leadership of Europe and Russia, the Bolsheviks were inclined to regard integration and assimilation as the only progressive solution of
the Jewish problem. This outlook was sharpened during the
bitter discussion at the beginning of the century between the
Bolsheviks and the Bund. Leaning upon Marx, K. Kautsky,
542
russia
they were compelled to recognize the fact, even if as a temporary phenomenon, of the existence of millions of Jews who
were attached to their language and their national tradition.
A Jewish commissariat headed by the veteran Bolshevik S.
*Dimanstein was established between 1918 and 1923 to deal
with Jewish affairs. Jewish Sections (Yevsektsiya) were also
set up in the branches of the Communist Party. Jewish members of the party who were prepared to work among their fellow Jews were organized in these sections. The function of
the Yevsektsiya was to impose the proletarian dictatorship
among the Jewish masses. The older Jewish members of the
Communist Party were mostly assimilationists who did not
want any contact with their people. However, as the success
of the Bolsheviks and the efficiency of their terror measures
became increasingly evident, they were joined by sections of
Jewish socialist parties (the Bund, the *United Jewish Socialist Workers Party, the *Poalei Zion) as well as by individual
Jews. These brought with them ideas on the fostering of a secular Jewish culture in Yiddish and envenomed hatred toward
the Jewish religion, the Hebrew language, the Bible, and the
Zionist movement. The Communist Party put them in control
of the Jewish population centers, at the same time stressing
that their activity was only a temporary measure for as long
as it would be required.
The first activity of the Yevsektsiya was the liquidation of
the religious and national organizations of the Jews of Russia.
In August 1919 the Jewish communities were dissolved and
their properties confiscated. The general antireligious policy
took the form, in relation to the Jews, of persecution of traditional Jewish culture and education, of prohibiting the religious instruction of children, the closure of h adarim and yeshivot, and the seizure of synagogues which were converted
into clubs, workshops, or warehouses. A violent campaign
against the Jewish religion and its leaders was conducted and
heavy taxes were imposed on the rabbis and other religious
officials in order to compel them to resign from their positions. In these activities the Yevsektsiya encountered the opposition of the religious masses, who based themselves on the
promise of freedom of religious worship, which was officially
proclaimed and later included in the Soviet constitution, and
struggled for their right to pursue their way of life by legal or
illegal methods (through underground h adarim, yeshivot,
etc.). The imprisonment and expulsion from the Soviet Union
of Rabbi J. *Schneersohn, the leader of Chabad H asidism, in
1927 marked one phase in the suppression of Jewish religion.
Even after this, underground religious activity continued,
and its influence was manifested when hundreds of h asidic
families left the Soviet Union and went to Erez Israel after
World War II.
War was also proclaimed against Hebrew; its study was
prohibited, and the publication of books in Hebrew was suspended (though until 1928 it was still possible to print religious
books and Jewish calendars). In June 1921 a group of Hebrew
authors led by H .N. Bialik and S. Tchernichowsky left Russia.
Several years later, the Hebrew theater Habimah left the Soviet
543
russia
544
ECONOMIC RESHUFFLE. The most decisive factor in the history of the Jews of the Soviet Union was the economic reshuffle
which took place in their midst during the 1920s and 1930s.
The brief NEP period (192127) aroused vain hopes among
the Jews, who occupied a place of considerable importance
in the urban economic class of shopkeepers and independent
craftsmen (nepmen). However, when the success of the NEP
period was at its height, severe supervision was imposed on
this class, and the burden of taxation brought its impoverishment and destruction. The situation was especially difficult in
Jewish townlets whose former economic basis had been destroyed. A widespread class of the destitute and unemployed
was created; its members were also deprived of civic rights
(lishentsy in Soviet terminology), such as the right to employment, public medical care, and the right of their children to
study in secondary and higher schools. With the liquidation
of the NEP and the introduction of the first Five-Year Plan
(192732), the situation of these masses deteriorated even further. Thousands of families subsisted on the meager assistance
which they received from Western Jewry, through public organizations (the American Jewish *Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), ORT, ICA), through organizations of emigrants
from towns or townlets (*Landsmannschaften), or individual relatives. Notorious in this period was the Extortion of
Dollars campaign of the Soviet secret police, with the use
of coercion and torture against Jews suspected of hoarding
dollars. During the late 1920s, according to official statistics,
about one third of the Jews belonged to the economic classes
which were destined to disappear and were deprived of the
above-mentioned rights. The authorities sought to solve this
problem in three ways: by agricultural settlement; by migration to the interior regions of Russia, which had been closed
to the Jews under the czarist regime; and by concentration
in the large towns and industrial regions of the Ukraine and
Belorussia, where new classes of government officialdom and
industrial enterprises had developed.
AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS. During the 1920s, many of the
leaders of the Soviet government came to regard agricultural settlement as the high road to the solution of the Jewish
problem. A steady movement toward agricultural settlement
of Jews had already started near the Jewish townlets during
the period of war Communism in the years of the civil war,
when occupation in agriculture at least promised a piece of
dry bread. In 1924 the government created the Commission for
Jewish Settlement (Komzet) and a year later a Society for the
Promotion of Jewish Settlement (Ozet) was founded. Several
Soviet leaders, led by M. Kalinin and Y. *Larin, viewed this settlement not only as an economic solution for the Jews but also
as a means of assuring their national existence. Some members
of the Yevsektsiya accepted these projects with enthusiasm and
devoted themselves to their realization. These circles aimed to
establish Jewish settlement in successive blocs which would
russia
By the late 1930s, the hopes which many Jews in Russia and abroad had pinned on agricultural settlement evaporated. The collectivization of farming during the early 1930s,
which was frequently bound up with a policy of internationalization (i.e., the inclusion of non-Jewish peasants in
Jewish kolkhozes), resulted in the departure of many Jewish
settlers. The industrialization and development of the towns
attracted many members of the settlements to the large towns.
With the German invasion, all the Jewish settlements of the
Ukraine and Crimea were destroyed and they did not recover
after the war.
545
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1945
1948
1959
Numbers
400
1,200
2,600
3,500
7,000
6,000
8,000
14,000
18,000
19,000
20,000
30,000
14,269
900
1,000
1,500
3,250
9,000
3,000
5,250
8,350
8,000
3,000
1,750
10,000
Russian S.F.S.R.
Ukraine
Belorussia
Caucasus
Soviet Central Asia
Total
1939
% of
Number
% of
Number
total
of Jews
total
of Jews
(thousands) population (thousands) population
599.0
1,574.5
407.0
51.5
40.0
2,672
22.4
59.0
15.2
1.9
1.5
100.0
948
1,533
375
84
80
3,020
31.4
50.8
12.4
2.8
2.6
100.0
russia
Moscow
Leningrad
1897
1926
1940 (approx.)
8,473
17,251
131,000
84,412
400,000
175,000
Clerks
Workers
Cooperative craftsmen
Individual craftsmen
Peasants in kolkhozes
Others
Total
and newspapers which had survived the purge of the late 1930s
functioned in an atmosphere of fear and oppression, and Jewish educational institutions closed down, often at their own
initiative. Among the younger generation the process of assimilation was accelerated. (In June 1942 the Jewish commander of
the Soviet air force, Lieutenant General Yaacov Shmushkevich,
twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, was arrested and eventually
executed, but this must be regarded as part of Stalins general
purges rather than an attack upon the Jews.)
SOVIET ANNEXATION OF TERRITORIES: 193940. The most
significant event of this period, in Jewish terms, was the addition of over two million Jews, residents of the territories that
had been annexed by or incorporated into the Soviet Union
(see Table: Distribution of Jewish Population in the SovietAnnexed Territories).
40.6
30.6
16.1
4.0
5.8
2.9
100.0
Date of Annexation
Sept. 1939
Sept. 1939
Number of
Jews
Location of Large
Communities
June 1940
June 1940
July 1940
100,000 Riga
300,000 Kishinev, Chernovtsy
2,170,000
546
russia
ernment service, and found it possible to function in the Soviet economic system in cooperative and state-run workshops
and commercial enterprises. The Jewish communities themselves were disbanded and the status of religion and religious
institutions synagogues, yeshivot and religious schools underwent a sharp decline. The Hebrew-language schools had
to adopt Yiddish as the medium of instruction and introduce
the Soviet curriculum, with teachers from the old part of the
U.S.S.R. put on their staff. Jewish youth organizations were either disbanded or went underground and many of the young
people joined the Communist youth movement (Komsomol).
The young Zionists and yeshivah students, for the most part,
moved to Vilna, which was a Polish city and then became the
capital of Lithuania, but was not occupied by the Soviets until
June 1940, and from there many succeeded in reaching either
Palestine or the United States. There was also a minor revival
of Yiddish cultural life. The old Soviet Yiddish writers, who
had almost given up all hope of saving Yiddish culture from
obliteration, now saw a new sphere of activities opening up.
They established contact with writers in such Jewish centers as
Vilna, Kaunas, Riga, Lvov, Bialystok, and Chernovtsy, founded
newspapers and theaters, and began to publish their books.
A chair for Yiddish language and literature, headed by Noah
*Prylucki, was created at Vilna University. This development
soon met with the disapproval of the Soviet authorities, and by
the end of 1940 there was no doubt that Jewish institutions in
the new territories were also being systematically liquidated.
This was especially true of Jewish schools, where teachers and
parents were persuaded to replace Yiddish by Russian. A few
attempts at protesting this policy were firmly suppressed, as,
for example, the arrest and later execution of the Soviet Yiddish writer Selik *Axelrod in Minsk. Many of the refugees from
western Poland were arrested in the early months of the Soviet occupation and deported to camps in the Soviet interior.
In the spring of 1941, mass arrests took place among Jews and
non-Jews alike, primarily former businessmen, industrialists,
and religious functionaries, as well as socialists, Zionists and
Bundists. They were sent into exile or labor camps in northern Russia, where many of them died; for others, deportation
turned out to be the means of survival, while the families they
had left behind soon became the victims of the Nazi slaughter. It was clear that Soviet policy was designed to equate the
social and cultural standard of the new areas, as quickly as
possible, with that of the rest of the country. Any remaining
contact between Soviet Jewry and the Jewish world beyond
the borders was broken off. The Soviet press reported very little of the atrocities committed by its Nazi treaty partner, and
made no mention at all of the persecution of the Jews. As a
result, the Jews of the Soviet Union knew practically nothing
of the fate of their brethren in the countries occupied by the
Germans, and when the Soviet Union was invaded, they were
mostly unprepared for what was to happen.
547
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548
russia
549
russia
550
russia
551
russia
The army often asked the SD to exterminate Jewish communities in the territory within their control (Priluki, *Gadyach),
or took a direct part in such operations. In the report of Einsatzgruppe A for the period between Oct. 16, 1941 and Jan. 31,
1942, for example, it is stated that up to January 1942, about
19,000 partisans and criminals, primarily Jews, were killed
by the Wehrmacht.
Following this first wave of massacres, which took place
immediately after the entry of the German army, there was
a period of organized liquidation. The preparatory stage was
similar to that elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Europe and included legal discrimination, the tattooing of numbers, registration, humiliating forced labor, and concentration in camps
and ghettos. One notable difference, however, was that in Russia this stage took only a short time from a few weeks to a few
months. Usually, the Jews were forbidden freedom of movement from the outset, or not allowed to associate with nonJews or benefit from public services. The quantity and quality
of goods sold to Jews were usually minimal, as were the hours
of sale; in many cases, all shopping was made impossible for
the Jews. They were ordered to wear distinguishing badges:
in Belorussia it was usually a yellow circle or a yellow magen
David (shield of David) on the chest and back, and in the
Ukraine, a yellow armband. The so-called Jewish Committees were established during that period, whose task it was
to supply the Germans with manpower, collect contributions,
and mainly in the Ukraine register the Jews as a first step
toward their extermination.
The next step was the systematic slaughter of most young
men of Jewish origin. In the large cities, those capable of military service were interned during the first days of the occupation; Jews were usually separated from the rest, and, as a rule,
executed soon afterward (Minsk, Kiev). In the smaller towns,
Jewish men were rounded up ostensibly for forced labor, but
in reality to be put to death. Jewish prisoners of war were as
a rule shot immediately. There is eyewitness evidence of the
mass slaughter of Jewish intellectuals at that time (Minsk,
*Vitebsk, Vinnitsa).
In the majority of cases during the second month of the
occupation closed ghettos were established in large Jewish
communities and in district centers for the concentration of
Jews in the whole area. It also happened that, where there were
few Jews (as in Novo-Moskovsk or Baran), no ghettos were established, and the Jews were allowed to remain in their places
of residence until they were exterminated.
Ghettos were usually located in those suburbs which
had been most badly damaged, and in buildings unfit for human habitation factories, barracks or warehouses (*Kharkov, Vitebsk). Those deported to the ghetto were permitted to
take only hand luggage.
Since these ghettos were simply concentrations of Jews to
be liquidated, they were often merely open areas surrounded
by barbed wire (Smolevichi, *Gorodok, *Polotsk, Smolyany,
Kletnya). Such ghetto-camps usually existed from several
weeks to a few months. The Jews in the ghettos received no
food as a rule, and the mortality rate there was very high, particularly during the severe winter of 1941.
The liquidation of the newly-established ghettos began as
early as the autumn of 1941. Of the 18 known ghettos in Belorussia, nine were liquidated by the end of 1941, six of them in
October. In the Ukraine, too, most of the Jews had been put
to death by the end of 1941. Out of the 70 known Jewish communities in the Ukraine (including the Crimea), 43 were liquidated by the end of 1941, and the remainder were also rendered judenrein by mid-1942. For the Germans themselves, the
Jewish question in the Ostland (including the Baltic states
and Belorussia) had virtually found a solution. In the Ukraine,
the Jewish question ceased to exist by August 1942.
In 1943, Jews were still to be found only in a few ghettos
(those of Minsk, *Slutsk, and *Khmelnik) and a very few labor
camps, but they were liquidated by the end of the year. In the
Crimea and the Caucasus, and probably also in the southeastern Ukraine, practically no ghettos were set up. Jews were liquidated there almost immediately after the occupation of the
region, and the German orders followed one after another;
first, the establishment of the Jewish Committee, then registration, badges, and finally evacuation, which meant death.
Such was the fate of the Jews of *Simferopol, *Yevpatoriya,
*Feodosiya, *Kerch, *Rostov, *Krasnodar, Kislovodsk, and
other towns. As a rule, the Ashkenazi Jews were liquidated
first, and then the Crimean Jews (Krimchaks).
The executions were usually organized by the Einsatzgruppen. The ghetto was surrounded by the German police, assisted
by auxiliary forces of the local police and frequently by the
Wehrmacht. The Jews, who believed they were being evacuated, were rounded up in public squares and taken in trucks or
driven on foot to the place of execution. In front of the graves,
prepared beforehand, by the local population or, more often, by
Soviet prisoners of war, the victims were ordered to strip naked
or remain in their underwear, stood in groups at the edge of
the graves, or pushed inside them and told to lie down, after
which they were machine-gunned. The executions were carried out by both Germans and their local assistants. Fresh victims were laid on the corpses and the process continued until
the grave was full. To make their work easier, the executioners sometimes rendered their victims unconscious by hitting
them on the head. During an operation in Vitebsk in October
1941, Jews were reportedly shot on the bridge over the Dvina,
and their bodies thrown into the river. At *Artemovsk, some
of the Jews were shot dead, and others immured alive in the
marbleworks. In some cases, Jews were made to run over a
minefield or killed with grenades (Kharkov, *Mogilev). In the
Crimea, the method most widely adopted was to shoot Jews
over wells into which their bodies were subsequently thrown.
In certain communities (Minsk, Kharkov, Krasnodar), Jews
were killed in special gas trucks. The Germans and their associates treated children with particular barbarity: their backs
were broken, or they were poisoned or stabbed to death, or
their heads were smashed against stones. Many children were
thrown into graves or wells while still alive.
552
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[Vila Orbach]
DESTRUCTION OF YIDDISH CULTURE. Soviet Yiddish culture, itself a pale reflection of genuine Jewish culture which
had suffered serious setbacks in the prewar purges, was totally jeopardized when the war broke out. The Yiddish press
and Yiddish literature, based primarily in the Ukraine, Belorussia, and Lithuania, ceased to exist. The annihilation of the
Jewish population was accompanied by the destruction of the
remaining Jewish schools, libraries, and other cultural institutions. While in 1940 some 360 Yiddish books were published
in the Soviet Union, by 1942 the number had dwindled to one.
There was some improvement in 1943, after the Emes publishing house had moved to Kuibyshev, issuing 43 Yiddish books
that year. The creation of the Jewish *Anti-Fascist Committee
also had a favorable effect upon the modest revival of Yiddish
publications. In June 1942 the committee embarked upon the
publication of its own organ, *Eynikayt, which attracted a
STALINS PERSECUTIONS. Suddenly, however, the climate reversed completely and nightmarish days filled with fear overtook Soviet Jewry. In January 1948 S. Mikhoels was reported
killed in an accident in Minsk, but was actually assassinated
by the secret police; in November 1948 the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was dissolved and those associated with it
were arrested; Soviet newspapers conducted a vicious campaign against *cosmopolitans that was directed primarily
at the Jewish intelligentsia. Twenty-five leaders of the Jewish
Anti-Fascist Committee, including some of the outstanding
Jewish writers, were accused of maintaining ties with Zionism
and with American imperialism. The Crimea project was
leveled against them as an imperialist plot to detach the
Crimea from the U.S.S.R. and they were executed secretly on
Aug. 12, 1952. On Jan. 13, 1953, the government announced the
arrest of a group of prominent doctors, the majority of them
Jews, who were accused of, and who purportedly admitted to,
having deliberately killed government leaders and conspired
553
Contemporary Period
With the close of the war, Jews of Polish citizenship, including
many previous inhabitants of territories annexed by the Soviet
Union between 1939 and 1940, began to leave the Soviet Union.
Groups of Soviet Jews, including Chabad H asidim, who had
preserved their religious distinctiveness throughout the years
of the Soviet regime, succeeded in leaving and large numbers
of these emigrants found their way to Palestine. During the
early postwar period, those active in Soviet-Jewish culture attempted to effect a revival. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (see above) continued to serve as a center for Soviet Jewry
and as a liaison with Jews in other countries. Large-scale publication of Yiddish books was initiated, the Jewish State Theater expanded its activity, and three other theaters functioned
in Minsk, Odessa, and Chernovtsy. Rumors of the impending settlement of survivors of the Holocaust in the Crimea,
and the conversion of the peninsula into a Jewish Republic,
spread among the Jews. The Jewish endeavor in Birobidzhan
was also renewed, and many Jews tried to settle there. News
of the establishment of the state of Israel, with Soviet endorsement and support, infused new life into wide sectors of Soviet
Jewry. Eynikayt referred to a world Jewish conference in which
Soviet Jews would also be represented.
russia
554
Total
Russia
Ukraine
Belorussia
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
Moldavia
Georgia
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Kazakhstan
Turkmenia
Uzbekistan
Tadzhikistan
Kirghizia
Jews
Percent
distribution
of Jews
2,267,800
875,300
840,300
150,100
24,700
36,600
5,400
95,100
51,600
1,000
40,200
28,000
4,100
94,300
12,400
8,600
100.0
38.7
37.0
6.6
1.1
1.6
0.2
4.2
2.3
0.0
1.8
1.2
0.2
4.2
0.5
0.4
Percent of Jews
among general
population
1.09
0.74
2.01
1.86
0.91
1.75
0.46
3.30
1.28
0.06
1.09
0.30
0.27
1.16
0.63
0.42
Moscow
Leningrad
Kiev
Tashkent
Kishinev
Minsk
Riga
Baku
Tbilisi (Tiis)
Vilna
1
Number of Jews
% of total population
239,246
162,344
153,466
50,455
42,934
38,842
30,263
26,263
17,311
16,354
4.7
5.6
13.9
5.5
20.0
7.6
5.0
4.1
2.5
6.9
In all other republics, the number of Jews was included under other nationalities
in the census gures published in April 1971.
russia
875,300
840,300
150,100
94,300
51,600
24,700
95,100
36,600
5,400
1,000
40,200
4,100
28,000
8,600
12,400
1970
% of general
population
0.7
2.0
1.9
1.2
1.3
0.9
3.3
1.7
0.5
0.06
1.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.6
Jewish Population
808,000
777,000
148,000
103,000
55,000
24,000
98,000
37,000
5,300
41,300
5,400
27,600
7,700
14,600
1979
% of general
population
0.6
1.6
1.6
0.9
1.2
0.8
2.7
1.6
0.4
0.8
0.12
0.2
0.3
0.5
1991
700,700
634,200
135,400
99,900
28,300
14,700
80,100
28,300
5,000
1,000
35,500
2,800
23,500
6,900
14,700
430,000
325,000
58,000
55,500
20,700
7,300
28,500
15,800
3,500
300
16,000
2,000
15,300
3,900
8,200
555
russia
pressure exerted upon other religions was in no way comparable to the persecution directed against Judaism. Synagogues were increasingly shut down (according to Soviet
sources, between 1956 and 1963 the number of synagogues
decreased from 450 to 96). There was no countrywide Jewish
religious organization parallel to those of other religions. Jewish religious books were not printed (the 3,000-copy photostat edition of a prayer book, Siddur ha-Shalom, in 1957, was a
much-publicized exception; although a new edition of it was
published at the end of the 1960s, there were no indications
that it was circulated). The baking of matzah was gradually
proscribed in the 1960s, but was later permitted on a limited
scale through the synagogues; attempts by Jews outside the
U.S.S.R. to send matzah to their coreligionists were for the
most part thwarted by the authorities. A crude campaign
of slander was waged in books, pamphlets, and periodicals
against the Jewish religion, and its adherents were not permitted to answer those who abused it.
Ostensibly, the distinctive suppression of the Jewish religion was due to its unique national character and its ties with
Israel. The effect of the establishment of the State of Israel and
its progress and achievements, together with Jewish national
awakening, disturbed the Soviet government. Official propaganda frequently presented horrifying descriptions of conditions in Israel. A delegation of Jewish propaganda agents
posing as Jewish tourists was sent to Israel in 1959; upon
its return to the U.S.S.R. it maligned Israel before the Soviet
public and the Jewish community. Propaganda of this type,
however, did not attain its objectives. News of Israel and Jewish life abroad steadily reached Soviet Jewry in various ways,
including broadcasts from Israel and other countries, and
the antisemitism which infiltrated many parts of Soviet society awakened in the younger Jewish generation an increased
Jewish national consciousness and a strong desire to settle in
Israel and to strengthen their ties with the Jewish people and
the Jewish state.
During the period of thaw and destalinization, Soviet
Jewish culture was not allowed to revive. Yiddish schools did
not exist. In the wake of public pressure outside the U.S.S.R.,
a token gesture was made by publishing some works in Yiddish, mostly by classical Yiddish writers. In the summer of
1961, a literary bimonthly (later a monthly), *Sovetish Heymland, began to appear; it became a sort of official address of
Soviet Jewry. In addition, works by Jewish writers were published in Russian and other translations and a commemorative stamp was issued on the centennial of Shalom Aleichems
birth. Concerts of Yiddish folklore, music, and song, and even
theater performances by amateur groups, attracted masses of
Jews and kindled enthusiasm within the culture-thirsty Jewish community.
MANIFESTATIONS OF ANTISEMITISM. Antisemitism remained officially proscribed in the Soviet Union, but hatred
of Jews existed and expressed itself de facto in most levels of
society and administration. From time to time, it found ex-
556
S EA
Tallinn
Bobruisk
Kiev
SEA
IA
EO
RG
Rostov
Baku
S.
S.
SEA
ARAL
M
AR
IA
EN
F.
EK
IS
Frunze
LATVIA
36,592 1.75
S.
0.06
ARMENIA
1,024
MOLDAVIA
95,107
3.30
GEORGIA
51,582 1.28
Republic
4,078
0.27
TURKMENIA
AZERBAIJAN
40,204 1.09
KIRGHIZIA
8,610 0.42
1,000 _ 9,000
10,000 _ 20,000
_
20,000 30,000
30,000 _ 50,000
80,000 _100,000
150,000 _ 250,000
Boundary of Republic
Riga Capital of Republic
R.
UZBEKISTAN TADZHIKISTAN
94,344 1.16 12,415 0.63
KAZAKHSTAN
28,048 0.30
R.S.F.S.R.
875,307 0.74
Number of Jews in Republic
UKRAINE
840,311 2.01
BELORUSSIA
150,084 1.86
LITHUANIA
0.91
24,672
KIRGHIZIA
HIKIS
TAN
TAD
Z
Dushanbe
TAN
AFGHANIS
Tashkent
Alma-Ata
K A Z A K H S T A N
Chelyabinsk
Ashkhabad
R.
1.09
Sverdlovsk
S.
T U R K M E N I A
2,267,814
U.
Kuibyshev
AZERBAIJAN
Tiflis
B L AC K
Odessa
Gorki
CA
N
PIA
SE A
Map 2. Jewish population of U.S.S.R. in 1959, showing major centers of settlement and distribution among Republics.
ROMANIA
Kishinev
Kharkov
Lvov
CZECHOSLOVAKIA CzernowitzU K R A I N E
Vinnitsa
Dnepropetrovsk
GARY
HUN
MOLDAVIA
Zhitomir
Gomel
R.
Moscow
Leningrad
BELORUSSIA
Minsk
Vitebsk
Mogilev
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
Riga
ESTONIA
Kaunas
Vilna
POLAND
AL
TI
ESTONIA
5,436 0.46
LAK
E
BA
IK
AL
KARELIA
russia
557
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PRESSURE FOR IMMIGRATION TO ISRAEL. Tens of thousands of Jews applied for exit permits to go to Israel, but only
a few of them achieved their aim. In consequence, hundreds
of Jews, many of them of the younger generation and in the
large cities, began to voice their protests against being denied
the right to emigrate to Israel by sending letters and petitions addressed to the Soviet leaders, the UN secretary-general and its Human Rights Commission, the government of
Israel, and even to the Communist parties in the West. Young
558
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559
russia
560
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in 1958 reproduced articles and statements of Jewish Communists in the West and in Poland.
Individual Jews and organizations in Western countries
began to pay more serious attention to Soviet Jews. A principal problem was the paucity of reliable information. To meet
this need the newsletter Jews in Eastern Europe was founded
in 1958 in London, edited by E. *Litvinoff; it subsequently appeared three or four times a year and became a major source
of factual information about Soviet Jews. At about the same
time, the Contemporary Jewish Library was founded in London to collect and disseminate in photostats source materials in Russian and other Soviet languages relating to Jews in
the U.S.S.R. under the title Yevrei i Yevreyskiy Narod (Jews
and the Jewish People). A branch of the Contemporary Jewish Library opened in Paris published Les Juifs en Europe de
lEst and a monthly bulletin, Les Juifs en Union Sovitique. The
Biblioteca Juda Contemporanea in Buenos Aires published
All en la U.R.S.R., and similar pamphlets were published in
Italy. In New York, Jewish Minorities Research, directed by
Moshe Decter, published monographs, pamphlets, reprints,
and other relevant materials on Soviet Jews, including Decters Status of the Jews in the Soviet Union, originally published
as an article in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1963. Over the
years, many scholarly studies of the situation of Soviet Jews
have appeared in various countries, including: The Jews in
the Soviet Union by Solomon M. Schwarz (1951); The Jewish Problem in the Soviet Union by B.Z. Goldberg (1961); Jews
in the Soviet Union Census, 1959, edited by Mordecai Altshuler
(Jerusalem, 1963); a study by the International Commission of
Jurists in Geneva (see below); Soixante ans du problme juif
dans la thorie et la pratique du bolchevisme, by Marc Jarblum
with a preface by Daniel *Mayer (in Revue Socialiste, October 1964); Soviet Jewry and Human Rights by Isi Leibler (Human Rights Research Publication, Victoria, Australia, March
1965); two reports of the Socialist International (see below).
Particular popularity was achieved by the two eyewitness accounts, Ben-Amis (Arieh L. Eliav) Between Hammer and
Sickle (Heb. 1965; Eng. 1967) and Elie Wiesels The Jews of Silence (1966), which appeared in several languages and editions. Interesting light was shed on Communist attitudes to
the Jewish problem in the U.S.S.R. by a series of polemical
exchanges in Political Affairs, the ideological organ of the
U.S. Communist Party, in January 1965, October 1966, and
December 1966.
During the 1960s the problem of Soviet Jewry the discrimination against Jews in matters of language, education,
and religion; the dissemination of anti-Jewish literature; the
persecution of individual Jews, e.g., for economic crimes or
for Jewish communal activity; and the denial to Jews of the
right of emigration, particularly to Israel, and the reunification
of shattered families became a major issue in world Jewish
and international discussion. Almost every Jewish organization, Zionist and non-Zionist alike, raised the problem as one
of utmost importance to the Jewish people, second only to
the existence and security of Israel. Intellectuals on the left,
561
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562
russia
563
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564
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565
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COMMEMORATION OF EVENTS RELATED TO JEWISH HISTORY AND TRADITION. Among the concrete expressions of
Jewish cultural activity in the Soviet Union were the celebration of Jewish holidays and festivals and commemoration
of Jewish historical events. Two landmarks in contemporary Jewish history the Holocaust and the establishment of
the state of Israel served for many Soviet Jews as the focal
points in their public manifestation of Jewish national identity. Immortalization of the memory of the victims of World
War II was a common feature in Soviet society. Statues and
monuments were erected in thousands of settlements in the
memory of the victims of the Nazi occupation, and were frequented by Soviet schoolchildren and members of the Communist youth movement. Yet in all these places, the methodical and clearly intentional disregard of the Jewish victims is
conspicuous. Jewish activists, therefore, saw it as their duty
to dwell on the Holocaust and its uniqueness. As a result, in
1976 and 1977, as in previous years, a group of 50 Jewish activists decided to hold a memorial service in the Moscow synagogue on Remembrance Day of the Holocaust. However, the
gabbai of the synagogue, apparently on the instructions from
the authorities, prevented them from holding the service as
planned, and they consequently adjourned to a private home.
In the 1970s, Jews of several cities tried to hold a memorial
service at Babi Yar, in Kiev. The organizers sought to lay a
wreath at the foot of the monument in memory of those Jews
who were the principal victims at Babi Yar and about whose
fate the inscription on the monument is silent, as well as to
hold a religious service. The Soviet security forces prevented
them from carrying out their plan, and even arrested some
activists who tried to make their way from Moscow to Kiev
to participate in the service.
On Israel Independence Day, hundreds of activists held
parties in their homes, while some chose to celebrate the event
in parks on the outskirts of the city. At these gatherings, Hebrew songs were sung and at some speeches were delivered
about the State of Israel.
The annual gatherings outside synagogues on Simh at
Torah became a well-entrenched tradition among Soviet Jews,
with some 5,0008,000 Jews assembling each Simh at Torah
outside the Moscow synagogue.
566
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SYMPOSIUM ON JEWISH CULTURE. The goal of the symposium on the subject Jewish Culture in the Soviet Union
Present and Future was threefold: an assessment of what
existed and what was lacking in Jewish culture in the Soviet
Union, the establishment of guidelines for future development,
and drawing the attention of world public opinion to the restrictions on Jewish cultural activity in the Soviet Union.
In March 1976 an organizing committee of 13 individuals, with Professor B. Fain as chairman, was set up in Moscow,
for the purpose of convening an international symposium to
discuss Jewish culture in the Soviet Union. The organizing
committee prepared a memorandum defining these goals. The
memorandum, which in effect served as an invitation, was sent
to hundreds of Jewish scholars and intellectuals throughout
the world as well as to a number of Soviet institutions. The
organizing committee eventually grew to include 30 persons
(13 from Moscow, 4 from Riga, 2 from Vilna, 2 from Kiev, 2
from Vinnitsa, 2 from Leningrad, 2 from Tiflis, and 1 each
from Tallinn, Minsk and Kishinev). On Oct. 23, 1976, the organizing committee convened and approved 27 papers to be
presented at the symposium, half of which were contributed
by foreign lecturers. On Nov. 17, 1976, the organizers called a
press conference inviting foreign as well as Soviet correspondents. In the context of preparations for the symposium, the
organizers met with official and semiofficial Soviet representatives. On Sept. 27, 1976 E. Liberman, one of the organizers,
met with General Shekhovtsev, director of the Institute of
Military History. When Liberman pointed out to the general
that most of Soviet society is led to believe that the Jews did
not take an active part in the war against Hitler, Shekhovtsev
admitted the truth of the allegation, but was quick to argue
that the history of World War II was not studied in its national
ramifications but from a more encompassing point of view as
the war of the Soviet people as a whole. This argument was
clearly unfounded in view of the hundreds of books in the
form of memoirs, historical studies, and literature published
in the Soviet Union which depicted the contributions of various nationalities to the war effort against Nazi Germany. On
Dec. 8, five members of the organizing committee met with the
Soviet Deputy Minister of Culture, V. Popov. He admitted having received an invitation, though he argued that since their
perception of Jewish culture was contrary to the Soviet perception, their very activity constituted provocation. On Dec. 14,
the organizers of the symposium met with the members of the
editorial board of the Yiddish journal Sovetish Heymland. A.
Vergelis, the editor, rejected the possibility of the existence of
Jewish culture in any language other than Yiddish and argued
that any literary creation in the Russian language ipso facto
belonged to Russian culture, regardless of whether its theme
or author were Jewish. He did, however, admit that there was
no institution in existence in the Soviet Union where Yiddish
might be studied, and noted that it would be commendable
to do something about the dissemination of a knowledge of
Jewish history according to a Marxist approach. Nonetheless Vergelis unequivocally opposed the symposium which,
567
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to believe that the incident roused many Jews into Jewish cultural activity, among these many who did not intend emigrating from the Soviet Union.
JEWISH CULTURAL ACTIVITY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. Institutionalized and legitimate Jewish cultural activity whose
main vehicle was Yiddish found expression in publications and
in the area of the performing arts. In 1977 four books were published in Yiddish while several were translated from Yiddish.
Most of the Yiddish writers living in the Soviet Union published their work in the monthly literary-social journal Sovetish
Heymland. This journal was largely designed for foreign consumption and was forever in difficulties for lack of contributors
as well as readers. Yiddish literature in the Soviet Union had
not been able to recover from the severe blow it suffered during
the last years of Stalinist rule, when its foremost writers were
removed. Many of the writers who managed to return from the
detention camps and prisons remained emotionally and spiritually broken, many passed away over the previous 20 years,
and some Yiddish writers left the Soviet Union during the 1970s
for Israel. As a result, the number of writers who participated
in Sovetish Heymland grew increasingly and effectively smaller.
In 1977, 40 writers and literary critics published their work in
the journal. Most of the contributors were well advanced in
age, only five being between the ages of 51 and 60, 21 between
61 and 70, 11 between 71 and 80, and three writers from 81 to
90. No Yiddish schools had existed in the Soviet Union since
the end of World War II, and there was thus no possibility of
replenishing the cadres of Yiddish writers. To overcome the
lack of material, contributions were accepted in the section of
the journal containing reportage and stories by amateurs, so
that most of the literary creations which appeared in Sovetish
Heymland were of poor literary quality and of shallow Jewish
content. Even more distressing than the difficulty of procuring
material was the lack of readers, and to deal with it the journal
included from 1969 a section on individual study of Yiddish.
At a special meeting of the editorial board in June 1977, called
to discuss the publication of a textbook for the study of Yiddish, Hirsh Remenik stressed that since there were no Yiddish
schools or qualified teachers, the textbook would have to be
designed for individual study. It was decided to proceed with
the preparation of a text for the study of Yiddish geared towards Russian speakers. In order to draw the interest of readers both in the Soviet Union and abroad who knew no Yiddish,
the journal began to include, as of September 1977, abstracts
in Russian and English. In 1979 Yiddish was introduced as an
optional subject in several Birobidzhan schools, but only some
10,000 Jews lived in this region.
In 1977 there were two Yiddish folk theaters in the Soviet Union one in Birobidzhan and the other in Vilna. The
folk theater was comprised of a group of amateurs who received financial government support. Both groups presented
skits as well as evenings of songs and folklore.
As a result of the aforementioned symposium on Jewish
culture the government announced, at the end of 1977, the es-
568
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end of 1973 there were 28,000 employed Jewish scientists bearing the titles of candidate or higher, comprising 8.8 percent of
the total. Thus the percentage of Jews grew as the educational
level of the category rose, though in view of the shrinking
numbers of Jewish enrollment, it was doubtful if they could
maintain such a level. However, despite the restrictions and
difficulties, the Jewish community as a whole turned towards
academic pursuits and most young Jews in 1977 were enrolled
in institutions of higher learning, though perhaps not always
in the institutions or fields of their choice.
In January 1979 a population census, the third since
World War II, was conducted in the U.S.S.R. The final tabulation listed 1,810,876 people as Jews distributed among the
republics, as seen in the Table: Jewish Population, U.S.S.R.
In the nine years from the census of January 1970 and
the one in 1979, the Jewish population decreased by about
340,000 (in 1970 there were 2,151,000 Jews), of whom 177,000
emigrated from the Soviet Union during that interval. This
means that in the period under discussion the Jewish population decreased as a result of demographic factors and assimilation by about 163,000. The average yearly decrease in
the Jewish population, for reasons other than emigration, was
during the 1970s 0.87 percent. Of those declaring themselves
as Jews in the latest census, 19.6 percent stated that the Yiddish
language is their mother tongue or their second language, as
compared to 25.5 percent in the 1970 census.
SOVIET POLICY. Soviet policy toward the Jews and Judaism
found expression in propaganda and suppression of aliyah activists and proponents of nonestablishment Jewish culture, the
two methods being closely interrelated. On Jan. 22, 1977, a film
shown on several television stations in the Soviet Union portrayed aliyah activists as a group of corrupt individuals who
received funds from Zionist sources abroad, and who directed
its actions against the state. The local and national Soviet press
published hundreds of articles depicting Judaism as cultivating hatred among peoples, and Zionism and the state of Israel
as being in the forefront of imperialism and following in the
footsteps of the Nazis. In reportage and stories, the Jew was
portrayed as an individual bearing negative qualities and untrustworthy. The campaign against Judaism, Zionism, and aliyah activities gained momentum during the second quarter of
1977. On Feb. 5, 1977, the president of the United States wrote a
letter to the renowned advocate of human rights in the Soviet
Union, Andrei Sakharov. As an indirect response to the letter,
the official Soviet government newspaper Izvestia printed an
unsigned article in which nine Jewish activists (two of whom
had already left the Soviet Union) were accused of having supplied information to the American intelligence service. The
seven who were still living in the Soviet Union were Valdimir
Slepak, a radio engineer, age 51, who had applied for an exit
permit to Israel in 1974; Ida *Nudel, an economist, age 46, who
had first applied for an exit permit in 1971; Dina Beilin, engineer, age 38, who had first applied for an exit permit in 1971;
Mikhail Kremen, radio engineer, age 40; Boris Tchernobilsky,
radio engineer, age 31; Professor Alexander Lerner; and Anatoly *Shcharansky. They considered filing suit against Izvestia
but abandoned their plan when Anatoly Shcharansky was arrested on Mar. 15. Shcharansky had applied for an exit permit
to Israel in 1975 and when it was refused, he became one of
the chief spokesmen of the aliyah activists, meeting with U.S.
senators, Western correspondents, and tourists. Following
his arrest, the Soviet authorities announced that Shcharansky would be charged with treason, espionage on behalf of
the United States, and anti-Soviet propaganda. On June 30,
the president of the United States made an exceptional gesture
and announced at a press conference that Anatoly Shcharansky had never had any contact with American intelligence
agencies and consequently never passed on any information.
The Soviet security forces nonetheless proceeded with their
task. In various cities of the Soviet Union, dozens of aliyah
activists who had at some time met with Shcharansky were
called in for questioning. It soon became apparent to the aliyah activists that the Soviet authorities were in the process of
preparing a show trial which was aimed not only at harming
Shcharansky, but ultimately at branding activists involved in
the struggle for emigration and Jewish culture in the Soviet
Union as enemies of the state and agents of foreign intelligence
services. On July 14, 1978 Anatoly Shcharansky was sentenced
to 13 years hard labor. The campaign for the release of Anatoly
Shcharansky thus became the focal point of activity in the free
world on behalf of Jews in the Soviet Union.
In June 1978 Ida *Nudel was sentenced to four years in
exile and recently one of the editors of the journal Jews in the
Soviet Union, Viktor Brailovski, was arrested.
The Struggle Continues
The struggle on behalf of Soviet Jewry was adopted by most
Jewish communities all over the world. In most countries,
the campaign was coordinated by a central body such as the
National Conference of Soviet Jewry in the United States, the
Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry in Canada, the International Coordination Office for Regional Organizations in
Defense of Soviet Jewry in Europe, and in Israel, the Israel
Public Council for Soviet Jewry. These organizations and others all had representatives on the executive committee of the
Brussels Conference on Behalf of Soviet Jewry. The activities
of these groups were aimed at bringing the persecution of Soviet Jewry to the attention of the wide public via the mass media on national and international levels. Local committees on
behalf of Soviet Jews, as well as professional and ideological
groups, existed in almost every country, such as groups of students, professors, clergymen, and the like. They also appealed
to their respective governments and members of parliament.
The activities in which Jews and non-Jews alike participated
were focused on three main issues: (1) the release of prisoners
of Zion; (2) a campaign against antisemitism; and (3) protest
against the sabotage of the Symposium on Jewish Culture.
(1) The Release of Prisoners of Zion. Hundreds of demonstrations of organizations and individuals took place all over
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Ashkenazi Jews
Georgian Jews
Mountain Jews
Bukharan Jews
Total
Number
Percentage
98,500
29,600
9,800
15,100
153,000
64.3
19.4
6.4
9.9
100.0
93.5
2.3
2.3
1.9
100.0
196871
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980 (JanJune)
Monthly average of
new afdavits
466
2,623
2,910
1,682
1,095
1,178
1,430
2,550
4,278
2,515
1,992
5,658
4,851
3,570
2,845
3,008
3,589
8,934
10,616
3,765
It may therefore be said that every Jewish family emigrating from the Soviet Union acted as a catalyst urging one or two
other families to consider the possibility of emigration. Consequently the increase in Jewish emigration in 1979 as compared to 1978 brought in its wake an increase of approximately
19 percent in the number of new affidavits sent from Israel as
compared to the previous year. It was therefore not surprising
to find the greatest number of applicants for affidavits in those
Soviet republics where emigration figures are highest.
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1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986 (17)
Total
1
Exited
Russia
Immigrated
to Israel
Dropped
Out in
Vienna
9,481
2,708
1,320
896
1,137
381
15,923
1,806
756
390
350
344
92
3,738
7,675
1,952
930
546
793
289
12,185
Percentage
Drop-outs
81.2
72.8
70.5
60.9
69.7
75.8
76.5
The 1980s
DEMOGRAPHY. In the 1980s the annual decrease in the population among Soviet Jewry reached 2.2 percent. The Soviet
census of January 1989 recorded 1,450,511 people who identified themselves as Jews; this was a decline of 19.9 percent from
the figure of 1,810,876 in 1979. The Jewish population declined
sharply in all of the union republics (see Table: Jewish Population Changes in the U.S.S.R., by Republic, 19591991, above,
p. 555); in Moscow from 223,100 to 175,700. Overall, the percentage of Jews in the Soviet population declined from 0.69
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peripheral topics of little social relevance, such as the derivation of Jewish family names and descriptions of small subethnic Jewish groups in the Soviet Union.
The celebration of traditional Jewish holidays and Israels
Independence Day became a widespread expression of national solidarity. In a number of cities, Purim was the occasion for the private performance of purimshpils, where sharp
criticism of the authorities was often presented in disguised
form. It is not surprising that the latter activity was particularly subject to government repression.
Another indicator of the growth of national consciousness among Soviet Jews was the public meetings commemorating the mass murder of Jews during World War II. Such
meetings were held in Riga at Rumbula forest, in Vilnius at
Ponari, in Kiev at Babi Yar, and in Leningrad at the Jewish
Preobrazhenskii Cemetery.
The 1980s saw an increased interest in Orthodox Judaism,
which had been among the most slandered and persecuted of
all the religions in the U.S.S.R. In the course of previous decades, Jewish religious education had suffered particularly.
There was only a handful of rabbis, mohalim (circumcisors),
and shoh etim (ritual slaughterers who provided kasher meat)
in the whole U.S.S.R. There was no way, either legally or practically, that such knowledgeable Jews could be replaced. Simple
Jews who know how to pray were a dying breed. Often Jewish intellectuals who were God-seekers turned to the Russian
Orthodox religion due to their lack of familiarity with their
own roots.
In the 1980s in Moscow, Leningrad, and subsequently in
other places, informal groups of young people who wanted to
study Torah and Jewish tradition were established. Some of
the participants became h ozrim bi-teshuvah or returners to
religion. The original impetus for this religious revival was
Zionist activity among the refuseniks, which first brought
Jews together and provided them with basic knowledge, particularly of Hebrew, without which a mastery of the tradition
is hardly possible. The Jewish religious awakening was made
possible materially due to the fact that some of the aid from
abroad to refuseniks included religious literature, religious
objects, and kasher food. In the mid-1980s, there were up
to 2,000 newly-observant Orthodox Jews, half of whom resided in Moscow and one fifth in Leningrad. Despite its relatively small core, the religious community had some impact
on a broader range of Jews and even led to the conversion to
Judaism of some non-Jews, a unique phenomenon in Soviet
history. The religious stream within the total Jewish movement among Soviet Jewry was diminished in 19861987 with
the emigration of a large segment of the newly religious Jews,
including their young leadership.
The religious groups were basically divided into Chabad,
Agudat Israel, and religious Zionists. In Moscow religious
activity originally centered around Vladimir Shakhnovskii,
Mikhail Nudler, and Eliahu Essas (Agudat Israel), Mikhail
Shnaider and Grigorii Rozenshtein (Chabad), and Vladislav
Dasheskii, Pinkhas Polonskii, Mikhail Karaevano, and Khol-
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A key event in the struggle was the Third World Conference for Soviet Jewry held in March 1983. The preceding conferences were held in Brussels in 1971 and 1976. The choice of
Jerusalem as the location for the third one signified the central role of Israel in the struggle.
Originally the Israeli government had preferred to remain in the background so that the issue of Soviet Jewry would
be seen not as a parochial problem but as a universal issue of
the violation of human rights. Not wishing to complicate the
already difficult position of Jewish activists in the U.S.S.R.,
Israel avoided criticizing the Soviet Union on issues unconnected with Jewish concerns. Tourists sent to the U.S.S.R. by
the Liaison Bureau were forbidden to say that they were from
Israel and told to travel on second passports. Although following these instructions made the visits less dangerous for
the emissaries, this practice gave some Soviet Jewish activists
the false impression that they were of more concern to their
Western brothers than to the Israelis.
The inclusion of the issue of Soviet Jewry in the agenda of
the American-Soviet summit conference in Reykjavik in October 1986 was a considerable achievement. The Soviet delegation there was presented with a list, compiled in Israel, of the
names, addresses, and dates of refusal of the many members
of the Jewish refusenik community in the U.S.S.R.
The continuing struggle harmed the international reputation of the U.S.S.R., especially after it signed the Helsinki
Accords on human rights. On the other hand, the Soviet
Union did gain from the international furor. It allowed the
Soviets to raise the price on its merchandise of Jewish
hostages, for example allowing them to exchange individual Jews for Soviet spies caught by the West (as it happened
with Anatoly Shcharansky in February 1986) and to use the
issue of Soviet Jewry in terms of a possible concession on
the Soviet side in return for American concessions in its
negotiations with the U.S. on limiting strategic and nuclear
weapons.
PERESTROIKA AND GLASNOST. Changes in Official Policy
and in the Social Status of Soviet Jewry. The primary goal
of the policy of perestroika was originally to help the Soviet
Union emerge from its economic crisis by allowing a degree
of democratization, permitting the holding of small private
and cooperative property, the weakening of centralization
and Party control in the periphery, and the broad encouragement of initiative on the part of the Soviet population. The latter were to be mobilized by granting them a number of civil
rights entailing freedom of speech, public organization, and
freedom of cultural life (glasnost). Owing to the difficulties
of overcoming social inertia and to the opposition of the entrenched bureaucracy, perestroika only began to be felt by the
public in early 1987. By late 1989 the changes assumed a character unforeseen by the architects of the policy.
Despite the authorities intentions, glasnost was utilized
by the peoples of the U.S.S.R. to promote their national aspirations. With the unprecedented burgeoning of national
576
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577
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in the Soviet Union, which soon opened branches in Leningrad, Riga, Vilnius, Kiev, and Kharkov. Many Zionist youths
groups, such as Ha-Shomer ha-Z air, Dror, Betar, Maccabi,
and Rabim, also began functioning.
A significant feature in Jewish life was the commemoration of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust on the territory
of the Soviet Union. This involved groups of Jewish veterans
of World War II and concentration camp survivors. In Riga,
Vilnius, Leningrad, Minsk, and many other sites, on the anniversaries of mass executions of Jews there, and even in cities which the Nazis did not occupy, increasing numbers of
Soviet Jews had been gathering for memorial meetings on
Holocaust and Heroism Day (the anniversary of the Warsaw
Ghetto uprising). In September 1989 official permission was
granted for the first time for such a meeting at *Babi Yar, organized by the Kiev Jewish community. Among the participants were local Party and government officials, leaders of the
Ukrainian national movement, and the Church. Finally, after
many years, an inscription was placed on the monument indicating, in Russian and in Yiddish, that Jews were the main
victims at Babi Yar.
By late 1989, there were almost 200 Jewish associations,
clubs, and culture centers in, among other places: Tallinn,
Riga, Vilnius, Leningrad, Cheliabinsk, Tashkent, Donetsk,
Baku, Kharkov, Lvov, Chernovtsy, Kiev, Kishinev, Odessa,
Minsk, Bobruisk, and Krasnoyarsk. Kiev in late 1989 had 12
different Jewish organizations, including cultural, religious,
and even musical groups. In Kishinev the Menora cooperative was established in April 1989; there hundreds of people
have studied Hebrew and the fundamentals of Judaism. Tbilisi
even granted official recognition to the Aviv association whose
goal was to prepare Jews for aliyah. Riga Jews have (since July
1988) a culture association, a Yiddish school, and a society for
Latvian-Israeli friendship while Vilnius has its own culture association and branches of Betar, Bnai Brith, and Maccabi.
The greatest number of Jewish culture organizations were
concentrated in Moscow. These included: Iggud morim (the
Association of Teachers of Hebrew, founded 1988), the Association for Friendship and Cultural Ties with Israel (abbreviated ODISKI, summer 1988), the Moscow Jewish Culture and
Education Association (MEKPO, September 1987), the Jewish
Culture Association, the Gesher youth association, and the
Youth Center for Studying and Developing Jewish Culture
(abbreviated MTS-IRK, 1988). Early 1988 saw the opening of
the Solomon Mikhoels Jewish Culture Center and the Shalom
Jewish Culture Center.
Efforts were undertaken to encourage the teaching and
study of Jewish studies in the Soviet Union and, after 1991,
in its successor, the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS). Seminars and conferences on Jewish history with the
participation of foreign scholars were inaugurated in Moscow and elsewhere.
Jewish religious life ceased to be persecuted. In February 1989, at the initiative of the Israeli rabbi and scholar Adin
Steinsaltz, a yeshivah, under the official name of the Center
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some of their financing. In May 1991 Vaad became a member of the World Jewish Congress and also had representatives at the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture based
in New York. In June 1992 at the 32nd World Zionist Congress
in Jerusalem, a Vaad delegation and the Zionist Federation
of Russia demanded to be represented in all key bodies of the
World Zionist Organization, which did not agree. There was
also a conflict between Vaad and the Jewish Agency since the
latters goal for Soviet Jewry is maximum aliyah; Vaad was
mainly interested in Jewish revival in Russia and would also
have liked Jews who emigrate to be viewed as part of a Russian-Jewish cultural community rather than have them seen
only as part of their new host communities, e.g., Israel and
American Jewry.
EMIGRATION AND ALIYAH. The number of emigrants fell
from 51,300 in 1979 to 1,320 in 1983. Then until 1986 the annual
number of exit visas granted hovered around 1,000. Already
in the banner year 1979 it was obvious that approximately two
thirds of the emigrants preferred the United States to Israel
as their destination. America automatically granted them the
status of refugees persecuted on ethnic or religious grounds.
The greater part of those who went directly to the U.S. without trying Israel came from the more assimilated regions of
the RSFSR and the Ukraine; a small proportion came from the
territories annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II
and from non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities. Between 1983
and 1986 the proportion of those who went to the U.S. rather
than Israel fluctuated between 59 and 78 percent. This situation was viewed with alarm by those Jewish activists within
the Soviet Union who had fought for emigration under the
banner of repatriation to Israel. The refusenik circles in
Moscow and Leningrad then succeeded in somewhat lowering these two cities proportion of dropouts, as they were
called by Israelis and Israel-oriented activists, in contrast to
other centers of assimilation where pressure to consider aliyah was less effective.
In 1987 the number of Soviet Jews emigrating was nine
times that of the previous year. In 1988 almost 17,000 Soviet
Jews took advantage of the increased opportunity to emigrate
directly to the U.S., Canada, Australia, and elsewhere rather
than Israel.
Processes that increased under perestroika, such as the
lack of basic commodities, environmental dangers, and the
increase of overt antisemitism, encouraged almost everyone
to consider emigration. The fact that the gates of emigration
were open, combined with the fear that they might close again
at any time, moved thousands of Jews from all over the country to leave. The number who emigrated between 1988 and
1990 rose dramatically. The vast majority chose to make their
new homes elsewhere than in Israel. In this situation Israel
demanded that those Jews who were leaving the Soviet Union
on Israeli invitations go only to Israel and that the American
government cease granting the status of refugees to Jews who
were leaving the U.S.S.R. under the status of repatriates to
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
579
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RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND ISRAEL. After the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., Russia succeeded the Soviet Union
in many matters concerning the Middle East. The former embassy of the U.S.S.R. in Israel, with Alexandr Bovin as ambassador, became the embassy of the Russian Federation.
Normal relations continued between the two countries
during the 199293 period. Russian authorities did not hinder
activities of Israeli organizations, nor of the Jewish Agency in
Russia. Economic and scientific cooperation developed between Russia and Israel. Israeli Aircraft Industries and the
Aerospace Design Office of Russia launched the joint project
of the Galaxy plane. In December 1994, the first meeting of
the Joint Russian-Israeli Commission on Scientific and Technical Cooperation took place in Moscow; a number of other
joint projects were discussed, e.g., in such areas as telecommunication systems, medical technology, and environment
protection.
In April 1994, Israel Prime Minister Yiz h ak Rabin visited Moscow officially, and in the following years relations
between the two countries remained friendly, with Prime
Minister Ehud Barak visiting Moscow in 2000 and President Vladimir Putin visiting Israel in 2005. With Russia embroiled in largely Muslim Chechnya, its standing in the Arab
world declined and it found itself aligned with Israel in the
war against Arab terrorism. At the same time, Russian missile
sales to Syria and aid to Irans nuclear program were sources
of friction between the two countries. Not insignificant in the
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tography), the samizdat publications of the transitional period were produced on personal computers from abroad and
photocopied so that print runs were dramatically increased.
Several publications were printed in Israel and sent back to the
Soviet Union for distribution. In December 1988 the first legally permitted independent Jewish newspaper, Khash-akhar,
was issued in Tallinn by the local Jewish culture association.
This publication was typeset and appeared not only in Estonian, but also in Russian, which made it accessible to almost
all of Soviet Jewry. Its print run was over 1,000 and it soon
gained a reputation throughout the country.
In Moscow in April 1989 the authorities launched the
semiofficial Vestnkik evreiskoi sovetskoi kultury (Herald of
Soviet Jewish Culture, abbreviated VESK) in an attempt to
compete with the independent Jewish press. After a year which
saw a change of editor and of name to Evreiskaia gazeta
(Jewish Newspaper) this publication gained more of an
independent status.
In Riga in March 1990, there appeared Vestnik evreiskoi kultury (Herald of Jewish Culture, VEK). In 1990 Jewish newspapers in Russian with real Jewish content began to
appear in Kiev (Vozrozhdenie, Revival), Leningrad (Narod
moi, My People), Kishinev (Nash golos, Our Voice), Tashkent (Mizrakh, Orient), Moscow (Menora), Vilnius (Litovskii
Ierusalim, Jerusalem of Lithuania), and elsewhere. These
newspapers all gained legal status while those which were issued without permission ceased being persecuted. Thus the
distinction between samizdat and permitted publications
was erased.
Sovetish Heymland softened its hard-line policy and
began to publish more cultural and historical material. In
19901991 the former editor of Birobidzhaner Shtern, Leonid
Shkolnik, began the independent newspaper Vzgliad (View),
which included many items of Jewish interest.
The geographical distribution and sharply increased
print runs, the increased scope of topics treated, and the
widely understood Russian language of the majority of publications have made the new Jewish press a significant factor in the formation of Jewish national consciousness and a
source of elementary Jewish knowledge for many thousands
of people. The press has also become a source of information
about emigration and aliyah, and both a mirror and monitor
of Jewish life in the country. The very fact of the legalization
of the Jewish press has made a deep impression on the average Jews who saw that it was no longer necessary to fear public expression of Jewish life.
However, there is also a negative side to the picture. A
number of Jewish periodicals ceased publication after their
first issues. Few managed to appear more frequently than
once a month and the promised periodicity was often not
maintained. The professional level of the Jewish press was
frequently low. Articles on Jewish culture and history were
often reprints or translations from abroad. Factual errors reflecting a lack of basic knowledge of Jewish traditions, Jewish history, and Hebrew among both authors and editors ap-
582
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became leader of the rightist populist group which called itself Liberalno-demokraticheskaia partiia Rossii (the Liberal
Democratic Party of Russia).
The Pamiat Association, originally a conservative movement concerned about the preservation of Russias past and
its environment, became more nationalistic in 1984 when its
leadership was taken over by photographer Dmitrii Vasilev.
The movement gained notoriety when it blamed Jews for the
destruction of Russian churches, and for the serious problem
of alcoholism in the country. Originally the authorities did
not object to Pamiats activities and even supported them. In
May 1987 Boris Yeltsin, then first secretary of the Moscow city
committee of the CPSU, received representatives of Pamiat after a demonstration it staged on Manezh Square. On May 31,
1988, Vasilev announced the transformation of the association into Nationalno-patrioticheskii front Pamiat (Pamiat:
the National Patriotic Front), i.e., a political organization in
opposition to the Communist Party. Between 1989 and the
early 1990s, Pamiat split into several groups, the most extreme of which, Pravoslavnyi nationalnopatrioticheskii front
Pamiat (Pamiat Orthodox National Patriotic Front), headed
by A. Kulakov, espoused restoration of the monarchy while simultaneously expounding the necessity of continuing Stalins
antisemitic policy.
Antisemitism has not been confined to words. Acts of
vandalism have been directed against Jewish targets. In April
1987 the Leningrad Jewish cemetery was desecrated and in
the following two years approximately 30 such incidents were
recorded in the U.S.S.R. In Moscow attacks were carried out
against a Jewish cafe and the editorial offices of Sovetish Heymland and arson was committed at the synagogue by the cemetery in Malakhovka. In 1992 a swastika was painted on the
Moscow Lubavitch H asidic synagogue and a firebomb was
thrown into the building.
Leningrad, the home of a number of antisemitic organizations, became the center of antisemitism in 19881990. It
was a teacher at the Leningrad Technological Institute, Nina
Andreeva who, evidently on orders from the central Committee of the CPSU, on March 13, 1988, published a letter, I Can
Not Yield My Principles, calling for the rehabilitation of Stalin
and the restoration of the kind of law and order that existed
before perestroika. In her letter Andreeva attacked the Jews
as cosmopolitans and a counterrevolutionary people, who
were pushing the Russian people toward a rejection of socialism. In the summer of 1988 Leningrads Ruminatsev Park was
the daily site of Pamiat rallies. The city also regularly heard
calls to expel Jews from Russian scientific, cultural, and educational institutions.
In nationalist journals such as Molodaia gvardiia (Young
Guard) and Nash sovremennik (Our Contemporary), a
group of Moscow writers and journalists, the neo-Slavophiles
Valentin Rasputin, Vasillii Belov, Victor Astafev, and Vadim
Kozhinov, utilized the traditionally high status of the writer in
Russian society to protest ostensibly harmful Jewish influence
on Russian culture. For example, they condemned the 1989
583
Spring, or Source, by the World Union of Progressive Judaism), Lekhaim (To Life, by the international Jewish organization Chabad-Lubavitch), and several papers, by the Jewish Agency. Jewish newspapers were also issued in Briansk,
Novosibirsk, and Perm. Two academic Jewish journals were
published: Vestnik Evreiskovo Universiteta v Moskve (Herald
of the Moscow Jewish University), from 1992 on, and Vreiskaia Shkola (Jewish School), issued by the St. Petersburg
University, both supported by the JDC.
ACADEMIC LIFE. One of the most remarkable developments
in Russia (as well as in some other countries of the CIS) in the
field of Jewish life was the emerging and broadening of Jewish higher education and Jewish studies.The Moscow Jewish
University has been functioning since 1991; in 1993 it gained
official status, i.e., the right to give officially recognized university degrees to its graduates. In 1990, the St. Petersburg
Jewish University was established; in 1994 it gained the right
to give degrees in philology. Departments of Jewish Studies
were opened in some old established universities: courses in
Judaic studies were established at Moscow State University in
1993; the School for the Comparative Study of Religions, including Judaism, was set up in the Russian State Humanitarian University in Moscow.
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586
in the Soviet Union (1961); E. Schulman, A History of Jewish Education in the Soviet Union (1971); E. Wiesel, The Jews of Silence (1966);
Gli ebrei nel U.R.S.S. (1966); Ben-Ami (A. Eliav), Between Hammer
and Sickle (19672); S. Rabinovich, Jews in the Soviet Union (Moscow,
1967); L. Kochan (ed.), The Jews in Soviet Russia since 1917 (1970); A.
Dagan, Moscow and Jerusalem (1971); Jews in Eastern Europe (1958 );
S. Agursky, Di Yidishe Komisariatn un di Yidishe Komunistishe Sektsies (1928); N. Gergel, Di Lage fun Yidn in Rusland (1929); A. Rafaeli
(Zenziper), Eser Shenot Redifot (1930); S. Dimanstein (ed.), Yidn in
FSSR. (1935); L. Zinger, Dos Banayte Folk (1941); J. Lestschinsky, Dos
Sovetishe Idntum (1941; Ha-Yehudim be-Rusyah ha-Sovyetit, 1943); T.
Belsk,Yehudei Yaar (1946); M. Kahanovitch, Milh emet ha-Partizanim
ha-Yehudim be-Mizrah Eiropah (1954); Y.A. Gilboa, Al H orvot haTarbut ha-Yehudit bi-Verit ha-Moaz ot (1959); idem, The Black Years
of Soviet Jewry (1971); Ch. Shmeruk (ed.), Pirsumim Yehudiyyim biVerit ha-Moaz ot (1961); idem (ed.), A Shpigl oyf a Shteyn (1964); A.
Pomeranz, Di Sovetishe Harugey Malkhes (1962); J. Levavi Ha-Hityashevut ha-Yehudit be-Birobidzhan (1965); A.A. Gershuni, Ha-Yahadut
be-Rusyah ha-Sovyetit (1965); J. Litvak, in: Gesher, 12, nos. 23 (1966),
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(1970), 7079; He-Avar (1952 ). ARCHIVAL MATERIAL: Yad Vashem
Archives, Jerusalem: Unit 053/Ludwigsburg/, files nos. 110, 1314,
1517, 2233, 36, 4445, 57, 83, 86, 8891, 93. Unit 053/F (JM-2996)/
Ludwigsburg/; hornaya Kniga. PUBLICATIONS: The Black Book,
the Nazi Crimes against the Jewish People (1946); I. Ehrenburg, V.
Grossman, The Complete Black Book of Russia (2002); R. Hilberg, The
Destruction of the European Jews (1961); G. Reitlinger, The Final Solution (19682); S. Schwartz, Yevrei v Sovetskom Soyuze s. nachala vtoroy
mirovoy voyny (1966); Prestupleniya nemetskofashistskikh okupantov
v Belorussii 19411944 (Minsk, 1965); Rozprawa sadowa w sprawie o
bestialstwa popelnione przez niemieckich najedicw faszystowskich i
ich slugusw na terytorium miasta Krasnodaru i kraju krasnodarskiego
w okresie przejciowej ich okupacji/July 1417, 1943/ (Moscow, 1943).
1970 : Y. Roi, in: EJYB 8385:40510; Y. Litvak, in: EJYB
8687:36370; R. Vago, in: EJYB 8889:4055; M. Beizer, in; EJYB
9091:38895; idem, in: The Shorter Encyclopaedia Judaica in Russian, Suppl. 1, (1992), 3141; idem, in: Jews and Jewish Topics in the
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (hereafter Jews and Jewish Topics), 2:12 (1990), 6977; idem, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 3:19 (1992)
6277; T. Friedgut, in: Soviet Jewry in the 1980s (1989), 325; M. Altshuler, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 2:9 (1989), 529; idem, in: Jews
and Jewish Topics, 3:16 (1991), 22440; Z. Gitelman, in: Soviet Jewish Affairs, 19:2 (1989), 34; Y. Florsheim, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 2:15 (1991), 514; idem, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 3:19 (1992),
515; M. Tolts, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 2:18 (1991), 1326; idem,
in: East European Jewish Affairs, 22:2 (1992), 319; A. Greenbaum,
in: EJYB 9091:17983; I. Dymerskaya-Tsigelman, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 3:10 (1989), 4961; B. Pinkus, in: Jews and Jewish Topics,
2:15 (1991), 1530; M. Gilbert, The Jews of Hope (1984); idem, Ukrainian Diary, SeptemberOctober, 1991, manuscript; D. Prital (ed.),
Yehudei Berit ha-Moatsot (The Jews of the Soviet Union), vols.
815 (19851992); The Seeond Congress of Vaad, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 3:16 (1991), 22440; Z. Gitelman, in: Soviet Jewish Affairs,
19:2 (1989), 34; Y. Florsheim, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 2:15 (1991),
514; idem, in: Jews and Jewish Topics, 3:19 (1992), 515; M. Tolts, in:
Jews and Jewish Topics, 1:14 (1991), 3159. Add. Bibliography:
U. Schmelz and S. DellaPergola, in: AJYB, 1995, 478; Supplement to
the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, 2, 1995, Jerusalem; Y. Florsheim, in:
Jews in Eastern Europe, 1 (26) 1995, 2533; M. Beizer and I. Klimenko,
in: Jews in Eastern Europe, 1:24 (1995), 2533; Antisemitism World Re-
russian literature
RUSSIAN LITERATURE.
Biblical and Hebraic Influences
The Jewish impact on Russian literature may be traced back
900 years to the period when that body of writing was still
the common patrimony of a people that was to emerge later
as three distinct East Slavic ethnic groups: the Russians, the
Ukrainians, and the Belorussians, each with its separate language and, ultimately, its own literature. The 11t-century Primary Chronicle, of which 13t-century transcriptions are extant, begins with an account of the biblical story of the Tower
of Babel. Equally ancient is the 11t-century translation of
*Josephus Jewish War into East Slavic, although the original
translation was later supplemented by newer versions. Not
only was Josephus work extremely popular in Russia throughout the Middle Ages, but for several centuries his style and
imagery continued to exert a powerful influence on original
Russian literary works, particularly martial tales. In 110608
the abbot Daniel made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and his
account of the journey, extant in 15t-century transcriptions,
contains a number of interesting descriptions of Jerusalem
and its surroundings.
Polemical attacks on Judaism as a creed antedate the appearance in Russia of any sizable Jewish population. Thus the
metropolitan Ilarion, in his Slovo o zakone i blagodati (Sermon
on Law and Grace, written 103750), attacks Judaism for its
alleged lack of Divine grace, a stock claim of Christian theologians over the centuries. It is likely that the metropolitans attack was prompted by fear of the *Khazars, then Kievs neighbors and rivals, among whose ruling class Judaism was widely
professed. In a popular 12t-century tale, The Virgins Road
Through Torments, Mary intercedes on behalf of various sinners whom she encounters on her journey through Hell. Only
for the Jews can she find no compassion, since they are the alleged murderers of her son. In this doctrine, too, Russian Orthodoxy did not differ from Western European Christianity.
Judaisms theological threat to Russian Christianity became somewhat more real in the 15t century, with the appearance in the cities of Novgorod and Moscow of a heresy whose
adherents were dubbed *Judaizers (Zhidovstvuyushchiye).
Because most of their works were destroyed by the Church,
little is known about these heretics other than their skepticism with regard to several articles of Christian faith, including the Trinity and Virgin Birth, and their high regard for the
Old Testament, the importance of which Russian Orthodoxy
has traditionally minimized. Russias Judaizers translated
anew from Hebrew sources (and not, as had been customary,
from existing Greek translations) a number of biblical texts,
particularly the Psalms and the books of Daniel and Esther.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
They were also the first to translate a treatise on logic by *Maimonides. Some Russian church historians maintain rather unconvincingly that these translations were made by Jews such
as Feodor the Jew for coreligionists who no longer knew Hebrew. Among the best-known works of apocryphal literature
was the Tale of the Centaur, extant in a 15t-century text,
which was based on an ancient Jewish story about Solomon
building the Temple without recourse to iron.
During the 16t century certain Western European antiJewish philippics were translated from Latin into Russian, notably works by *Nicholas de Lyre and by an apostate known
as Samuel the Jew. In the following century Old Testament
authority and biblical imagery were frequently invoked by
opponents of the official Church. An outstanding example
was the archpriest Avvakuma (16211682), founder of the Old
Believers sect, whose autobiography, Zhitiye protopopa Avvakuma (written 167275) is a milestone in the development of
the modern Russian literary language.
BIBLICAL DRAMA AND POETRY. The first Russian theatrical performance, which took place in Moscow in 1672, was a
German stage adaptation of the Book of Esther. Early plays
on biblical themes for the Moscow repertories were written
by Semyon Polotski and a German Lutheran pastor, Johann
Gottfried Grigori, the author of a morality play on Adam and
Eve, and there were also adaptations of the stories of Judith,
Daniel, and David and Goliath. Conventional imagery and allusions drawn from the Bible are as characteristic of later Russian literature as they are of other literatures, and biblical motifs
regularly occurred in the works of Russian authors of the 19t
century. Such was the case with the magnificent statement of
the poets mission in Prorok (The Prophet, 1826) by Alexander Pushkin (17991837). Among later, prerevolutionary writers, Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev (18711919) wrote a drama
about Samson (Samson v okovakh, 1925; Samson in Chains,
1923), and Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin (18701938) published
Sulamif (1908; Eng. tr. Sulamith, 1923), a stylized romance about
Solomon. Their Jewish contemporary, Akim Lvovich *Volynski,
wrote a critical study of the Bible in Russian poetry.
The last prerevolutionary decade was marked by an upsurge of interest in both biblical and modern Hebrew literature. Interest in the latter was heightened by the fact that many
of the founding fathers of the new Hebrew writing, preeminently *Bialik, were Russian Jews then still living in Russia.
V. *Jabotinsky translated Bialik into Russian, and Bialik thus
gained wide appreciation both among writers (e.g., Gorki) and
among the public. Among the translators and popularizers of
modern Hebrew verse at the turn of the century were such eminent Russian symbolist poets as Valeri Bryusov (18731924)
and Feodor Sologub (18631927); of a slightly later vintage
was the migr poet, the half-Jew Vladislav *Khodasevich. A
journey to Palestine inspired some poetry by another migr,
Ivan Bunin (18701953).
After the Bolshevik Revolution biblical works naturally
fell into disfavor, but it is significant that two Jewish writers
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of the post-Stalin era turned to the Bible for themes expressive of their spirit of protest. Semyon Isaakovich *Kirsanov,
who had published a poem entitled Edem (Paradise) in
the late 1940s, wrote Sem dney nedeli (Seven Days of the
Week, 1957), an anti-materialist narrative poem based on the
Creation story; while Yosif *Brodski, a prime target of Soviet
antisemitism, also wrote a long narrative poem entitled Isaak
i Avraam (Isaac and Abraham), which, like his other original works, had to be published in the West (in Stikhotvoreniya
i poemy, 1965).
The Image of the Jew
Although one of the stock characters of the Vertep puppet
show Russias oldest form of theater was a grotesque caricature of a greedy and cowardly Jew, there were very few Jewish motifs in Russian literature during the 18t century. One
reason for this may be the fact that the Jews lived in areas
to the west with which Russian writers, mostly from central
Russia, were unfamiliar. Another is that Russian writing of
the period rarely featured anyone who was not an aristocrat.
To a lesser extent this was also true of Russian literature of
the first half of the 19t century, despite the sudden increase
in Russias Jewish population after the annexation of former
Polish territories following that countrys partitions at the end
of the 18t century.
THE ANTISEMITIC STEREOTYPE. Biblical portraits gradually gave way to a stylized, romantic portrayal of the Jew reminiscent of the Jews in Sir Walter Scotts Ivanhoe, but familiar
since *Shakespeares Merchant of Venice. An antisemitic stereotype tempered by courtly gallantry, the Russian figure was
normally an incongruous combination of an ugly and repugnant Jewish father (more often than not a greedy usurer and
hater of Christians) and his beautiful daughter. A noteworthy
example may be found in Ispantsy (The Spaniards, 1830), an
early drama by Russias foremost Byronic poet, Mikhail Lermontov (18141841), which portrays hapless lovers against
the background of the Inquisition. Ivan Turgenev (18181883)
was no romantic, but his realistic short story Zhid (1847; The
Jew, 1899) exudes the familiar blend of human compassion
and aristocratic disgust with a Jew about to be executed on
suspicion of espionage. Turgenevs portrayal of the Jew, which
sharply contrasts with his humane understanding of the plight
of the Russian peasant, is not unlike that found in Taras Bulba
(1842), a novella by Nikolai Gogol (18091852), who both as a
man and a writer was otherwise very different from the Westernized and liberal Turgenev. In Gogols short novel, set during the 17t-century Polish-Cossack wars, a Jewish innkeeper,
also suspected of espionage, is described as shifty, mercenary,
and treacherous, in many respects far more despicable than
the Polish enemy. Curiously enough, this motif of a Jew suspected of spying for the Poles (who are themselves shown to
be antisemitic) reappeared nearly a century later in a short
story by the Soviet-Jewish writer Isaac *Babel (Berestechko,
in Red Cavalry, 1926), in which a Communist soldier calmly
slits the throat of an old Jew.
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russian literature
dler in his short story Gambrinus (1907, Eng. tr., 1925) while in
his whimsical tale Obida (1906; An Insult, in The Bracelet of
Garnets, 1917), a delegation of thieves indignantly protests
the slanderous insinuations of a newspaper that anti-Jewish pogroms are the work of underworld elements. Yevgeni
Chirikovs (18641936) play Yevrei (1904; Die Juden, 1904) was
also an attack on antisemitism, as were the numerous short
stories and newspaper articles by Vladimir *Korolenko and
Maxim *Gorki, who warmly championed Russias Jews, particularly the poor ones.
During the latter part of the 19t century Jews themselves
began to write on Jewish themes. Before 1917, however, they
were never fully accepted as Russian writers and none of them
achieved literary stature. Russian Jewry was, in any case, only
superficially secularized and its artistic energies were canalized into the literary realms of Hebrew and Yiddish. Three
pioneer authors were Osip *Rabinovich, Grigori Bogrov, and
Lev *Levanda, whose descriptions of Jewish life were intended
to demonstrate the brutal oppression of an inoffensive minority, and to gain the sympathy of all decent and fair-minded
Russian Christians. A more militant note was sounded in the
poetry of Shimon Shmuel (Semyon) *Frug, who at first linked
his hopes for the salvation of Russias Jews with the triumph of
the revolutionary cause, but who later became more attracted
to Zionism. Two writers whose reputation has proved more
lasting were Andrey *Sobol and Semyon *Yushkevich. In his
novel Pyl (Dust, 1915), Sobol expressed the Jewish revolutionarys disenchantment with socialism as a solution of the
Jewish problem, a feeling reflected in another semi-autobiographical work, Oblomki (The Wreckage, 1923), a collection
of stories published after the Bolshevik triumph.
The Soviet Position
The distinction between portrayals of Jews in Russian literature by writers who were themselves Jews and those who
were not loses much of its validity during the Soviet period.
In the first place, Jewish writers in the U.S.S.R. were, for the
most part, culturally assimilated; many of them wrote under
Slavic-sounding names which concealed their origin. Secondly, the everpresent threat of an accusation of Jewish nationalism caused many of them either out of genuine Communist conviction or from ordinary fear to shy away from
excessive preoccupation with Jewish subjects. And last but
not least, the many levels of ideological control over Soviet
literature, operative from the early days of the regime, have
to a greater or lesser extent depending on the period prevented the appearance of works too much at variance with the
official party position on the subject; and these controls have
been roughly applicable to all Soviet writers, regardless of their
ethnic background. The periodical shifts in the portrayal of
Jews in Soviet literature have thus been more closely tied to
fluctuations in official policy and to the stringency of literary
censorship than to the preferences of the authors themselves
or, more important still, to the social conditions which their
works purported to reflect in a realistic manner.
The official Soviet position may be reduced to the following essentials. The Jews, like all other ethnic groups, are really
divided, as Lenin stated, into two warring nations in one the
exploiters and the exploited. The exploited and the poor of
all nations are natural allies, as are the rich exploiters of the
various ethnic groups. The former are to be portrayed with
compassion and sympathy, and the latter are to be shown as
their villainous foes. There can be no recognition of an ethnic
group that might transcend class antagonisms. This article of
faith was to be observed with particular stringency in Soviet
literatures treatment of Jewish themes, and it has resulted in
some grotesque descriptions of manifestations of antisemitism
and other phenomena which, in one way or another, affect all
Jews, regardless of their religious ties, economic status, or political allegiance.
In the distorting mirror of Soviet literature, where ideology takes precedence over historical or artistic truth, there
are few exceptions to the rule that only the Jewish poor are
shown to be victims of antisemitism, whereas the bourgeoisie
are somehow unaffected by it. In fact, Jewish capitalists who,
as a rule, are also portrayed as the only Jews infected with the
dual poison of religious faith and Zionism are shown making common cause with antisemites, provided that the latter
are their class allies fellow capitalists and enemies of the
working class. This tendency can be discerned in Soviet literature from the earliest years of the Soviet regime and is not,
as is commonly thought, a phenomenon of Stalins last years.
However, since antisemitism as such was condemned during
the early years of Soviet rule, and because antisemitic policies
were in the 1920s associated with the ancien rgime, Soviet
books describing poor Jews in czarist Russia portrayed them
in a sympathetic light as victims of persecution.
A documentary of unusual interest and importance that
was unearthed some 45 years after its publication is the poem
Yevrey (The Jew) by the otherwise conformist Soviet writer
Vladimir Mayakovski, a leader of the Futurist movement. Here
Mayakovski, a friend of Bialik (to whom he dedicated another
of his poems), vigorously attacked Russian antisemitism and
championed the victims of its constant slanders. The poem,
first read to a meeting in favor of Jewish economic rehabilitation which he had himself helped to organize in November
1926, subsequently appeared in Izvestiya; but it has been carefully omitted from Mayakovskis collected works. Another
poem, Zhid (Jew), written in May 1928 as a protest against
the resurgence of antisemitism, appeared in Komsomolskaya
Pravda (June 15, 1928).
Subsequently, in the 1930s, as glorification of Russias
past became more fashionable, czarist antisemitism tended
to be avoided, although the familiar attitude continued to be
maintained in works describing Jews still living in capitalist
countries. This, too, became muted in the early 1940s and was
almost entirely suppressed after World War II, perhaps in order to avoid undesirable parallels with the Soviet Unions own
brand of antisemitism, which began in the late 1940s with Stalins virulently antisemitic purges of *cosmopolitans. These
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nificant change. Not only heroes, but also villains and even
marginal characters were no longer, as a rule, described as
Jews persons with specifically Jewish problems, hopes, and
aspirations but rather as Soviet men and women whose Jewish origin could only be guessed from their names, or from
fleeting references to their family backgrounds. This can only
partly reflect the changes that actually took place in Soviet
Jewry. Much of the explanation must be sought in the already
stringent political controls imposed on Soviet literature. Two
examples of such literary characterization are the enthusiastic
engineer Margulis in Valentin Katayevs (18971986) production novel Vremya, vperyod! (Time, Forward!, 1932), and
Davydov, the organizer of a collective farm, in Podnyataya
tselina (Virgin Soil Upturned, 193259) by the Nobel Prizewinning novelist Mikhail Sholokhov (19051984). The latter
case is particularly noteworthy in view of the fact that, in the
novel, Davydovs Jewish background is almost imperceptible,
despite the fact that he was partly modeled on a real-life Jewish Communist.
The artificiality and insincerity in Soviet literatures portrayal of Jews during the 1940s is particularly striking in
works dealing with World War II. At a time when the Nazi
extermination of Jewish civilians and prisoners of war must
already have been common knowledge, these continued to
portray Soviet people of Jewish birth as almost completely
unaware of their Jewishness. This fact, and the enforced tendency to avoid Jewish subjects altogether, is corroborated by
the memoirs of Ehrenburg, which were published during the
relatively liberal years following Stalins death. The contrived
nature of the portrayal of Jews in Soviet literature during the
late 1940s and early 1950s is further evident from the fact that
the few positive Jewish heroes found in Soviet writings of
the period such as the engineers Liberman and Zalkind in
Vasili Azhayevs (19151968) novel Daleko ot Moskvy (Far
from Moscow, 1948) display no awareness of the existence
of antisemitism in the U.S.S.R. itself. Confirmation of this assumption may again be found in the memoirs of Soviet writers, notably Ehrenburg and Samuel *Marshak.
The most important distortion, however, took the innocuous form of silence. At a time when Jewish and non-Jewish
writers throughout the world were shaken and inspired by the
two most important events in the past 2,000 years of Jewish
history the Nazi massacre of 6,000,000 Jews and the reestablishment of an independent Jewish state Soviet literature
affected a pose of indifference and apathy. Nor, understandably, was there any reaction in Soviet literature to the wave
of officially inspired antisemitism then sweeping the U.S.S.R.
Very muted echoes of this can be found in Soviet writing of
the post-Stalin era, such as Ehrenburgs novella Ottepel (1954;
The Thaw, 1955) and Yevtushenkos poetry. By 1970, problems
such as Soviet antisemitism and Jewish identity were dealt
with only in underground literature circulating illegally in the
U.S.S.R., much of it actually published in the West. The most
notable writer in this category was the non-Jew Andrey Sinyavski (19151997), whose works appeared under the Jewish-
590
culminated in the closure of all Soviet Yiddish cultural institutions in 1948 and the execution of Soviet Yiddish writers in
1952. By then, nearly all discussion of antisemitism, past and
present, Russian or foreign, or of any other Jewish themes,
had become practically taboo. The worldwide sensation created by the appearance in 1961 of a brief poem, Babi Yar, by
Yevgeni *Yevtushenko, condemning Nazi and prerevolutionary antisemitism, and the mutilation by Soviet censorship of
Babi Yar (1966; Eng. 1967, revised 1970), a documentary novel
by Anatoli Kuznetsov (19291979) about the Nazi massacre of
Soviet Jews in a ravine near Kiev, demonstrate that, in contrast
to other areas of Soviet life, there was no real thaw in Soviet
literatures treatment of Jewish themes.
rutenberg, pinH as
RUTENBERG, PINH AS (Piotr; 18791942), prominent figure in the revolutionary movement in Russia, yishuv leader,
and pioneer of modern industry in Erez Israel. Born in Romny,
Ukraine, Rutenberg graduated from St. Petersburg Technological Institute and was first employed at the large Putilov metallurgical works. As a student he became active in the revolutionary movement (first as a Social Democrat and then
a Social Revolutionary) and was imprisoned several times.
He marched with Father Gapon on Bloody Sunday, which
ushered in the 1905 Revolution, and helped Gapon flee from
Russia. A year later, when the Social Revolutionaries came to
the conclusion that the priest was serving as a police agent,
Rutenberg was instructed by the party to organize Gapons
execution. He spent the years 190715 in Italy, working as an
engineer and specializing in irrigation. During the latter part
of this period, he became interested in Jewish affairs, and after the outbreak of World War I he went to London to urge
Zionist leaders to raise Jewish military units for the liberation
of Palestine. When he learned of Vladimir *Jabotinskys interest in the matter, Rutenberg contacted him to assure joint ac-
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tion and went to the U.S. in 1915 to propagate the idea. There
Rutenberg became involved in the campaign for the creation
of the first American Jewish Congress, which was to formulate Jewish proposals to be brought before the Peace Conference at the conclusion of war. While in America, he drew up
a comprehensive irrigation plan for Palestine. He also published a Yiddish translation of a pamphlet he had written in
Italy under the title The National Revival of the Jewish People
and signed Pinh as BenAmmi.
With the overthrow of czarist rule in Russia at the beginning of 1917, Rutenberg left the U.S. for Petrograd, where
Kerensky appointed him deputy governor of the capital in
charge of civilian affairs. During the Bolshevik coup, on Nov.
7, Rutenberg, was among the last defenders of the site of the
provisional government in the Petrograd Winter Palace. Some
six months of imprisonment followed, after which he went to
Moscow to work for the Center of the Russian Cooperative
Organizations, and soon escaped to Kiev, capital of the temporarily independent Ukraine. At the end of 1918, he left for
Odessa, where he joined a French-sponsored White Russian government that did not last long. By the middle of 1919,
Rutenburg left Russia forever. When he came to the conclusion that there was antisemitism even in revolutionary movements, he went to Palestine (November 1919).
With some aid from the Zionist Organization, Rutenberg
organized a survey of the countrys water resources, mainly
of the Jordan River, as a prerequisite to obtaining a government concession to develop the potential of these resources
and supply the country with power. For practical reasons,
stress was laid on the hydroelectric aspects of his planning,
and the proposal was then brought before the first postwar
Zionist Conference in London (1920). Together with Jabotinsky, Rutenberg organized the self-defense in Jerusalem at
the time of the Arab riots in 1920; in 1921 he became head of
Haganah in Tel Aviv and also served as adviser to the AngloFrench commission for the delimitation of Palestines northern boundaries.
After he overcame great financial and political difficulties, Rutenberg established the Palestine Electric Company
(1923), which was subsequently granted a concession to use
the waters of the Jordan and Yarmuk rivers for the supply
of energy (see Israel, State of: *Economic Affairs (Energy
Sources). Initial successes enabled him to secure the services
of outstanding personalities as heads of the companys board:
Lord Melchett, Lord Hirst, Lord *Samuel, and Lord *Reading.
Preoccupied with company affairs, Rutenberg could no more
than follow, and indirectly influence, internal affairs of the
yishuv, but in the crisis year 1929 he was called upon to head
the Vaad Leummi and use his considerable influence with
the Mandatory administration. He left the Vaad Leummi after the crisis had passed, but joined it again in 1939. In the
1930s he cooperated with a number of other Jewish personalities (including Judah L. *Magnes, M. *Novomeysky, Moshe
*Smilansky, G. *Frumkin) in search of a program for ArabJewish understanding. Though he had the ear of King *Abdul-
592
RUTH, BOOK OF (Heb. ) , one of the five scrolls incorporated in the Ketuvim (Hagiographa) section of the traditional Hebrew Bible. In the Septuagint, followed by Christian
Bibles, Ruth is found immediately after Judges.
Contents
In the days of the Judges, Elimelech, of Beth-Lehem in Judah,
immigrated with his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and
Chilion to Moab on account of famine. He died there and so
did his two sons, who had married Moabite women, Orpah
and Ruth. Left without either husband or sons, and having no
grandchildren, Naomi decided to return to Beth-Lehem. The
two daughters-in-law wanted to move to Judah with her, but
she bade them stay in their homeland. Orpah obeyed but Ruth
vowed that she would share the fortunes of her mother-in-law.
Arriving in Beth-Lehem at the beginning of the grain harvest,
Ruth took advantage of the privilege of gleaning which custom
accorded the poor. The field she came to glean in belonged
to a prosperous farmer by the name of Boaz. When Naomi
learned that Boaz had shown Ruth special kindness out of
appreciation for her devotion to her mother-in-law, she was
doubly delighted because Boaz was a kinsman of Elimelech,
and hence of Ruths dead husband Mahlon, and the old woman
could see a prospect of a levirate marriage for Ruth. The levirate marriage with Ruth involved the redemption of the land
of the dead husband, which Naomi had sold. Boaz consented
to marry Ruth and to redeem the land. Thus he fulfilled the
ancient patriarchal duty of establishing the name of the dead
upon his inheritance (Ruth 4:5; cf. Deut. 25:6). Through this
marriage Boaz became the ancestor of King David.
Aim of the Book
The book concludes with the genealogy of David (4:1722),
which was highly significant to the author. One aim of his
was to present in an idyllic way the origin of the great king
David. A similar, though less idyllic, account is found in the
story about Judah and Tamar (Gen. 38), the parents of Perez,
an even earlier ancestor within the Davidic genealogy. The
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
ruth, book of
593
Theology
As is true in some of the stories of Genesis and the succession
narratives of David, so also in the Book of Ruth the events
occur in the human realm. Miracles and angelic figures are
absent, and God works behind the scenes. The occurrences,
which look like a chain of natural happenings evolving one
from the other, reveal themselves in the end as the outcome of
Gods plan. So, for example, in the story of Joseph the events
are moved and motivated by purely human impulses. However, the narrator reveals in two brief sentences (Gen. 45:7;
50:20) that all these complex events are none other than the
realization of Gods plan. There is no chance happening in
this world; whatever happens is caused by God (cf. II Sam.
16:1011). The events in Davids court also seem to be caused
by purely human motivation: Conflicts in connection with
the struggle for the crown. However, for the author these stories come to demonstrate the way of the realization of Gods
plan to establish Davids throne through the enthronement
of Solomon.
The Book of Ruth, which also recounts a natural story
in which everything moves by human agents and, as it were,
without divine interference, actually serves as a testimony to
the wondrous ways in which God leads human destiny. Ruth
happens to choose, as if at random, the field of Boaz (2:3)
but that choice turns out to be the decisive act for the birth of
David, the illustrious king of Israel. Naomi indeed attributes
her success in this coincidence to God, who did not withhold
His kindness from the living and the dead (2:20). This is reminiscent of Abrahams servant who asks God to make it happen
today (Gen. 24:12), i.e., to enable a proper choice, and indeed
after it becomes clear to him that his wish has been realized,
he proclaims: Blessed be the Lord who has not withheld His
steadfast kindness from my master. For I have been guided
on my way by the Lord (24:27). The phrase [God] who did
not withhold His kindness is found in the Bible only in these
two instances, which is not without significance.
Date of Composition
The Book of Ruth was written not before the period of the
Monarchy, which is clear from the genealogy at the end of
the book, terminating with David. The opening verse of the
book, In the days when the judges ruled, also attests to the
fact that the book was written at a time when the period of the
ruth, book of
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ruth, book of
by ignoring the letter of the law when the growth of the house
of Israel was at stake. Thus, Jacobs marriage to the two sisters Rachel and Leah (Ruth 4:11) violated Leviticus 18:18, and
Tamars union with Judah (Ruth 4:12) violated Leviticus 18:15.
As such, one need not worry about the restriction of Deuteronomy 23:4. The qualities of a foreigner are more important
than her origins. Ruth, whose foreign origin is repeatedly emphasized (1:22; 2:2, 6, 8, 21; 4:5, 10), is an eshet h ayil (Ruth 3:11)
virtuous woman, worthy of Boaz the gibbor h ayil virtuous
hero (Ruth 2:1). Incidentally, the author of Ruth may have
been influenced by the fact that the eshet h ayil of Proverbs 31
has a husband known in the gates when he sits among the
elders (Prov. 31:23; cf. Ruth 4:113).
The Place of the Book in the Canon
Talmudic tradition ascribes the book to the Hagiographa (BB
14b), but this is based on the opinion that the Canon contains
24 books. A variant tradition (Jos., Apion, 1:39) speaks only
of 22 books in the Bible. According to this system, Ruth is attached to the Book of Judges and Lamentations to Jeremiah,
an arrangement adopted by the Septuagint. According to the
order of the Five *Scrolls in modern Hebrew Bibles, Ruth is
the second scroll after Song of Songs, because the latter is to
be recited on Passover whereas Ruth is to be read on Shavuot.
The order in the talmudic source quoted above is different:
Ruth opens the Hagiographa preceding the Psalms. Here the
sequence is a historical one. Ruth relates to the period of the
Judges while Psalms is attributed to David, who is later.
The Book of Ruth was one of the first biblical books to
be examined through the lenses of the Bible as literature approach (Rauber).
to Ruth 2:3). After Naomi made her a party to her plan to force
Boaz into a decisive step, Ruth strictly adhered to her directions except that she did not wash, anoint, and finely clothe
herself until after she reached her destination, since she feared
to attract the attention of the lustful (Shab. 113b). The next day
she was taken in marriage by Boaz, who was 80 years of age.
Ruth herself was barren and 40 years old at the time, and it was
against all expectations that this union should be blessed with
issue (Ruth R. 7:14). Possibly because she retained her original
name even after her conversion, it is interpreted as meaning
that she was the ancestress of *David, who saturated ()
the Holy One, blessed be He, with songs and hymns (Ber. 7b).
Another explanation is that she considered well (raatah) the
words of her mother-in-law (Ruth R. 2:9).
See also *David and *Ammonites and *Moabites in halakhah.
[Aaron Rothkoff]
In the Aggadah
Ruth was a daughter of the king of Moab (Ruth R. 2:9). After
the death of Mahlon, Naomi attempted to dissuade her from
returning to Erez Israel lest she be treated contemptuously
as a foreigner (Midrash Zuta to Ruth 1:8). Ruth is regarded
as the prototype of the righteous convert. Naomi could not
discourage her from taking this step although she told her of
the stringencies of Jewish law and that its transgression would
entail corporal and capital punishments from which she was
hitherto exempt (Ruth R. 2:24). When Naomi told her that
Jewish daughters do not frequent theaters and circuses, she
replied, Whither thou goest, I will go; when informed that
Jewish daughters only dwell in houses sanctified by mezuzot,
she responded: where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people
will be my people implied I will destroy all idolatry within
me; and thy God shall be my God to repay me the reward
of my deeds (Ruth 1:16; Ruth R. 2:22, 23). They arrived on the
day that the wife of *Boaz was buried (BB 91a). Ruths piety
impressed Boaz when he noticed that she did not glean the
fields if the reapers let more than two ears fall since the gleanings assigned to the poor by the law refer only to two ears inadvertently dropped at one time. He also admired her grace,
decorum, and modest demeanor (Ruth R. 4:6; Midrash Zuta
In the Arts
Despite the grandeur of Ruths story and the romantic appeal
of her religious identification and the dynastic link with King
David, she has inspired surprisingly few important works in
the arts. The subject was muted in literature of the Middle
Ages, first appearing significantly in the 17t century with three
works in Spanish: Joo Pinto *Delgados poem Ruth (1627),
Tirso de Molinas drama, La mejor espigadera (1634), and an
auto sacramentale by Pedro Caldern de la Barca. The new
literary movements of the 19t century directed fresh attention to the potentialities of the subject. Karl Streckfuss wrote
the German epic Ruth (1805) and there were a number of dramas, including two in French, both entitled La Moabite, by
Henri Bornier (1880) and the patriotic writer Paul Droulede
(1881). One of the most memorable evocations of the theme
occurs in the English poet John Keats Ode to a Nightingale (1819) with the lines: Perhaps the self-same song that
found a path/Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for
home,/She stood in tears amid the alien corn Perhaps the
outstanding 19t-century treatment was, however, Booz endormi, one of the petites popes included in Victor Hugos
La Lgende des sicles (1859), which is generally regarded as
among Hugos finest poems. The theme was not neglected by
Jewish writers of the period: In Germany Isaac Jojade Cohn
published a three-act Hebrew play, Boaz ve-Rut (1834); Emanuel Baumgarten wrote the poem, Rut, MeliZ ah (1885); and
Solomon Rosenzweig was the author of another Hebrew play,
Rut Torat H esed (1893).
Twentieth-century works about Ruth have covered a
wider range of languages, beginning with Siegmund Werners
Ruth, und andere Gedichte (1903). Many appeared between the
world wars, such as Pilar Milln Astrays three-act Spanish
play Ruth la Israelita (1923); and Emanuil Pop Dimitrovs Bulgarian Rut; and Boass un Rute (1926), a Lettish play by Aspazija
(Elza Rozenberga). The subject also attracted the attention of
Yiddish writers: Victor Spritzers Rut; Dramatishe Poeme appeared at Buenos Aires in 1933, and Saul Saphire wrote Rut;
Biblisher Roman fun der Tsayt fun di Shoftim (1936). Modern
595
ruth rabbah
596
ruzhany
district (c. 154 in the town itself). By 1847 the Jewish population of the town had risen to 1,467; it numbered 3,599 (71.7
of the total population) in 1897; and 3,718 (66.2) in 1921.
Jews earned their livelihood from trade and crafts, mainly
connected with the local fairs, industry and agriculture. Industries were established in Ruzhany from the beginning of
the 19t century: there were six textile mills and a number of
spinning mills employing about 2,000 Jewish workers, tanneries, and flour mills. Many families engaged in vegetable
growing and cultivating orchards which they leased. In 1850
two Jewish agricultural villages were established near Ruzhany; some of their inhabitants were later among the founders
of the moshavah *Ekron in Erez Israel. Jews from Ruzhany
were among the first to join the H ovevei Zion, sending a delegate to the *Kattowitz conference in 1884. In 1904 a Jewish
*self-defense group was organized which prevented pogroms.
In 1905 revolutionary activities were organized by members
of various parties.
During World War I Jewish-owned factories in Ruzhany
were burned down and the Jews were robbed by the retreating
Cossacks. In 1918, after the withdrawal of the German occupation forces, Polish legionaries, with the help of the local population, attacked the Jews; several died and many houses were
looted. After the war Jewish trade and crafts were severely affected by the Polish governments antisemitic restrictions. The
local Gemilut H asidim society was expanded into a cooperative peoples bank. In this period many Jews left.
In 1923 a Yiddish secular school was established (later directed by the Central Yiddish School Organization, CYSHO).
There were also a Hebrew *Tarbut school, a private elementary
school, a Hebrew and Yiddish public library named after Peretz, and a theatrical company. Zionist groups were active.
Ruzhany was a center of Jewish learning. There existed
a h eder, a talmud torah, and a yeshivah. Notable rabbis of
Ruzhany included R. Jonathan b. Joseph, author of Yeshuah
be-Yisrael (Frankfurt, 1720), a work on astronomy; Avigdor b. Samuel (H arif ) in the 18t century; R. Isaac H aver, a
leading Lithuanian rabbi (officiated 18191833); and Moredecai-Gimpel *Jaffe. Other Ruzhany personalities included the
Zionist pioneer and author Jehiel Michael *Pines; I.T. Eisenstadt (d. 1893), author of Daat Kedoshim (189798); A. *Luboshitzki (18741942), Hebrew author and poet; J. Krinski,
pedagogue and author of educational textbooks; and Zelig
Sher (Shereshevski), journalist active in the Jewish labor party
in the United States.
[Dov Rabin]
Holocaust Period
There were about 3,500 Jews living in Ruzhany in 1939. During
the period of Soviet rule (193941), Jewish community activities ceased. In April 1940 Jewish youth were drafted into the
Red Army, and when the German-Soviet war broke out (June
1941) fought against Nazi Germany. Ruzhany was captured
by the Germans on June 24, 1941. Twelve of the Jewish intelligentsia in Ruzhany were executed on July 12, and on July 14
another 18 Jews suspected of being Communists were killed.
597
ruzhin, israel
598
[Aharon Weiss]
Bibliography: Rozhinoi-Sefer Zikkaron la-Kehillah ve-li-Sevivatah (1957); S. Dubnow, in: Voskhod, 13 no. 7 (1893); idem, Pinkas
ha-Medinah (1925), 152, 164; G. Aronson et al. (eds.), Geshikhte fun
Bund, 1 (1956); Yahadut Lita, 1 (1960), 696.
ruzhin, israel
ISRAEL RUZHINS
FAMILY
ISRAEL SHALOM
JOSEPH
of Buhusi
1863 1923
SHALOM JOSEPH
of Sadagora
1813 1851
ISAAC
of Buhusi
1834 1896
ABRAHAM HESCHEL
of Adjud
d. 1940
MENAHEM NAHUM
of Itcani
1873 1933
MOSES LEIB
of Pascani
d. 1947
JACOB DAVID
1892 1955
JACOB
of Husyatin
1878 1953
ISAAC
of Husyatin
1900 1968
dtr.
MENAHEM MENDEL
of Buhusi
d. 1943
DAVID
dtr.
SHALOM JOSEPH
of Spikov
18771920
MENAHEM NAHUM
of Chernovtsy
1869 1936
ISAAC
of Boyan
1850 1917
NAHUM
of Chernobyl
SHALOM
SHAKHNA
EVE
ISRAEL
of Sadagora
1853 1907
dtr.
MOSES
of Botosani
MENAHEM NAHUM
of Stefanesti
18271869
MORDECAI SHRAGA
ISRAEL
of Leipzig
1879 1951
ABRAHAM JACOB
of Lvov
1886 1942
AARON
18771913
dtr.
ISRAEL
RUZHIN
(Friedmann)
17971850
ISAAC
of Buhusi
19031922
MORDECAI SHELOMO
of Boyan-New York
18911971
ABRAHAM JACOB
of Sadagora
1819 1883
AARON
of Karlin
AARON
of Chernovtsy
d. 1941/42
DAVID
of Ploesti
1898 1941
ABRAHAM
MATTATHIAS
1848 1933
SHALOM JOSEPH
of Chernovitsy
1879 1936
ABRAHAM JACOB
of Sadagora
1884 1961
ISAAC
of Rymanow
18871929
DOV
of Leovo
18271876
DAVID MOSES
of Chortkov
1828 1900
MORDECAI SHRAGA
of Husyatin
1834 1894
dtr.
MENAHEM MENDEL
HAGER
of Vizhnitz
d. 1884
dtr.
JOSEPH MANZON
dtr.
DAVID HALPERIN
ISRAEL
1854 1934
SHALOM
JOSEPH
of MelnitzaPodolskaya
d. 1927
NAHUM MORDECAI
1874 1946
SOLOMON
1894 1959
MENAHEM NAHUM
of Husyatin
1880 1943
MOSES
of Boyan-Cracow
18811943
ISRAEL
of Husyatin
1856 1949
LEVI ISAAC
18471917
HAYYIM DAVID
MANZON
of Brad
1850 1932
SHALOM
of Vaslui
1856 1940
ISRAEL
of Kalisz
1879 1961
DOV BAER
of Brad
d. Holocaust
H AYYIM DOV
1876 1957
JACOB JOSEPH
SOLOMON HALPERIN
of Vaslui
b. 1902
599
ruzhin, israel
Israel of Ruzhin wrote no books. His teachings are collected in Irin Kedishin, Beit Yisrael, Tiferet Yisrael, Keneset Yisrael, Peer Yisrael, etc.
Six sons of Israel of Ruzhin established H asidic dynasties
which attracted large numbers of followers.
The eldest SHALOM JOSEPH (18131851) made Sadagora
his center, and died in Leipzig ten months after the death of
his father. His son ISAAC (18341896) was the founder of the
Buhusi dynasty and was the main propagator of H asidism
in Romania. Isaacs sons dispersed throughout the country,
ISRAEL SHALOM JOSEPH (18631923) in Buhusi, and ABRAHAM HESCHEL (d. 1940) in Adjud, MOSES LEIB (d. 1947) in
Pascani, while the fourth son, JACOB (18781953), was appointed to succeed his father-in-law Israel of Husyatin, the
author of Oholei Yaakov. Other descendants were his grandson
SHALOM JOSEPH OF MELNITSA-PODOLSKAYA (d. 1927), who
also made Lemberg (Lvov) his center. MENAHEM NAHUM OF
ITCANI (18731933), the son of Abraham Heschel of Adjud,
was a scholar and kabbalist who wrote works on philosophy.
ISAAC B. JACOB OF HUSYATIN, the last head of this dynasty
(19001968), was chosen as leader in Erez Israel. David, the
son of Isaac of Buhusi, had two sons, MENAHEM MENDEL
OF BUHUSI (d. 1943) who was the son-in-law of Israel Shalom Joseph, and SHALOM JOSEPH OF SPIKOV (18771920).
JACOB DAVID (18921955), the son of Moses Leib of Pascani,
died in Jaffa.
The last survivor of this dynasty, ISAAC OF BUHUSI
(19031992), the son of Shalom Joseph of Spikov, settled in
Tel Aviv. A devoted Zionist, he was active on behalf of the
Jews in Romania during the Holocaust. His brother, DAVID
OF PLOESTI (18981941), perished in the Holocaust.
The second son of Israel of Ruzhin, ABRAHAM JACOB
(18191883), was the principal successor of his father and retained his residence in Sadagora. He married the daughter
of Aaron of *Karlin. As a result of calumny, he was arrested
in 1856 and remained in prison for 15 months. He was succeeded as head of the dynasty of Sadagora by his son ISRAEL
(18531907), whose elder brother ISAAC (18501917) founded
the important dynasty of Boyan in Bukovina.
Of the sons of Israel of Sadagora, AARON (18771913),
the author of Kedushat Aharon, had considerable musical
accomplishment; SHALOM JOSEPH (18791936) was head of
the dynasty of Chernovtsy (Czernowitz); ABRAHAM JACOB
(18841961) of Sadagora, a leader of the Agudat *Israel, settled
in Erez Israel in 1938; and ISAAC OF RYMANOW (18871929).
The last head of the Sadagora dynasty was MORDECAI SHALOM JOSEPH (18971979) who, after serving as admor in
Sadagora and Przemzyl, settled in Tel Aviv in 1939. He was
the author of Keneset Mordekhai.
The Boyan dynasty spread to an even greater extent. Of
the sons of Isaac, the founder of this dynasty, MENAHEM NAHUM (18691936), the author of Devarim Nih umim and Zeh
Yenah amenu, had his seat in Chernovtsy. ISRAEL (18791951)
lived in Leipzig, but settled in Erez Israel in 1939. ABRAHAM
JACOB (18861942) lived in Lemberg (Lvov) and perished in
600
rymanow
maskilim, while another son, LEVI ISAAC (18471917), author of Bekha Yevorakh Yisrael, had his center in Vienna. Two
sons of H ayyim David acted as admorim, DOV BAER in Brad,
who perished in the Holocaust, and ISRAEL (18791961) in
Kalisz, who emigrated to the United States in 1939. SHALOM
(18561940) the son of David Halperin was admor in Vaslui in
Romania; he had a phenomenal memory, and had an extensive knowledge of secular subjects. He was succeeded by his
son H AYYIM DOV (18761957), who after residing in Vaslui
and Bucharest emigrated to Erez Israel in 1956. The last leader
of the Vaslui dynasty was JACOB JOSEPH SOLOMON (b. 1902),
who settled in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography: H.M. Hillmann, Beit Yisrael (1907); A.D.
Twersky, Sefer ha-YaH as mi-Tchernobil ve-Ruzhyn (1938); E.E. Dorf,
Ateret Tiferet Yisrael (1969); L.H. Grosman, Shem u-Sheerit (1943);
Horodezky, H asidut, index; A.J. Bromberg, Mi-Gedolei ha-H asidut,
6 (19673); Yeshuot Yisrael (19552).
[Itzhak Alfassi]
RYBACK, ISSACHAR (18971935), Russian-French artist. Ryback was born in the Ukrainian town of Elisavetgrad
(now Kirovo) and studied at the Academy in Kiev. After the
Revolution of 1917, the central committee of the Jewish Cultural League in Kiev appointed him as drawing teacher. Ryback visited the Jewish farm colonies that had sprung up in
the Ukraine under the new regime. The fruit of this journey
was a portfolio, On the Jewish Fields of the Ukraine (1926), with
reproductions of drawings and paintings. He showed strong
sunburned men and women as opposed to the pale and wan
Jews he had known in Kirovo. In 1926 he went to Paris, where
he became a success, and in 1935, Wildenstein, the art dealer,
planned a large retrospective exhibition of his work. On the
eve of the opening Ryback died suddenly.
Ryback learned a great deal from the French cubists as
well as from the German expressionists. Most of his work,
however, is devoted to themes remembered from his youth.
The murder of his father by Cossack bands in a pogrom became a kind of obsession. Ryback drew and painted much the
same subjects favored by Chagall, with whom his talent bears
comparison. His manner, however, was more somber and
more tragic. In addition to drawings, paintings, and prints, he
left a series of delightful small ceramic figures, representing
folk types of the shtetl. Ryback House, displaying the finest examples of the artists work, was opened in 1962 at Ramat Yosef
in Israel. The collection was donated by his widow, Sonia, who
became the director of this small, but important, museum.
RYMANOW, town in Rzeszow province, S.E. Poland. It is assumed that the town developed out of a colony of prisoners
of war who settled there in the 15t century. The Jewish community was formed soon after the town was founded. Most
of the Jews were merchants of wines imported from Hungary.
About 1594 the Council of Four Lands (see *Councils of the
Lands) debated the matter, and as a result, the community was
warned by Meir b. Gedaliah of *Lublin to be careful about libation wine. At first the council intended to forbid the Jews
entirely to deal in such wine, but since it was their main occupation a decision was made finally to issue just a warning.
In connection with their commerce the Jews of Rymanow had
to visit Krasno, a town in the same province, which had the
privilege of excluding Jews (de non tolerandis Judaeis). This
led to tensions between them and the townsmen of Krasno.
In the 17t and 18t centuries the municipality of Krasno allowed its townsmen to rob and even put to death any Jew from
Rymanow who attended the fair at Krasno. At the beginning
of the 17t century, the Jews of Rymanow were prosecuted by
the bishop of Przemysl for the alleged profaning of Christian
festivals; the bishop won the suit. In 1765 there were 1,015 Jews
in Rymanow (42.8 of the total population). At the beginning
of the 19t century, as a result of the activity of R. Hirsch Mesharet, mentioned in 1838 by the head of the police in Lvov
as having great influence on the Jews of Galicia, Rymanow
became an important H asidic center. It was the seat of the
Z addikim Menahem Mendel *Rymanower and his disciple
Z evi Hirsch *Rymanower. The dwelling of the H asidic rabbi,
and the synagogue, erected in the 16t or 17t century, were
the finest buildings in the town. At the end of the 19t century,
Jewish communal life in Rymanow expanded.
This continued when Rymanow reverted to independent
Poland after World War I. Controversies arose, however, es-
601
Holocaust Period
After the outbreak of World War II, when the Germans occupied Rymanow at the end of September 1939, they issued an
order for almost all the Jews in Rymanow to move within 24
hours to the Soviet-occupied area on the east bank of the River
San. Only a small number were permitted to remain in the
city. Many of those who went to the Soviet area were deported
in the summer of 1940 to the Soviet interior. Those remaining in Rymanow were compelled by the Germans to pay fines,
and subjected to confiscation of property and forced labor.
On Aug. 1, 1942, all Jewish males aged 14 to 35 were deported
to the Plaszow labor camp, where many met their deaths. On
Aug. 13, 1942, the remainder of the Jewish community was deported to the *Belzec death camp.
[Aharon Weiss]
602
Holocaust Period
During the Nazi occupation, Rypin was part of Reichsgau
Danzig-Westpreussen by Hitlers decree of Oct. 26, 1939. Before the outbreak of World War II, Rypin had nearly 2,500
Jews. Before the Germans entered on September 8, many Jews
escaped, but trickled back afterward. Some 100150 refugees
who returned were probably shot on the outskirts of town.
In September and October 1939, several Jews were arrested
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
rzeszow
603
rzeszow
604
Holocaust Period
On the outbreak of World War II, there were about 14,000
Jews in Rzeszow. The German army entered the city on Sept.
10, 1939, and the anti-Jewish reign of terror began. In December 1941 a closed ghetto was established in Rzeszow. On
July 713, 1942, the first mass deportation took place: about
14,000 Jews from the entire district of Rzeszow were concentrated in the ghetto and immediately deported together with
some 8,000 Jews from the city to the *Belzec death camp. At
the time of the deportation, 238 Jews were shot for offering passive resistance, while another 1,000 were taken to the
nearby Rudna Forest and executed there. On Aug. 8, 1942,
about 1,000 women and children were deported from the
ghetto to the Peikinia concentration camp, where all of them
were exterminated shortly afterward. In November 1942 only
about 3,000 Jews still remained in the ghetto, which was
transformed into a forced-labor camp and divided into two
isolated parts: A for slave laborers, and B for members of
their families. In September 1943 part A was transferred to
the forced-labor camp of Szebnia, where the majority of the
inmates met their death; part B was liquidated in November 1943, when all the inmates were deported to *Auschwitz
and exterminated. Only about 600 Jews remained in a local
forced-labor camp until July 1944. Some of them succeeded in
escaping and hiding themselves in the nearby forests; others
were deported to Germany. Jewish life was not reconstituted
in Rzeszow after the war.
[Stefan Krakowski]
Bibliography: Moshe Yaari-Wald (ed.), Sefer Zikkaron liKehillat Risha (Heb., some Yid. and Eng., 1967).
Saa-Sam
605
606
SAADIAH BEN JOSEPH HALEVI (16t century), Yemenite rabbi, poet, and paytan. Saadiah was one of the leading scholars of his time in *Sana (and later in Jiblah). He composed piyyutim and poems.
Several of his piyyutim, including one on the Akedah (the
binding of Isaac), were published or mentioned by H. Brody,
D. Sassoon, and A.Z. Idelsohn (see bibliography). *Zechariah al-Dahiri composed a panegyric in his honor, published
in the Sefer ha-Musar, in which he notes that Saadiah lived
in Sana at the time of the persecutions of 1568 and describes
the latters greatness in Torah. He may possibly be the Saadiah
b. Joseph whose piyyut was published in the *Aleppo prayer
book of 1527.
Bibliography: H. Brody, in: Kobez al Jad, 6 (1894), 1214,
2729; D. Sassoon, in: KS, 2 (1925/26), 25864; 3 (1926/27), 16871; A.Z.
Idelsohn and H. Torczyner (eds.), Shirei Teiman (1930), 25662; Zechariah al-D hir, Sefer ha-Musar, ed. by Y. Ratzaby (1965), index.
saadiah gaon
in 4683 (922) on Tuesday, and the Jews in Babylonia, on Thursday, and it can be assumed that in both countries there were
those who adhered to different days. The controversy grew in
bitterness and invective and Ben Meir lost ground. The action of the Babylonian scholars in defending their tradition
prevented people from following the head of the Palestinian
academy, and caused some who had previously followed him
to desert him. Saadiah was requested to compose a detailed
account on the event which would serve as a reminder to Jews,
and accordingly wrote Sefer ha-Zikkaron, which was read in
public in Elul 922. The duration of the schism after 923 and
the manner in which it was resolved cannot be determined.
Ben Meir continued as head of the academy but Saadiah and
the Babylonian leaders had achieved victory, and he was considered one of the greatest authorities in the field of fixing the
calendar. He wrote Sefer ha-Moadim, which gives a complete
account of the dispute.
It would appear that immediately on his arrival in Babylonia in 922, Saadiah was appointed to the yeshivah of Pumbedita, as from that year his letters bear his signature along with
the title *resh (head of ) kallah or *alluf. After the Ben Meir
controversy had subsided, Saadiah found time for literary
work and several of his works were written in the 920s. His
talents and personality attracted many, and some of the important leaders in Baghdad were his colleagues and aides,
among them Sahl b. Netira, a wealthy merchant esteemed by
the authorities. When the question of the continuation of the
academy of Sura was under discussion, Saadiahs name was
proposed. The famous academy had been through a difficult
period. The honor in which it had been held had declined.
His predecessor, R. Yom Tov Kahana b. Mar Rav Jacob, who
headed it for ten years, was a weaver by calling, and after
his death it was suggested that the academy be closed down
completely and the students transferred to Pumbedita. The
exilarch *David b. Zakkai, however, decided to maintain the
Sura academy. At first, however, R. Nathan the son of Yehudai
Gaon was appointed alluf, but he died before he could take up
the office (Iggeret Ray Sherira Gaon, 112). The exilarch then
wished to appoint Saadiah. According to *Nathan ha-Bavli,
there were other candidates, and perhaps there is a historical
basis to the report that the exilarch had to decide whether to
appoint R. Z emah b. Shahin (because he was wellborn and
learned) or Saadiah (Neubauer, Chronicles, 2 (1895), 80).
The family connections of the former certainly were taken
into consideration. Most of the geonim came from a limited
number of families and it was not easy to deviate from this
tradition. Saadiah was a stranger, apparently not well connected. Although it was conceded that Saadiah was the greater
scholar, it was difficult to ignore the characteristics enumerated by *Nissi b. Berechiah al-Nahrwani which appear in Nathan ha-Bavlis report: Although he [Saadiah] is a great man
and a profound scholar, he is not afraid of any man and does
not show favor to anyone because of his great knowledge, eloquence, and piety (ibid.). Saadiahs virtues, however, determined the exilarchs decision.
His conflict with Ben Meir and his writings against heretics such as *H iwi al-Balkhi and against the Karaites had
proved his fearlessness, his dedication to the Torah, and his
loyalty to the exilarch. It could certainly be hoped that under
Saadiahs leadership the academy of Sura would be revived.
His standing and his firmness would counterbalance *Kohen
Z edek b. Joseph, the gaon of Pumbedita. David b. Zakkai
thereupon appointed Saadiah head of the Sura academy in
the spring of 928. As a precaution, the exilarch administered
the oath to the new gaon that he do not disobey me, or plot
against me, or regard anyone but me as exilarch, or associate
with any of my opponents (A.E. Harkavy, Zikkaron la-Rishonim, 1 pt. 5 (1832), 232).
Saadiah immediately embarked upon his administrative
work with energy and dedication. He set himself two tasks:
to increase the number of students in the academy, and to secure the financial needs of the institution. To achieve the latter, he employed the methods of his predecessors (and to an
even greater extent of his successors), of requesting aid from
the Jewish communities far and near. Abraham *Ibn Daud reports in the name of R. Meir ibn Bibas that Saadiah sent a letter to Spain, to the communities of Cordoba, Elvira, Lucena
and all the Jewish communities in its vicinity (Sefer ha-Qabbalah (G.D. Cohen, ed., 1967), 79). Of special significance are
the two successive requests he sent to Egypt, to the Jewish
communities in the city of Fostat (B.M. Lewin, in: Ginzei Kedem, 2 (1963) 34, 35), the first containing the greetings of the
head of the academy, his son Sheerit, and the allufim, as well
as the rest of the scholars of the academy and the important
and esteemed burghers of Baghdad. He further says that the
aforesaid burghers, the sons of Mar Rav Netira and Mar
Rav Aaron, will help him in obtaining any request from the
government. Saadiah also urged the Jews in Egypt to maintain contact with him, in order that he could regard himself
as the acknowledged leader of all Jewry. The second letter refers with satisfaction to his early leadership of the academy;
it is composed entirely of admonitions and moral instruction
to the people (every verse begins with the phrase the children of Israel) and is written in a tone of authority. Saadiah
openly requested support for the academy in both letters. He
also gathered the members of the academy who had left or had
moved to Pumbedita during Suras decline and restored it to
its former glory. Saadiahs character aided him in his energetic
fulfillment of his task. Whatever one thinks of the grave accusations against him leveled by David b. Zakkai, it must be
conceded that while Saadiah was Gaon he was not intimidated
by those in power and did not show favoritism.
His ways and deeds probably stimulated envy and complaints on the part of the exilarch. Only on the assumption
that there already existed tension between Saadiah and the
exilarch prior to their final quarrel is it possible to understand how a single incident could have provoked a bitter and
difficult dispute. According to Nathan ha-Bavli (Neubauer,
ibid., 8081), Saadiah refused to confirm the terms of settlement of a will which would greatly benefit the exilarch. At
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saadiah gaon
608
As Halakhist
Saadiahs halakhic works are still largely in manuscript, particularly in thousands of scattered Genizah fragments, and
although not even a small part has so far been assembled and
investigated, the general picture nevertheless is gradually becoming clearer. From the little that has been published, as well
as from the various evidences of Saadiah himself and of other
geonim, the dimensions of his halakhic work can be reconstructed. It is clear that the largest and most important part of
it consists of monographs on halakhic decisions, which covered most of what is at present included in the H oshen Mishpat of the Shulh an Arukh, as well as books on Ritual Purity
and Impurity (Niddah, Sheh itah, Terefot), Incest, Festivals, and
the proclamation of the new month. Saadiah was one of the
creators of rabbinic literature, if not the actual pioneer in this
field, and the first to write books in the modern sense of the
word. He was also the first to give his halakhic works the form
of monographs, assigning a separate one to each topic of Hebrew law: a book on the Laws of Gifts, another on the Laws
of Commercial Transactions, and so on. He was likewise the
first to set a standard pattern for his books of halakhic decisions by dividing each one into sections and subsections. Every subject begins with a brief definition of the topic under
discussion, followed by various details and talmudic proofs of
them. Saadiah goes into the fullest details of every halakhic
topic he touches on, but he frequently omits entire halakhot
which have a direct bearing on the subject at issue, either because he thought of dealing with them within the context
of some other halakhic monograph, or because he regarded
saadiah gaon
609
saadiah gaon
but rather set out to find a rational basis for the dogmas of
the Oral and Written Law. Saadiah explains that he wrote this
work in order to provide his fellow Jews with spiritual guidance in the face of the confusion which the multiple sects and
religious disputes of the tenth century had created among the
people, and to combat heretical views, such as those of H iwi
al-Balkhi. The Emunot ve-Deot (as it is usually referred to) is
a polemical work, in which Saadiah, in addition to clarifying
and expounding his own views, devoted much space to disproving opposing theories. Saadiah believed that it was a religious obligation to provide a rational basis for the Law and
the Jewish faith, in order to dispel doubts and refute views at
variance with those which he accepts. Saadiahs importance
lies in his being the first medieval Jewish philosopher to attempt to reconcile the Bible and rabbinic tradition with philosophy, reason with revelation and tradition. Unlike his predecessor *Al-Muqammis, Saadiah related his system of religious
thought directly to the Jewish sources, and he did it with the
authority of his position as gaon.
Saadiah was one of the earliest thinkers (though not the
first) to establish a list of normative beliefs (articles of faith,
ten in number). Although he did not include this list in any
halakhic work, and so did not give them any legally binding
status, it seems that they had some influence, and may have
paved the way for Maimonides in establishing his 13 articles
of faith.
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612
the meaning of which is as follows: The Temple, the
foundation of all buildings, To which the elders of Israel went
on pilgrimage, And where the people offered sacrifices, And
the children of Israel came to sacrifice a thanksgiving offering. The number of times the letter alef ( )occurs in the
Bible corresponds to the numerical value of the initial letters
of the words following , that is, =( )( 42,377),
the mnemonics for which are ( Neh. 7:66, The whole
congregation [ ]together was forty and two thousand
three hundred and three score) and ( Num. 7:17, And
for the sacrifice [ ]of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams,
five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year, making a total
of 42,360+17.
[Abraham Solomon Halkin / Haggai Ben-Shammai (2nd ed.)]
saadiah gaon
(to Gen. 2:21). Ibn Ezra, however, excuses him on the grounds
that he probably did so in order to avoid criticism by those
Muslims who might read the work that the Jews did not know
the meaning of many words in their own Scriptures. Unlike
many other Jewish scholars who wrote in Arabic, he used the
Arabic and not the Hebrew alphabet (see also *Bible, Translations, Arabic).
As Liturgist and Paytan
Saadiah devoted considerable attention to all matters appertaining to liturgy. Since in his time there did not yet exist a
methodically arranged prayer book, he made a systematic
compilation in Arabic of the prayers for the whole year. Titled Kitb Jam al-S alawt wa al-Tasabh (Collection of All
Prayers and Praises), the book was very well known in Egypt
and in other countries where Arabic was the vernacular. With
the passage of time, however, it was forgotten and was published only in recent times by I. Davidson, S. Assaf, and B.I.
Joel under the name of Siddur Rav Saadyah Gaon (1941) in
the Arabic original, with a Hebrew translation, and with many
additional piyyutim.
Saddiah was a great innovator in the sphere of *piyyut,
in language, form, and content. His *bakkashot received high
praise from Abraham ibn Ezra; in his commentary to Ecclesiastes (5:1) he said of them that no author had composed
their like. Maimonides was asked whether it was necessary
to stand when reciting the bakkashot of the Gaon (Responsa
Maimonides, ed. by Blau, no. 14). Because of their importance
and interest, they were translated into Arabic and circulated
in many communities. In addition to the bakkashot, scholars
through the generations also mention Saadiahs *azharot and
his *hoshanot. (His Shir shel ha-Otiyyot, The Poems of the
Letters, belongs rather to grammar than to liturgy, and is dealt
with in the appropriate section above.) Many of his piyyutim
were found in the Cairo *Genizah and edited by Menahem
*Zulay; they reveal Saadiah as a prolific writer of piyyutim, deft
in the use of language and the devices of the piyyut form. Today it is known that besides the piyyutim already mentioned,
Saadiah composed *kerovot, *selih ot, *kinot and philosophical
poems. In his tokheh ah (poem of reproof) Im Lefi Beh irkha
(If by your Choice), Saadiah gave expression to many of the
philosophical ideas which are also found in his Emunot veDeot. There are similar ideas in some of his bakkashot, and also
in his hymn for the Day of Atonement Barekhi Nafshi (Let
My Soul Bless) and there is no doubt that he was the first to
compose philosophical piyyutim. These were later to serve as
a model for such Spanish paytanim as Solomon ibn *Gabirol
and *Judah Halevi.
[Abraham Meir Habermann]
Saadiahs Influence
Saadiah is one of the dominant figures in the development of
Judaism and its literature. Although he had predecessors in
some of the branches of that literature in which he engaged, he
was the first to weld these numerous and diverse studies into a
complete system. He provided a powerful impetus to all those
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614
SABA, ABRAHAM BEN JACOB (d. c. 1508), Spanish exegete, preacher, and kabbalist. On the expulsion of the Jews
from *Spain, Abraham settled in Oporto (Portugal), where he
wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch, the Five Scrolls, and
on Avot. When the forced conversion of the Jews was decreed
in Portugal in 1497, his two young sons were baptized and his
extensive library plundered. He left Oporto, taking his writings with him, but when near Lisbon he was warned by the local Jews of the danger of entering the city with Hebrew books
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
saban, haim
615
In the Bible
The etiology of the Sabbath is given in Genesis 1:12:3, although
the name of the day does not appear there: God worked six
days at creating the world; on the seventh he ceased working
(shavat mi-kol melakhto), blessed the day, and declared it holy
(see 2:13). The special status of the seventh day and its name
were disclosed to Israel in the episode of the manna. God supplied each days need of manna for five days; on the sixth, a
double portion was provided to last through the seventh day,
on which no manna appeared. Correspondingly, the Israelites
were commanded to go out, collect, and prepare each days
portion for the first five days; on the sixth, they were to prepare for two days; on the seventh they were not to go out at all
but were to remain at home. Thus they learned that the seventh day was a Sabbath of the Lord, which they must honor
by desisting from their daily food-gathering labor (Ex. 16:22).
The fourth word of the *Decalogue generalizes the lesson
of the manna. All work (melakhah) is banned on the Sabbath, which here for the first time is given a rationale, drawn
directly from the formulation of Genesis 2:13 and expressly
identifying the Sabbath with the seventh day of creation (Ex.
20:811). The meaning of the blessedness and sanctity of
the day is inferrable from the manna experience.
According to Exodus 23:12 and 34:21, work is to cease
on the seventh day in order to give slaves and draft animals
rest; this must be observed even during the critical seasons
of plowing and harvest. Deuteronomys version of the Decalogue embodies this humanitarian motive in its divergent
rationale of the Sabbath rest; Israel is to keep the Sabbath so
that its slaves might rest, and because God, who liberated it
from Egyptian bondage, so commanded (Deut. 5:1415). Gods
instructions concerning the building of the Tabernacle end,
and Moses conveyance of them to the people begins, with an
admonition to keep the Sabbath, indicating its precedence
even over the duty of building the Sanctuary. The Sabbath is
called a sign both of Gods consecration of Israel, and of His
six-day creation. The rulings are applied in the exemplary
tale of Numbers 15:32ff. A man was found collecting wood (to
make a fire) on the Sabbath. Apprehended by witnesses and
brought before Moses, he was sentenced to death by stoning
at the hands of the whole community. Besides the daily sacrificial offering, an additional one, amounting to the total offering of a weekday, was prescribed for the Sabbath (Num.
28:910; cf. Num. 28:38). Admonitions to observe the Sabbath are coupled once with reverence toward parents (Lev.
19:3; cf. the juxtaposition in the Decalogue), and twice with
reverence toward the Sanctuary (Lev. 19:30; 26:2). As a time
marker, the Sabbath terminated the week. Thus in the Tabernacle cult, the weekly replacement of shewbread occurred on
the Sabbath (Lev. 24:8; I Chron. 9:32).
Only scraps of evidence are available concerning the
nature of the Sabbath during the monarchy. In the Northern Kingdom during the ninth and eighth centuries, Sabbath
and New Moon are mentioned together as days when business activity was halted (Amos 8:5), and people paid visits to
616
Tel Aviv following the Suez War of 1956. He attended agricultural school and served in the Israel Defense Forces. After establishing a leading tour business, he relocated to France in
1975 and built a record company that became a major European label, selling over 18 million albums in eight years. In
1983, Saban moved to Los Angeles, where he launched a chain
of recording studios that became one of the leading suppliers of music for television. He formed Saban Entertainment
in 1988, an international television, production, distribution,
and merchandising company, best known for creating the
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, to this day the No. 1-selling
toy for boys in the United States. In 1995, Saban merged his
company with Rupert Murdochs Fox Kids Network and acquired the Fox Family Channel (restructured as Fox Family
Worldwide) in 1997. He sold it to the Walt Disney Co. in 2001
and became founder and CEO of Saban Capital Group, Inc.
Saban supported many charities, including the Israel Cancer
Research Fund, the John Wayne Cancer Institute, the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, and the Milken Community
High School. He also founded the Saban Institute for the Study
of the American Political System at the University of Tel Aviv
and the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings
Institute in Washington, D.C. In 2002, Governor Gray Davis
appointed Saban to the University of California Board of Regents, the governing body of the University of California. Saban resigned from this post in 2004 after being publicly criticized for not attending meetings.
[Amy Handelsman (2nd ed.)]
SABATH, ADOLF JOACHIM (18661952), U.S. congressman. Sabath, who was born in Zabori, Bohemia, went to the
U.S. at the age of 15 and settled in Chicago. He subsequently
began practicing law in 1893 and became a justice of the peace
in 1895. As a police magistrate from 1897 to 1907, Sabath was
instrumental in the abolition of the fee system, the establishment of the juvenile court, and the implementation of a parole system. Elected to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat from
Chicagos Fifth District in 1906, Sabath served in the House for
23 consecutive terms until his death, the second longest continuous service of any congressman. Representing a reformminded immigrant constituency, he was a vigorous liberal
who used his seniority and influence fully on behalf of New
Deal and Fair Deal legislation.
In contrast to the prevailing climate of opinion during
the 1930s, Sabath was a strong supporter of military preparedness and subsequently voted for the Lend-Lease Act. Sabath
unsuccessfully sought the abolition of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which he considered detrimental
to civil liberties in the U.S. From 1939 to 1947, and from 1949
to 1952, he was chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee.
sabbath
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY-HISTORICAL CONSI DE RATIONS. Evidence that in the period of the monarchy the
Sabbath was a popular, joyous holy day, marked by cessation
of business and celebrated publicly and by the individual, in
the Sanctuary and outside it, accords with the pentateuchal
traditions that it was among the chief stipulations of the Mosaic covenant. The antiquity and interrelation of the various
rationales given in the Pentateuch for the Sabbath are, however, problematic. Such rationales appear in both versions of
the Decalogue. That of Exodus, associating the Sabbath with
the Creation, is theocentric and sacramental. The sanctity of
the day is grounded in an event in the life of God His cessation from work, His rest, His blessing and consecration. Israels observance of the day is imitative and out of respect for
Gods authority. The revelation of the days sanctity exclusively
to Israel with the attendant obligation to keep it is a sign
of Israels consecration to God. This rationale is worked out in
the creation story, the Exodus Decalogue, and the two admonitions connected with the building of the Tabernacle. Critical analysis assigns all these passages to the Priestly Source
(P); their interrelation is, in any event, beyond dispute. The
Deuteronomic version of the Decalogue grounds the Sabbath,
ambiguously, on the liberation of Israel from slavery. On the
one hand, the humane concern of Exodus 23 over the welfare
of slaves is involved, on the other, the authority of God to
give such laws by virtue of His having redeemed Israel. Since
none of these rationales is reflected in the meager extra-pentateuchal passages on the Sabbath, speculation on their age
and interrelationship can be based only on internal evidence.
Even if conceptual or literary development can be shown, absolute dating is impossible all the more so when it is borne
in mind that presently interrelated ideas may have arisen independently and contemporaneously, and in either case, before
their literary embodiment. The compassionate ground of Exodus 23:12 is conceptually simpler than the historical-humanistic one of Deuteronomy. On the other hand, Deuteronomys
is tangential to the essence of the Sabbath day its holiness.
That is accounted for only by the cosmic-sacramental rationale
associated with the Exodus Decalogue. But if the rationale in
Exodus is the best developed, it is not necessarily the latest.
Deuteronomys seems to have been substituted for it, as more
in accord with the spirit of that work, in its version of the Sabbath commandment. Critics consider the sacramental (probably priestly) rationale an Exilic conception, since its esteem
of the Sabbath as a sign of Israels consecration agrees with the
Exilic views of the importance of the day. But is a historical
explanation really needed for the priestly esteem of a holy day
whose centrality in Israels life is vouched for by its inclusion in
the Decalogue the only holy day so honored? Distinctively
Exilic is the appreciation of the Sabbath as a decisive factor
in national destiny, and that is lacking in the priestly material
as elsewhere in the Pentateuch. Warnings of doom for violation of the covenant laws single out idolatry (Ex. 23:24; Deut.
4:25ff.) as the fatal national sin; Leviticus 26:3435, 43 of
priestly provenance adds neglect of the Sabbatical (fallow)
Year to the causes of national doom. But violation of the Sabbath day is nowhere held to be a factor in Israels downfall,
nor is its observance a warrant of national well-being as in
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Exilic Isaiah, and Nehemiah. This suggests that the age of Jeremiah is the terminus ad quem of the
pentateuchal material on the Sabbath. The increased regard for
the Sabbath from Jeremiahs time on is to be connected with
the danger of assimilation to the gentiles that loomed since
the reign of Manasseh (cf. Zeph. 1), and greatly troubled the
religious leaders of the Exile (Ezek. 20:32ff). With the Temple
destroyed and the Jews dispersed, the distinctively Israelite day
617
men of God (II Kings 4:23). From Hosea 2:13 it appears that
the Sabbath, like the New Moon and the festival mentioned
before it, was among all the joys of the North that were under Gods doom; this is a precious attestation of the joyous
character of the day. In eighth-century Judah, too, Sabbath
and New Moon were popularly celebrated in sacred convocations held in the Jerusalem Temple (Isa. 1:13; cf. Lam. 2:6
for later times). Again, as a time marker, the Sabbath was the
day on which the palace guard was changed weekly (II Kings
11:59). Esteem of the Sabbath rose just before, during, and
after the Exile. Jeremiah 17:1927 berates the rulers and populace of Judah for condoning the hauling of burdens (market
wares) into and within Jerusalem on the Sabbath. In an unprecedented prophecy, the fate of the dynasty and the city is
made to depend upon the observance of the Sabbath. Ezekiel
contains similar prophecies. Chapter 20:12ff. lays stress on the
Sabbath as a sign of Israels consecration to God; its significance is shown by juxtaposition with all the rest of the divine
laws, the Sabbath alone being singled out by name. In catalogs of sins for which Jerusalem was doomed, desecration of
the Sabbath occurs repeatedly. As part of his program for a
reconstituted Israel, the prophet innovates the priestly duty of
seeing that the Sabbath is kept holy (44:24). Noteworthy too is
the increase in the number of animals prescribed for the Sabbath sacrifice from double that of the weekday to the befitting
number seven (Ezek. 46:4). The Exilic Isaiah also singles out
the observance of the Sabbath, juxtaposing it to all the rest of
the covenant obligations as the precondition of individual and
national restoration (56:2, 4, 6; 58:13: If you call the Sabbath a
delight/That which the Lord has sanctified a day to be honored). This prophet looks to an eventual universalization of
the Sabbath among all nations (66: 23).
The prophets estimate of the fateful importance of Sabbath observance was taken to heart in the fifth-century community of restored Jerusalem. The public confession of Nehemiah 9:14 once again singles out the Sabbath from all the
commandments, laws, and teachings given to Israel through
Moses. A special clause in the covenant subscribed to by the
communitys representatives forbids commerce with outsiders
on Sabbaths and holy days (Neh. 10:32). Nehemiah enforced
this clause rigorously as governor of Judah, reminding the indifferent aristocrats that for desecrating the Sabbath their ancestors had been visited with catastrophe (13:1522).
sabbath
In Rabbinic Literature
The rabbis wax eloquent on the value of Sabbath observance.
If Israel keeps one Sabbath as it should be kept, the Messiah
will come. The Sabbath is equal to all the other precepts of
the Torah (Ex. R. 25:12). God said to Moses: Moses, I have
a precious gift in My treasury whose name is the Sabbath and
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In the Apocrypha
According to the Book of Maccabees, the Sabbath was at one
time observed so strictly that on one occasion during the Maccabean revolt, the Jews allowed themselves to be killed rather
than resist on the Sabbath (I Macc. 2:3138). Later, it was decided that the Sabbath may be transgressed in order to save life
(I Macc. 2:4041). The Book of Jubilees (2:1732 and 50:613)
is extremely severe on Sabbath desecration, death being the
penalty even for such offenses as walking any distance, fasts,
or traveling on a ship on the Sabbath. The Book of Jubilees
(50:8) also forbids marital relations on the Sabbath, whereas
in the rabbinic teaching it is considered meritorious to perform these on the Sabbath (BK 82a, Ket. 62b).
sabbath
Gods will, but is forbidden on the seventh day to fashion anything for his own purpose. On each Sabbath man restores the
world to God, as it were, and thus proclaims that he enjoys
only a borrowed authority.
In Jewish Thought
From an early period, the Sabbath became a day of spiritual
refreshment. Philo (II Mos. 216) and Josephus (Apion, 2:175)
refer to the practice of public discourses on the Torah on this
day, as do the rabbis (Yal., Ex. 108). Philo (Decal. 96) sees
the Sabbath as an opportunity for man to imitate his Creator
who rested on the seventh day. Man, too, should rest from his
weekday labors in order to devote himself to contemplation
and to the improvement of his character. The Midrash (Mekh.
Sb-Y to 20:11) similarly states that if God, who exerts no effort, writes about Himself that he rested, how much more
should man rest of whom it is said that he was born to toil.
The benediction for the Sabbath afternoon service sums up the
rabbinic attitude to the Sabbath as a precious gift from God,
and as a sacred day kept even by the Patriarchs: Thou art One
and Thy Name is One, and who is like Thy people a unique nation upon the earth? Glorious greatness and a crown of salvation, even the day of rest and holiness, Thou hast given unto
Thy people Abraham was glad, Isaac rejoiced, Jacob and his
sons rested thereon a rest granted in love, a true and faithful rest, a rest in peace and tranquility, in quietude and safety,
a perfect rest wherein Thou delightest. Let Thy children perceive and know that this their rest is from Thee, and by their
rest may they hallow Thy Name.
The medieval Jewish philosophers tend to dwell on the
symbolic nature of the day. For Maimonides (Guide, 2, 31), the
Sabbath has a twofold significance: It teaches the true opinion
that God created the world, and it provides man with physical rest and refreshment. According to Isaac Arama (Akedat
Yiz h ak, 55 ed. Bialystok (1849), 28589), the Sabbath teaches
the three fundamental principles of Judaism: belief in creatio
ex nihilo, in revelation (because the Sabbath is a time when the
Torah is studied), and in the world to come (of which the Sabbath is a foretaste). *Judah Halevi looks upon the Sabbath as a
God-given opportunity for men to enjoy complete rest of body
and soul for a sixth part of their lives, in a way denied even to
kings, who know nothing of this precious boon of complete
cessation from toil and distraction (Kuzari, 3, 10).
Samson Raphael *Hirsch (Horeb, section 2:21; tr. by I.
Grunfeld, 1 (1962), 6178) understands the prohibition of creative activity on the Sabbath (the types of forbidden work do
not so much involve effort, as they are creative) to be a lesson
for man to acknowledge his Creator as Creator of everything
there is. Man is allowed to rule over the world for six days by
619
sabbath
In Kabbalah
The seven days of the week, reflections of the seven primeval
days of creation, symbolize in Kabbalah the seven lower Sefirot, from H esed to Malkhut, which are known as the Sefirot
ha-Binyan because of their part in building creation. According to the kabbalists, the Torah hints at the existence of
the two Sabbaths in the system of the Sefirot when it says Ye
shall keep My Sabbaths (Lev. 19:30). Even in the kabbalistic
literature, which was influenced by the Zohar to a slight degree or not at all, and which generally avoids stressing erotic
elements in divinity, the Sabbath was interpreted as the element of union in the system of the Sefirot. Interpreting And
God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed [va-yekaddesh] it
(Gen. 2:3), these kabbalists linked va-yekaddesh with kiddushin
(betrothal) since the atarah [Malkhut] is betrothed to Tiferet (Maarekhet ha-Elohut (Mantua, 1558), 185a). In the same
way they interpreted the Sabbath eve prayer: You hallowed
[kiddashta] the seventh day as meaning you betrothed the
seventh day, which is the basis to the atarah (ibid.).
Inverting the story in Genesis Rabbah 11:8, in which the
Sabbath complains to God: You gave a mate to everyone,
while I have none, and was given *Keneset Yisrael as her mate,
the kabbalists regarded Keneset Yisrael as the symbol of the
Sefirah Malkhut, as the feminine mate of the Sabbath, which
is the masculine principle in divinity (Yesod or Tiferet). Since
according to the kabbalists the souls are the outcome of the
union in the system of Sefirot, the idea of the holy union which
takes place on the Sabbath is linked to the Sages belief that
on Sabbath additional souls are given. In the Sefer *ha-Bahir
this word is expounded in connection with the Sefirah Yesod,
which maintains all the souls and from which the souls fly.
Many sayings of the Sages and the different customs they initiated are given a mystical meaning in Kabbalah. The concept
of family peace (shelom bayit), which must be kept especially
on the Sabbath, is interpreted in Kabbalah as peace, which is
the Sefirah Yesod, is at home [bayit] in the Sefirah Malkhut
(ibid.). The Sabbath candles lit by the wife are symbols of the
additional souls emanating from the Sefirah Malkhut, which is
called sukkat shalom (canopy of peace). The Zohar treats at
length of the Sabbath, the time when the entire arrangement
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sabbath
the end of the Sabbath. In the same way as the first three Sabbath meals were related to the Patriarchs, this fourth one was
identified with David, the King Messiah. It therefore became
particularly significant for the Shabbateans (see *Shabbetai
Z evi), who often continued it until midnight. The third meal
was of special importance for the H asidim; it took place at a
favorable hour, which, according to the kabbalists, was the
time of the Minh ah prayer on Sabbath.
[Efraim Gottlieb]
In Art
THE SABBATH LIGHT. The commandment of kindling the
Sabbath lights has been fulfilled in a myriad of ways over the
generations. Rabbinic texts from the Mishnah onwards are
concerned with the types of fuel used to light and the material
of the wicks, but not with the type of implements that contain
the sources of light. Both local custom and the need to provide
light throughout the day no doubt influenced the design of
lamps for the Sabbath. In the ancient period clay lamps with
one or more spouts were used. Later versions were probably
made of metal. Archaeological evidence from the Land of
Israel after the destruction of the Second Temple shows that
ceramic lamps in use by the Jews were decorated with Jewish
symbols to distinguish them from the lamps used by the local non-Jewish populace.
European Sabbath Lamps. Hanging Sabbath lamps of the
Middle Ages consist of nozzles arranged in a circle at the periphery of an open, flat saucer filled with oil, thus creating
their characteristic star shape. These lamps, usually made out
of bronze or silver, often were hung at the end of a ratcheted
hook which enabled raising and lowering. Certain lamps had
bowls underneath for the collection of oil drips, some connected the nozzles to this bowl with attached metal ducts,
others had various tools attached to them for trimming and
cleaning. More elaborate lamps, made by non-Jewish craftsman, are embellished with figurines, narrative reliefs or other
decorations. The Italians deepened the central saucer into a
bowl, provided a silver drip pan to catch the excess oil, and
hung the lamp by chains which converged at the top in a finial.
In central and eastern Europe the central bowl was kept small
and the spouts enlarged, the result being a star-shaped lamp
called the Judenstern. While the form of the lamp was influenced by local design, the term Judenstern has been found in
a record book of a silversmith from the 16t century, showing
the association of this item with Jewish practice. Depictions
of such lamps appear in Jewish manuscripts from both Spain
and Ashkenaz of the 14t and 15t centuries (for example, the
Sarajevo Haggadah (Sarajevo, National Museum of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, fol. 31v), the Second Nuremburg Haggadah
(Jerusalem, Schocken Ms. 24087, fol. 4v), and the Ashkenazi
Haggadah (London, British Library, Ms. 14762, fol. 6r)). The
Italian rabbi, Leone *Modena (15711648), mentions in his Historia de riti Hebraici that women would light anywhere from
four to six lights, congruent to the six pointed lamps depicted
in manuscripts and printed books.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
Candles were also used for lighting in the medieval period in Europe, as revealed by both halakhic texts and illuminated manuscripts. The candlesticks depicted in the Rothschild Miscellany (Jerusalem, Israel Museum Ms. 180/51), late
15t century Italy (fols. 55v, 156v), show striking similarity
with candlesticks in use in private homes in Europe. Candles in Europe were often made from animal fat and thus not
permissible for Jewish use. The 19t-century development of
synthetic materials for candles led to their greater diffusion
among the Jews. Concomitantly, advances in indoor illumination technology gave the lighting of the Sabbath candles a
more symbolic and less practical function, also prompting
the move away from oil lamps. In Poland, brass candlesticks
with anywhere from three to seven candles, decorated with
lions and eagles, often inscribed in Hebrew to kindle the Sabbath lights, were common in Jewish homes, besides pairs of
candlesticks.
North African and Oriental Jewish Communities. The use of
oil as the main form of fuel among the North African and Oriental Jewish communities continued until the contemporary
era. In Morocco, sheet brass rectangular vessels with wicks in
the four corners were traditionally used for lighting. In Persia
and Afghanistan, the silver vessel used for lighting resembled
the shape of the ancient clay oil lamp, with a deep bowl for the
oil and two wick-nozzles. Sometimes there were two separate
bowls, one for each light. The base was often decorated with
birds or floral motifs and engraved with the womans name.
In Yemen, a simple hanging round stone lamp with notches
for multiple wicks was used.
KIDDUSH CUPS. There is speculation that the gold glasses
found in the catacombs of Italy were originally used for
the blessing on wine. Jewish illuminated Haggadot from the
late Middle Ages show elaborate goblets, sometimes with
lids, sometimes double goblets, such as those depicted in
the Ashkenazi Haggadah (London, British Library, Ms. 14762,
fol.2v) and the Cincinnati Haggadah (Cincinnati, Hebrew
Union College, Ms. 444, fol. 2v). As with Sabbath candlesticks,
these cups were often copies of local types, generally made
by non-Jewish craftsmen, and often decorated with vegetal motifs or geometric designs. In certain Oriental Jewish
communities, the tradition of the lidded kiddush cup continues to the present time, often decorated with a small bird
on the lid.
H ALLAH COVERS AND KNIVES. Other ritual objects for use
on the Sabbath include a special cover for the *h allah and a
special knife for cutting the h allah. Leone Modena mentions
a long cloth used to cover the h allah, as depicted in both the
Ashkenazi (fol. 6r) and the Cincinnati Haggadot (fol. 2v). Extant examples of embroidered h allah covers from the 19t century from various European communities have survived, as
well as such knives.
CONTEMPORARY RITUAL ART. Twentieth-century Jewish
artists, such as Ludwig Wolpert and Moshe Zabari, applied
621
sabbaths, special
their skills to making modern versions of all the Sabbath implements, and contemporary Judaica artists such as Zelig Segal continue this trend for a growing market. The blossoming
of contemporary Jewish art makes the list of artists working
in this field too numerous to mention.
THE SABBATH IN PAINTING. The earliest printed depiction of a Jewish woman lighting a six-pointed Judenstern
appears in the Sefer ha-Minhagim of Venice from the year
1593. Christian works on the Jews, such as Johann Christoph
Georg Bodenschatz Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden
sonderlich derer in Deutschland (Frankfurt and Leipzig: Johannes Friedrich Becker, 174849) also show women lighting Sabbath lamps. Sabbath candlesticks as an attribute of the
Jewish women appear on Jewish carved gravestones from the
19t century. Moritz *Oppenheim in Germany in his Bilder
aus dem altjdischen Familienleben (Scenes rom Traditional
Jewish Family Life, 1866), shows a woman lighting a traditional oil lamp, and devotes several works in the series to the
subject of the Sabbath. Jewish artists of the late 19t and early
20t centuries, such as Isidor *Kaufmann, show traditional
Jewish women on Sabbath eve with two lit candlesticks on the
table. The Scandinavian Jewish artist, Geskel Saloman, shows
two women lighting from a four-branched Polish-style candlestick. The subject of the Sabbath appears in the works of
Samuel Hirszenberg, Boris *Schatz, Hermann *Struck, Jacob
*Steinhardt, Josef *Budko, and Max *Band, among others.
The use of the candlesticks to symbolize Jewish tradition and
the home can be found in the works of Marc *Chagall, and
Naftali *Bezem, while Yossl *Bergner uses the spice box (see
*Havdalah). The subject of the Sabbath in the life of the pioneers was dealt with by Israel artists Yohanan Simon and Joseph Kossonogi.
1) Shabbat Mevorekhin
(Heb. ) , the Sabbath that immediately precedes a
new month. In the later Ashkenazi rite a special petition, composed by *Rav to renew unto us this coming month for good
and for blessing, etc. (Bet. 16b), is recited in the synagogue after the reading of the law. The older Ashkenazi rite, and that of
H abad, begins with He who wrought miracles. The name
of the new month and the day on which Rosh H odesh occurs
are then announced. In many communities, where women
did not usually attend Sabbath services, they went on Shabbat Mevarekhin because of the new month petition (see *New
Moon, Announcement of).
622
festive garments during that period, including (in a few communities) the Sabbath.
13) Shabbat Nahamu
(Heb. ) , the Sabbath immediately following the Ninth
of Av. It is so called after the first word of the haftarah Comfort ye [Nah amu], Comfort ye My people (Isa. 40:1).
On most of these special Sabbaths the memorial prayer
for the deceased (see *Av ha-Rah amim) as well as the prayer
Z idkatkha in the *Minh ah service are omitted. In the Reform
ritual some of these Sabbaths (e.g., Zakhor, Parah) are not
observed. On the other hand, other special Sabbaths (e.g.,
Brotherhood Sabbath, Sisterhood Sabbath, United Nations Sabbath) have been innovated.
Bibliography: Elbogen, Gottesdienst, 156, 159, 163; E. Levi,
Yesodot ha-Tefillah (19522), 308, 244.
SABBATICAL YEAR AND JUBILEE (Heb. , shemittah; , yovel). According to the Bible, during the seventh
year all land had to be fallow and debts were to be remitted
(Ex. 23:1011; Lev. 25:17, 1822; Deut. 15:111). The close of
seven sabbatical cycles instituted the Jubilee (Lev. 27:1625;
Num. 36:4; whether the Jubilee Year was the 49t or the 50t
see below).
A brief statement in the Book of Nehemiah (10:32)
records the post-Exilic communitys firm agreement to suspend all agricultural work during the seventh year and to forgo
all debts as commanded in the Law of God. The reference
is to these three passages in the Torah, each of which dwells
on a different aspect of the seventh-year release. The earliest,
found in the Book of the Covenant (Ex. 23:1011), calls on
the Israelites to let the land lie fallow and the vineyards and
olive groves untouched that the poor people may eat of them,
as well as the wild beasts. The second passage (Lev. 25:17,
1822) refers to the fallow year as a Sabbath of the Lord
and a year of complete rest for the land, promising the divine
blessing on the crop of the sixth year to those who suspend
their work on the seventh (cf. the double portion of manna
on the sixth day; Ex. 16:22ff.). The Deuteronomist (Deut.
15:111) commands the Israelites to observe every seventh
year as a year of release, when debts contracted by fellow countrymen are to be remitted. At the same time, they
are cautioned not to let the recurrence of the seventh-year
release harden their hearts against the distressed who seek
loans in the hour of their need. While Deuteronomy does
not mention the fallow, the passage is clearly connected with
that of Exodus by the use of the common verb mt ().
D. Hoffmann argued that the remission of debts is entailed
by the fallow that it is precisely because the debtor cannot work his fields during the seventh year that he is unable
to make his payments, and the creditor is enjoined not to
dun him for them. The same reasoning, according to Hoffmann, explains why the debts of aliens are not remitted i.e.,
the fact that their income is not affected by the Sabbatical
Year.
623
9) Shabbat Parah
(Heb. ; Sabbath of the Red Heifer), the third of the
four special Sabbaths. It is the Sabbath preceding Shabbat haH odesh. An additional portion is read from the Torah (Num.
19:122) whose theme is the ritual purification with the ashes
of the red heifer. The purification was compulsory in Temple
times for all those who had been defiled by contact with a
corpse. Shabbat Parah commemorates the custom of everyone who would participate in the Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem having to cleanse himself in due time. Special piyyutim
are also added to the liturgy in some rites.
10) Shabbat ha-H odesh
(Heb. ) , the last of the four special Sabbaths. It precedes, or falls on the first day of, the month of *Nisan. On it,
in addition to the weekly Torah portion, Exodus 12:120 is also
read. It states that the month of Nisan shall be the beginning
of the months [of the Jewish year] and includes many details
on the ritual laws concerning the Passover sacrifice and the interdiction to eat leavened bread (*h amez ) on the festival. Special piyyutim are also recited in some communities.
11) *Shabbat ha-Gadol
624
in their minds, and the memory of the patriarchal relationships in the desert vivid.
These arguments, however, are not conclusive, since the
ideals of the desert period lived on among the people for many
centuries, especially outside the large centers. At any rate, neither the Sabbatical nor the Jubilee Year appears in the Bible
as a nascent institution. While they drew on earlier Semitic
practice for some of their ideas, in their present form they
represent a unique Israelite attempt to combat the social evils
that had infected Israelite society and to return to the idyllic
period of the desert union when social equality and fraternal
concern had prevailed.
Ancient Near Eastern Legal Background
The background of the legal conceptions embodied in the Sabbatical and Jubilee Years is illuminated by ancient Near Eastern evidence of (a) resistance in principle to the alienation of
patrimonial lands; and (b) the institution of periodic royal releases from certain kinds of debt and obligation, in connection
with which cognates to terms found in Leviticus 25 appear.
(a) Hurrian custom attested in the *Nuzi tablets banned
the sale of patrimonial land. The prohibition seems to have
been grounded on a feudal system, in which all land belonged
to the king, and was held only as a grant or fief by his subjects.
They had possession, but not ownership, of the property entrusted to them. In return, each subject owed some service to
the king, but he had no right to dispose of or transfer his property to any person other than a male relative of his immediate
family (cf. Laws of Hammurapi 3639; Pritchard, Texts, 1678).
In order to transfer real estate out of the family, the fiction of
adoption was resorted to, by which the seller adopted the
buyer as his son, in consideration of the latters gift the
purchase price (Steele, in bibl., 1415). The conception of possession without ownership, with its concomitant ban on alienation of property, evokes the biblical notion that the land of
Israel is Gods, and that Israel are merely His tenants (you are
but strangers resident with Me, Lev. 25:23). The time of the
Nuzi tablets (mid-second millennium), and the chief region of
Hurrian influence (the Khabur River Valley) coincide with the
period, and pre-Canaan location, of Israels ancestors. This is
but one of several indications that Hurrian culture left a mark
on Israelite ideas and institutions (see bibl.).
Old Babylonian legal writings contain a law (Eshnunna
39; Pritchard, Texts, 163) and a number of contracts showing
the right of an owner of real property to redeem it after he had
been forced by financial need to sell it. One of the contracts
suggests that the right may have existed even when the property was not up for sale (as in Lev. 25:2532).
(b) In their first full regnal year, Old Babylonian kings
were accustomed to issue an edict of justice (marum)
throughout their realm, referred to in date formulas and inscriptions as establishing the freedom (andurarum, cognate
with Heb. deror (Lev. 25:10, etc.)) of their subjects. The one extant exemplar attributed to Ammi-s aduqa (second half of
the 17t century B.C.E.) consists mainly of remissions (for
625
[David L. Lieber]
Post-Biblical
Whereas the Sabbatical Year was in force during the Second
Temple period (and is applicable, in theory, to the present
day), the Jubilee was no longer observed. The two subjects
are therefore treated separately.
both to the produce itself and to the meat, i.e., they deduced
the laws of the Sabbatical Year from verses dealing with the
Jubilee and vice versa. Thus, in the verse applying to the Jubilee, Ye shall eat the increase cleared out of the field (ibid.),
they taught, As long as you eat from the field you may eat
from your house. If what is in the field has been consumed,
then you must clear out what is in the house (Sifra, Be-Har
3:4), applying it to the Sabbatical Year. The halakhah also combined the Jubilee with the Sabbatical Year with regard to their
applicability during the Second Temple period; the opinion
was even expressed that, since the Jubilee does not apply at
the present day, so also the observance of the Sabbatical Year
is not a biblical precept, but merely rabbinic (TJ, Shev. 10:3,
39c). This conception probably served Judah II (Nesiah) as a
theoretical basis for many of the relaxations in the law which
he inaugurated in respect of the Sabbatical Year (TJ, Shev. 6:4;
H ul. 6b and parallel texts).
Only the law on the remission of debts which comes into
force at the end of the Sabbatical Year (Sif. Deut. 111) does not
apply to the Jubilee; against this, however, there are, according
to the halakhah, two precepts of the Jubilee which do not apply to the Sabbatical Year that land sold returns to its owners during the Jubilee Years (Lev. 25:23, 24) and that slaves go
free (Sifra, Be-Har 3:6). The verse, And in the seventh he shall
go out free for nothing (Ex. 21:2), was interpreted as referring not to the seventh year, which was the Sabbatical Year,
but to the seventh year from the date on which he was sold
(TJ, Kid. 1:2, 59a); if the Jubilee came in the middle of his sixyear term, however, the slave went free then (Kid. 1:2). This
law was also applied to the Hebrew bondsmaid, although it is
not explicitly mentioned in the Torah, and was apparently an
innovation of the tannaim. A Hebrew slave sold to a gentile
did not go free in the seventh year but only in the Jubilee (Sifra, Be-Har 8:4). In addition, the Hebrew slave who refused
to go free in his seventh year went free on the Jubilee (Mekh.,
Nezikin 2; cf. Jos., Ant. 4:273).
626
verse unto all the inhabitants thereof (Lev. 25:10), with the
corollary that from the time that the tribes of Reuben and
Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh were exiled the Jubilees
were discontinued (Sifra, Be-Har 2:3). The Talmuds, also, in
discussing the various problems relating to the observance
of the precepts of the Sabbatical Year in the Second Temple
period (such as the laws of walled cities and of the Hebrew
slave), assume it as a fact that the Jubilee did not apply at that
time (TJ, Git. 4:3, 45d; Kid. 69a). It is difficult to determine
when this conception had its origin, since a number of precepts which according to tradition depend on the observance
of the Jubilee (such as the laws appertaining to the Sabbatical
Year, the canceling of debts (TJ, Git. 4:3, 45d), or walled cities),
continued to apply throughout the Second Temple period (Ar.
29a). According to this view, all the precepts bound up with
the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee are regarded as a whole,
with the result that, where the precepts of the Jubilee cannot
be observed, the other precepts do not apply; nevertheless, it is
certain that the precepts of the Sabbatical Year, such as the remission of debts at the close of the Sabbatical Year and the redemption of houses, were practiced, as is shown by numerous
references in both tannaitic and other sources. However, while
there is evidence of the observance of the other precepts and
of various regulations made to modify their severity, there is
no evidence throughout the whole Temple period of the actual
observance of the Jubilee, reflecting the difficulties involved
in observing it. The halakhah provides, for instance, that only
the Sabbatical Year is not to be made a leap year, etc.
From Alexanders conquest and during the period of
Roman rule, there is evidence that foreign rulers took into
account the problem of tax payments on agricultural produce in the Sabbatical Year, when the Jews did not cultivate
their fields. Either they freed them from taxes, as did Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, or insisted on payment, as
did Hadrian after the Bar Kokhba war. There is, however, no
echo of the complex problems which would have been raised
by the Jubilee in this regard either in the Talmud or in other
contemporary documents. Nevertheless, although the Jubilee was not in force for as long as the shemittah, the problems which it raised were of greater gravity than those of the
Sabbatical Year. The commandment of the Jubilee brought in
its train complicated questions concerning the commercial
laws of the sale and hiring of land; yet there is hardly an echo
of the existence of the Jubilee either in the halakhah which
deals with it or in any reference in the various passages dealing with practical life, whether in the talmudic literature or
in documents revealed by archaeology. Despite this fact the
ideas contained in the precepts of the Jubilee were of considerable influence, both on the halakhah and on events of the
Second Temple period.
In the halakhah and in various traditions reflecting ancient custom, there is evidence of the concern over keeping
the patrimonial estate in the family, the farmers concern to
safeguard the ownership of his plot of land, and the obligation
to redeem land that had been sold. Although the halakhah
627
did not forbid the absolute sale of land, it viewed it unfavorably: One is not permitted to sell his property unless he
become impoverished. If he does sell it, however, the sale is
valid (Tosef., Ar. 5:6). A public ceremony even took place in
order to shame a person who sold his patrimony, and he was
praised when he redeemed it: When a man sold his field, his
relatives would take jugs filled with roasted grains and nuts
and smash them in front of the children, who would gather
them and say, So and so has cut himself off from his possession. And when the field returned to him they should do
the same and say, So and so has returned to his possession
(TJ, Ket. 2:10, 26d; see *Kez az ah). Similarly the halakhah laid
down that when a man inherited land from his wife, her relatives paid him for it in order to get it back from him (Tosef.,
Bek. 6:19). In contrast to the situation prevalent in the Orient, where extensive land belonged to the temples, the Jewish
Temple possessed no landed property of its own. Even if one
consecrated his land, it would be sold, and it was the duty of
the former owner to be first in its redemption (Ar. 8:1). These
halakhot and practices exercised a decisive influence, which
accounts for the fact that in the last generations of the Temple
period and for a considerable period afterward, most of the
land in the country was not in the hands of large landowners
but remained in the possession of smallholders.
bath of solemn rest for the land (Lev. 25:4); and At the end
of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the
manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which
he hath lent unto his neighbor (Deut. 15:12). The six negative
precepts are [1] Thou shalt neither sow thy field [2] nor prune
thy vineyard. [3] That which groweth of itself of thy harvest
thou shalt not reap, [4] and the grapes of thy undressed vine
thou shalt not gather (Lev. 25:45). [5] He shall not exact it
[the loan] of his neighbor (Deut. 15:2). [6] Beware that there
be not a base thought in thy heart, saying: The seventh year,
the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy
needy brother, and thou give him nought (Deut. 15:9).
The laws of the sabbatical remittance of debts are applicable both in Erez Israel and in the Diaspora. However, the
obligation to let the land lie fallow is limited to the boundaries
of Erez Israel in accordance with the verse that these laws begin only When ye come into the land which I give you (Lev.
25:2). Whether the sabbatical laws are still biblically relevant
after the destruction of the First Temple, when the Jubilee Year
is no longer operative, is disputed in the Talmud. According
to Judah II, it is only observed today because of rabbinic enactment to perpetuate the memory of the Sabbatical Year.
However, the rabbis held the operation of the Sabbatical Year
nowadays still to be biblical (MK 2b; Git. 36ab). Later commentaries and codes remained divided on this issue; Maimonides seemingly ruled in accordance with the viewpoint of
Judah (Maim. Yad, Shemittah 9:2, 3 and Kesef Mishneh ad
loc.; cf. Kesef Mishneh to Shemittah 4:29).
At the time of the Temple, it was also biblically forbidden to work the land during the 30 days prior to the start of
the Sabbatical Year. The rabbis extended this pre-sabbatical
prohibition until the preceding Shavuot for orchards, and
Passover for grain fields. After the destruction of the Temple
these additional restrictions were no longer in force, and today it is permissible to work the land until Rosh Ha-Shanah
of the Sabbatical Year (MK 3b4a).
Produce which grows of itself during the Sabbatical Year
is considered holy and its usage is restricted. It is forbidden
to harvest this growth solely for commercial purposes (Shev.
7:3) or to remove it from Erez Israel (Shev. 6:5). It may only
be eaten or utilized in its usual fashion, so that items such as
wine and vinegar may only be used for nourishment and not
for anointing purposes (Shev. 8:2). The sabbatical produce may
only be eaten as long as similar produce is still available in the
field for the consumption of animals (Shev. 9:4). Once such
produce has been consumed, all remaining sabbatical products of the same species must also be destroyed (Shev. 9:8).
The sabbatical money release was intended to free the
poor from their debts and to enable them to attempt again
to achieve financial stability. However, when *Hillel later saw
that people refrained from lending money before the Sabbatical Year, he instituted the *prosbul (Git. 36a). The following are excluded from cancellation by the Sabbatical Year:
wages, merchandise on credit, loans on pledges, a note guaranteed by mortgage, a note turned over to the bet din for col-
628
629
sabbioneta
Spektors lenient decision was opposed by the Ashkenazi kehillah of Jerusalem and its rabbis, Moses Joshua Judah Leib
*Diskin and Samuel *Salant. Many of the colonists originally
refrained from work during the Sabbatical Year in accordance
with the stringent ruling. However, with the continued growth
of the new settlements, many more farmers abided by the lenient decision during the next shemittah of 1896.
Before the Sabbatical Year of 1910, the controversy regarding the sale of the land to Muslims revived. Rabbi Abraham Isaac *Kook, then the chief rabbi of Jaffa, was the leading
proponent of the sale, while Rabbi Jacob David *Willowsky
of Safed opposed it. During the ensuing shemittah years, the
chief rabbinate of Erez Israel continued to abide by the lenient
ruling, although there was always opposition to its decisions.
Most prominent among the opponents has been Rabbi Abraham Isaiah *Karelitz of Bene-Berak. In Kibbutz H afez H ayyim
attempts to grow vegetables in water (hydroponics) have
met with some success as a method of observing the restric-
630
SABEA (Heb. , S(h)eva; Ass. Sabaai (Tiglath-Pileser III); Sum. Sabum/Sabu? (see Montgomery in bibl.)), state
in S. Arabia in the region exposed to the monsoon from Hadhramaut to Yemen, contemporary with the Israelite monarchy.
Explorations and excavations conducted by the University of
Louvain (195152) and the American Foundation for the Study
of Man (195053) uncovered epigraphic evidence in the area,
dating from the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E.
to the sixth century C.E., which reflects political development
from theocracy, through secular monarchy, to oligarchy.
Sabea, roughly coinciding with Yemen, displayed the
greatest durability in the various shifts of power between the
Sabean, Minean, and Qatabanian states. Radiocarbon dating
indicates that Sabea flourished from around 900 to 450 B.C.E.
(for beginnings, see Grohmann in bibl.). Besides engaging in
agriculture, which utilized seasonal rainfall and advanced irrigation, these kingdoms, exploiting their proximity to Africa
across the Straits of Bab el Mandeb, were essentially trading
empires, serving as entrpts of maritime trade from India
and East Africa, and transporting foreign luxuries and their
home-produced incense (Jer. 6:20; Ps. 72:15) by camel caravans (Isa. 60:6; Job 6:19 [?]) to Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt.
A South Arabian clay seal from the ninth century found in
debris at Beth-El possibly attests to such trade with the early
Israelite monarchy.
The visit of the Queen of *Sheba (I Kings 10) is one of
the earliest examples of a trade mission. It was occasioned by
Solomons occupation of the head of the Gulf of Akaba and his
enterprise in the Red Sea, which was a threat to South Arabian
monopoly of the caravan trade. The alphabetic inscriptions
from South Arabia furnish no evidence for women rulers, but
Assyrian inscriptions repeatedly mention Arab queens in the
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
north, so that the Queen of Sheba may have been one of these;
Northern Sabeans were also doubtless those mentioned in Job
1:15 (cf. Gen. 25:3; I Chron. 1:32) and their name may have survived in the Wadi Shaba northeast of Medina. Both southern
and northern Sheba are to be distinguished from Seba (Heb.
) , north Sudan (Isa. 43:3; Ps. 72:10).
By the end of the first century B.C.E. the Sabean state had
absorbed the Minean kingdom to the south and Qataban to
the north, and soon also the Hadhramaut. This aggrandizement eventually involved Sabea in war with the Abyssinians,
but its final decline was due to internal dissensions between
Jews and Christians, the latter sponsored by Abyssinia, then a
Christian state, and the former identified with Arab nationalism. The last king of Sabea, Yusuf *Dh-Nuws, adopted the
Jewish faith. His persecution of the Christians provoked an
Abyssinian invasion in 525 C.E. and occupation of the land and
the oases on the caravan route to the north. This, together with
the development of the Red Sea trade route, brought about the
end of the state of Sabea, conventionally associated with the
bursting of the great dam at Marib in 542 which is symptomatic of the general neglect of the vital irrigation works after the
collapse of the native government. The Abyssinian rule ended
by 575 and was succeeded by Persian dominion for just over
half a century, whereafter the native Sabeans were finally absorbed in the politico-religious empire of Islam.
The religion of Sabea was as well organized as that of any
Semitic state in the Ancient Near East. Temples were well built
and endowed with a large and well-organized staff. Inscriptions attest to native polytheism, including many unnamed
gods of families and divine local lords (Baals). The chief gods
were the moon-god, called Almaqah in Sabea; the sun-goddess; and Athtar, the god of the planet Venus, the brightest star
in those latitudes, who was the guide of caravans. Unlike the
Mesopotamian Venus deity Ishtar, the South Arabian Athtar
was not worshipped as a goddess but as a god.
Bibliography: T.W. Rosmarin, in: Journal of the Society of
Semitic Studies, 16 (1932), 12; J.A. Montgomery, Arabia and the Bible
(1934); A. Grohmann, Arabia (Ger., 1936), 24, index S.V. Saba (Reich);
J. Ryckmans, Linstitution monarchique en Arabie mridionale
(19512); W. Phillips, Qataban and Sheba (1955); A. Jamme, in: M. Brillant and R. Aigrain (eds.), Histoire des Religions, 4 (1956), 239307;
H.W. Haussig (ed.), Woerterbuch der Mythologie, 1 (1965), 485ff.
[John Gray]
SABIN, ALBERT BRUCE (19061993), U.S. virologist. Sabin was born in Bialystok, Poland, and emigrated to Paterson,
New Jersey, with his family in 1921. He graduated in medicine
from New York University and thereafter worked on polio viruses and other infectious agents at the Rockefeller Institute
in 193539. He joined the University of Cincinnati College of
Medicine, where he progressed to professor of research pediatrics and distinguished service professor (193969), a period
interrupted by World War II service in the U.S. Army Medical
Corps, where he studied viral infections such as dengue fever
threatening U.S. troops. He developed a live attenuated po-
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lio virus, which did not cause disease but induced immunity
to polio virus infections and was given orally. Its safety and
efficacy were established in 1960 after European trials, and it
was used extensively in the U.S. between 1962 and 1964, supplanting the *Salk intramuscular killed viral vaccine at least
temporarily. The respective merits of the two vaccines caused
great general and personal controversy. He also worked on
the genetics of antiviral resistance and on a simple test for
antibodies to the toxoplasma parasite. After 1969 his services
were in great demand as a visiting professor and as a member of expert committees in the U.S. and abroad; he was president of the Weizmann Institute of Science (197072). He was
elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1951) and
the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical Sciences, and received the
U.S. National Medal of Science in 1970. His contributions were
broadly humanitarian as well as scientific. He is buried in the
Arlington National Cemetery.
[Michael Denman (2nd ed.)]
SABINUS (end of first century B.C.E.), Roman official. Sabinus, then Augustus treasurer in Syria, was sent to Judea
after Herods death in 4 B.C.E., to take charge of the latters
estate as procurator. On his arrival he acceded to the request
of Varus, governor of Syria, to hand over the custody of the
citadels and treasures to Herods son *Archelaus, pending Caesars decision concerning Herods will. However, immediately
after the departure of Varus and Archelaus for Antioch and
Rome, respectively, he took possession of the royal palace and
demanded from the custodians particulars regarding Herods
treasure. Sabinus conduct caused a revolt on the festival of
Shavuot, when many pilgrims had assembled in Jerusalem.
Sabinus seized the Tower of Phasael, from which he gave the
signal to attack the rebels. As the battle developed, the Romans
set fire to the Temple chambers, capturing and plundering
the Temple treasury. These acts further enraged the people,
and they besieged the royal palace where Sabinus and his followers had fortified themselves. The Jews demanded that the
Romans leave the city, offering to spare their lives, but Sabinus would not trust them. Riots continued throughout Judea
until Varus hurried back to suppress them. When he reached
Jerusalem, Sabinus fled.
Bibliography: Jos., Ant., 17:22194; Jos., Wars, 2:1674;
Schuerer, Hist, 161f.; Klausner, Bayit Sheni, 4 (19502), 1737; PaulyWissowa, 2nd series. 2 (1920), 1595f., no. 4; A.H.M. Jones, The Herods
of Judea (1938), 159, 1612, 165.
[Lea Roth]
SABSOVICH, H.L. (Hirsch Loeb; 18611915), U.S. agronomist and a leader of the Am Olam movement. Sabsovich was
born in Berdiansk, Russia. As a law student at Odessa University during the 1881 pogroms, he helped to organize Jewish
self-defense. After advanced agronomy studies in Switzerland,
Sabsovich became manager of an estate in the Rostov region.
Immigrating to the United States in 1887, Sabsovich obtained
a post as assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Sta-
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fronts. After the war he began an active campaign to revitalize Italian Jewry, of which he was a leading guide and teacher.
When Mussolini assumed power, Sacerdoti held a series of
meetings with him in an attempt to protect Jewish interests
and ensure that the Jews of Italy would not be harmed by the
Fascist regime. He was instrumental in obtaining the passage
of a law that required all Italian Jews to belong to one of the
26 united communities, unless they specifically renounced
their Judaism. This led to increased participation in Jewish
community life. He also transferred the Rabbinical Seminary
from Florence to Rome. Sacerdoti was active in the Zionist
field, participating in the opening of The Hebrew University
(1925) as the representative of the Rome community and the
Italian government. Due to his efforts, a political office of the
Zionist Organization was established in Rome.
Bibliography: R.R. Cohen, in: Hed ha-Mizrah , no. 3435
(March 28, 1945), 1819.
[Getzel Kressel]
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sachs, maurice
SACHS, JULIUS (18321897), German botanist. Born in Breslau of a poor family, he was encouraged in his studies by the
Czech physiologist Johannes Evangelista Purkinje (17871869),
then at the University of Breslau. When Sachs was 18, Purkinje
moved to Prague, and he invited Sachs to come to his institute
as an assistant. After obtaining his degree at the University of
Prague, Sachs went to Tharandt, where first he taught botany
at the forestry school; in 1861 he was appointed professor at
the agricultural school at Poppelsdorf, near Bonn. In 1867
Sachs became professor of botany at Wuerzburg, remaining
for nearly 30 years.
Sachs held an important place in the history of biology,
both as a teacher and as a researcher. His textbooks, Handbuch
der Experimentalphysiologie der Pflanzen (1865) and the Lehrbuch der Botanik (1868; Textbook of Botany, 1875), widely influenced the teaching of botany. Sachss personal influence
as a teacher was equally great. Under his genial and enthusiastic leadership, Wuerzburg became an international center
for plant physiology, where some of Europes most eminent
botanists were trained.
Sachs has been called the creator of experimental botany.
Among Sachss noteworthy contributions were his demonstration that starch is the first perceptible product of photosynthesis and that it is translocated from the leaf in the form of
sugar. Sachs was the first to demonstrate that the chloroplasts
are the site of photosynthesis, and it was he who showed that
light is necessary for the synthesis of chlorophyll. Sachs also
pioneered in studies of the nutritional requirements of plants;
he published the first formula for a standard culture solution,
a necessary basis for identifying the mineral elements essential for growth. Sachs introduced the auxanometer, an instrument for quantitatively studying plant growth, and the clinostat, a rotating apparatus by means of which he investigated
the plants response to gravity.
SACHS, MAURICE (originally Jean-Maurice Ettinghausen; 19061945?), French author, critic, and translator. Born
in Paris, Sachs was abandoned by his parents and fell prey to
alcoholism, homosexuality, and kleptomania. Vainly trying to
free himself from moral depravity, he became a Catholic and
entered a seminary, but left it and went to the U.S., where he
married a Protestant ministers daughter. Returning to France,
he became a Nazi collaborator and black marketeer. He is believed to have died in a prison fight in Hamburg toward the
end of World War II. Sachs literary talent revealed itself in
novels, essays, and a number of picaresque stories.
These include La Dcade de lIllusion (1950), published
first in English as The Decade of Illusion (1933); Andr Gide
(1936); and Au temps du Boeuf sur le Toit (1939). Le Sabbat (The
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sachs, michael
SACHS, NELLY (Leonie; 18911970), German poet and Nobel Prize winner. The daughter of a Berlin industrialist, Nelly
Sachs grew up in an artistic home where she early imbibed a
love of literature. At 17 she began writing neoromantic poetry
in traditional, rhymed forms and puppet plays with a fairytale flavor. Her first work, Legenden und Erzaehlungen (1921),
reflected a Christian intellectual world tinged with mysticism.
The poet was then rooted in the world of German Romanticism, the Catholic Middle Ages, and the mysticism of Jacob
Boehme. After 1933, when Nelly Sachs, like so many other assimilated German Jews, discovered her Jewish heritage, she
found ideas akin to Boehmes in the Zohar. Her early work
remained largely unknown, and she refused to allow it to be
republished. Her reputation is largely based on her output after the end of World War II. In 1940 Nelly Sachs emigrated
to Sweden through the good offices of the writer Selma Lagerlf and the Swedish royal family. At first she made a modest
living in Stockholm by translating Swedish poetry into German, but eventually published several successful volumes of
her translations.
Throughout the war years, however, Nelly Sachs wrote
some of the poetry that was to bring her fame. The motif of
flight and pursuit, the symbol of the hunter and his quarry,
are at the center of her poetic thought. Her poetry is ecstatic,
mystical, and visionary. It is also very much in the German
romantic tradition and, as such, has been criticized by some
as disingenuous and incompatible with her subject matter.
Although her poems were mostly composed in free verse,
she wrote with careful craftsmanship, using an exquisite German flavored with the Psalms and filled with mystical imagery of H asidic origin. If I could not have written, I could not
have survived, Nelly Sachs wrote. Death was my teacher
my metaphors are my sounds. In den Wohnungen des Todes
(1946), dedicated to my dead brothers and sisters, includes
cycles titled Prayers for the Dead Fianc, Epitaphs Written
On Air, and Choruses After Midnight. Sternverdunkelung
(1949) contains poems expressing unquenchable faith in the
indestructibility of the people of Israel and the importance of
its mission. Three subsequent collections were Und niemand
weiss weiter (1957), Flucht und Verwandlung (1958), and Die
Suchende (1966). On the occasion of her 70t birthday, her
collected poetry was issued as Fahrt ins Staublose (1961). Her
Spaete Gedichte (1965) contains the extended poetic sequence
Gluehende Raetsel (1964) and suggests a mystical border
whose language touches silence.
The 14 collected plays of Zeichen im Sand (1962) include
Eli, ein Mysterienspiel vom Leiden Israels (1951). Written in
1943, this deals with the cosmic aftermath of the Holocaust. In
17 loosely connected scenes, the tragedy of an eight-year old
Polish shepherd boy, who raises his flute heavenward in an-
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sack, benjamin G.
exposure, and abuse claimed many lives. During the war prisoners arrived from all over Europe. Twelve hundred Polish
prisoners were sent to Sachsenhausen in 1940 from Pawiak
prison in Warsaw, among them 60 Polish priests, as an essential part of the German plan to destroy the elite of Polish nonJewish society and to make the Poles a subservient people. In
the fall of 1941, 1,800 Soviet prisoners of war were shot there;
afterwards thousands more were either shot or killed by phenol injection. Some 13,000 Soviet POWs were killed in all. A
Nazi-directed counterfeiting operation was set up in the camp
by an SS man, Bernhard Krueger. He employed 140 Jews in
forging British currency as well as stamps, passports, identity
documents, secret credentials, false code books, etc. Nearly all
these Jews survived, in part because of their unique skills. In
October 1942 all the Jewish prisoners, except those employed
in the counterfeit operation, were transferred to *Auschwitz.
Jewish prisoners were sent back beginning in the summer of
1944. The camp supplied slave labor for the German armament
industry and housed several factories. In 1944 after the Warsaw Uprising (not to be confused with the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising) 3,500 Poles were sent to Sachsenhausen. There was
a gas chamber in Sachsenhausen but it was used only under
special circumstances. As in other camps, the prisoners also
served as human guinea pigs for pseudo-medical experiments.
In mid-January 1945 there were 65,000 prisoners, including
13,000 women, in the overpopulated camp. In the latter half of
April 1945, the SS evacuated the bulk of the inmates on a death
march. Those who endured the march were liberated by the
Red Army near Schwerin, Germany. Of the total of 140,000
inmates who were sent to this camp, at least 30,000 died there.
The number may actually have been much larger.
A Soviet Military Tribunal tried 16 former SS guards from
Sachsenhausen in late October 1947. One year later all were
convicted. Fourteen were sentenced to life imprisonment and
two received 15-year sentences.
In postwar East Germany, the camp became a hodgepodge of would-be memorials, a virtual lesson in how not to
preserve an authentic site. Since the reunification of Germany,
efforts have been made to rectify the situation. The task is ongoing and Herculean.
Bibliography: L. Grosser (ed.), K.Z. Sachsenhausen (Ger.,
1945); A. Weiss-Ruethel, Nacht und Nebel (1946); F. Sige (ed.),
Todeslager Sachsenhausen (1948); O. Nansen, Day after Day (1949),
399571; Urteil gegen Sorge und Schubert (Akt 8 ks 1/58 des Landgerichtes Bonn, 6.2.1959).
[Yehuda Reshef / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
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sackler, harry
SACKLER, HARRY (18831974), U.S. Hebrew and Yiddish author. Born in Bohorodczany (Bogorodchany), Galicia,
Sackler emigrated to the United States in 1902. An attorney
by profession, he served as secretary of the Kehillah in New
York City (191718); member of the staff of the Zionist Organization of America (191823); administrative secretary of
the Jewish Education Association (192326); executive secretary of the Brooklyn Jewish Community Council (194044);
and member of the executive staff of the Joint Distribution
Committee (194555) in whose public relations office he later
served. After his retirement in 1955 he devoted himself entirely to his writing.
The most eminent exponent of historicism in Hebrew letters in the United States, Sackler, a prolific writer, endeavored
638
Bibliography: C.L. Fuks (ed.), Hundert yor yidishe un hebreyishe literatur in Kanade (1982), 11821; R. Menkis, Canadian Ethnic Studies, 23:2 (1991), 2438; R. Margolis, B.G. Sack Articles in the
Keneder Adler, 19101955, manuscript in National Archives of Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal; S. Hayes, Preface to Canadian JewsEarly in this Century (1975).
[Rebecca Margolis and Richard Menkis (2nd ed.)]
sacrifice
Jewry. He disappointed Progressive Jews by declining to participate in a radio discussion if a Reform rabbi was included.
He inaugurated an unprecedented review of the position of
women in the United Synagogue, but his decision to permit
womens prayer groups only outside the synagogue, and without use of a Scroll of the Law, was considered a conservative
compromise. Popular hostility to the recognition of homosexuals within communal life led him to sanction their exclusion
from a fund-raising event, dismaying liberal opinion. These
controversies overshadowed his achievements in promoting
Jewish learning under the banner Decade of Renewal.
[David Cesarani]
There is a Jewish cemetery, Home of Peace, in addition to designated areas in other cemeteries. In terms of cultural events,
there is a Jewish film festival, Jewish food fair, and community-wide observances of Yom ha-Shoah, Hanukkah, Israel
Independence Day, and other Jewish holidays. In addition to
the Jewish Federation, there are local chapters of many national Jewish organizations.
In 1998, the Sacramento Jewish community experienced
a major antisemitic attack when three area synagogues were
firebombed in one night. As is customary in the United States,
the general community turned out in full force and supported
the Jewish community as more than 4,500 people attended
a memorial gathering. The perpetrators were convicted and
sentenced for their crimes, which included murdering a gay
couple in addition to the arsons.
Prominent Jewish elected officials include former Sacramento Mayor Anne Rudin, former Assemblyman Darrell
Steinberg, Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, and
Sacramento Municipal Utility District members Peter Keat
and Bill Slaton.
[Robert E. Levinson / Kathleen Kahrl (2nd ed.)]
SACRIFICE.
In the Bible various verbs are used to designate the act of sacrifice. Two of them, and , are used for the slaughter
of animals for both secular (cf. Gen. 43:16; Num. 11:22) and
sacred purposes, while the verbs ( hence the name of the
talmudic treatise Zevah im, dealing only with the slaughter of
animals for sacrifice, as distinct from H ullin, which deals with
slaughter for food), and are only used for sacrifice.
The last word, as does its cognate noun korban, expresses the
idea to bring near.
Although libation of wine and meal offerings played a
prominent role in the rituals, the most important sacrifices
were those of animals. The surrender of a living thing was a
major factor in nearly every kind of sacrificial ritual; that life
was being forfeited was signified by the extraction of an animals blood: For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have
given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your
souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of
the life [that is in it] (Lev. 17:11). The people were therefore
forbidden to eat the blood (Lev. 17:10; also Gen. 9:4; Lev. 3:17;
7:26; Deut. 12:16, 23; 15:23), since life belonged only to God.
The offering had to be the property of the person making the
sacrifice (Lev. 1:2). Only domesticated animals raised for the
purpose of providing food were acceptable, thus excluding
both wild animals and work animals (contrast the allusions
to slaying an ass at Mari, ARM II No. 37. 11.5124). The sacrificial animal had to be without physical blemishes, which are
defined and summarized in Leviticus 22:1725 (see *Blemish). An animal could not be offered before it was eight days
old (Lev. 22:2630).
The sacrifices can be divided into various categories: propitiatory and dedicatory offerings, meal offerings, libation of-
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Burnt Offerings
Burnt offerings (Heb. olah, that which goes up) are referred to in Lev. 1:317; 6:16). The burnt offering consisted of
a bull (Lev. 1:35), a sheep or goat (Lev. 1:10), or a bird (Lev.
1:14). The offerer brought the animal, laid his hand on it, and
slaughtered it on the north side of the altar (Lev. 1:35, 11); the
bird was then handed over to the priest (Lev. 1:15). The priest
collected the blood, presented it before the Lord, and sprinkled
it around the altar (Lev. 4:5, 11). In the case of a bird, he killed
it by pinching the back of its neck and drained the blood out
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on the side of the altar (Lev. 1:15). There was emphasis on the
flaying and dissection of the animal, the washing of its unclean
parts, and the careful arrangement of all the pieces (except the
crop and feathers of the bird) on the altar (Lev. 1:69, 1213).
The consumption of the whole was meant as reah nih oah (a
pleasing odor) to the Lord. Only the hide was given to the
priest (Lev. 7:8). The main administrative concern was for
constant maintenance of the fire (thus the need for an uninterrupted supply of fuel) and the proper attire of the officiating priest during the ritual of renewing the fire each morning
(Lev. 6:16). The burnt offerings were by far the most frequent
sacrifices at the Israelite sanctuary.
The continual burnt offering ( , , olah, olat
(ha-) tamid, or simply ha-tamid) was made twice daily a
male lamb morning and evening (Ex. 29:3842; Num. 28:18,
and passim). The entire procedure for the morning sacrifice
is vividly described in the Mishnah (Tamid; see sacrifices during the Second Temple period below). Two additional lambs
were offered each Sabbath (Num.28:910). No sin offerings
accompanied these sacrifices. On the other hand, a sin offering of one goat was required along with the burnt offerings on
the other holy days. On the New Moon, two young bulls, one
ram, and seven male lambs were sacrificed (Num. 28:1114).
The same number of animals was required for each day of
the Passover (Num. 28:1924) and again on Shavuot (Num.
28:2629). For Rosh Ha-Shanah and the Day of Atonement
the standard was one bull, one ram, and seven lambs (Num.
29:24, 8), besides the special burnt offerings for the atonement ritual itself, which consisted of one ram for the high
priest and one for the people (Lev. 16:3, 5, 24). The last of the
annual festivals, Sukkot, was marked by a series of elaborate
burnt offerings (plus one goat per day as a sin offering). On
the first day the regulations called for 13 young bulls, two
rams, and 14 male lambs (Num. 29:1216). Each day thereafter the number of bulls was decreased by one until on the
seventh day there were only seven (the number of rams and
lambs remained the same; Num. 29:1734). The eighth day
saw a return to the amounts designated for Rosh Ha-Shanah
and the Day of Atonement, i.e., one bull, one ram, and seven
lambs (Num. 29:3538; for the associated meal and drink offerings, cf. below). Various purification rituals also called for
burnt offerings as well as sin offerings: after childbirth (Lev.
12:68), unclean issues (Lev. 15:1415) and hemorrhages (Lev.
15:2930), or after defilement during a Nazirite vow (Num.
6:1011). Meal offerings were offered only for the cleansing
from leprosy (Lev. 14:10, 1920, 22, 31) and the completion of
a Nazirite vow (Num. 6:14, 16). The burnt offerings, signifying
complete surrender to God, were therefore associated with sin
offerings in the process of atonement (as in the purification
rites above; cf. also II Chron.).
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day (Lev. 7:1618). Whatever was left over from either kind
had to be burned within a specific time. The peace offering
was only specified in three instances, i.e., in the celebration of
Shavuot (Lev. 23:1920), in the ritual for completion of a Nazirite vow (Num. 6:1720), and at the installation of the priesthood (cf. the ordination offering, below). Other public ritual
occasions included the inauguration of the Tent of Meeting
(Lev. 9:821) and of the Temple (I Kings 8:63; II Chron. 7:7).
National events that called forth the peace offering were: successful conclusion of a military campaign (I Sam 11:15), cessation of famine or pestilence (II Sam 24:25), acclamation of a
candidate for kingship (I Kings 1:9, 19), or a time of national
spiritual renewal (II Chron. 29:3136). At the local level, they
were sacrificed for the annual family reunion (I Sam 20:6) or
other festive events, such as the harvesting of the firstfruits
(I Sam. 9:1113, 2224; 16:45).
THANKSGIVING OFFERINGS ( ) ( , ZEVAh (HA-)
TODAH). The most frequently mentioned type of peace offering was the thanksgiving offering (Lev. 7:1213, 15; 22:29)
for blessings already bestowed (Ps. 56:1314; 107:22; 116:17; Jer.
33:11). In many contexts the term thanksgiving offering is used
as the virtual synonym for peace offering (e.g., II Chron. 29:31;
Jer. 17:26; cf. II Chron. 33:16).
Wave Offerings (, tenufah)
The priests portion of the peace offering (cf. above) was
waved before the Lord as a special act signifying that it was
His. Then it went to the officiant as his personal share. This
is reminiscent of the presentation of the ceremonial food to
the Mesopotamian deity, after which it was given to the king.
The basic difference seems to be that there the deity was considered to have partaken of the food and added his radiance
to it, while in Israel the priest ate the divine portion as Gods
representative, thus showing that the offerers food was being
shared by Him. The same technical term was applied to offerings other than the communal sacrifices: the precious metals
given for construction of the sacred artifacts (Ex. 35:22; 38:29),
the guilt offering of the cleansed leper (Lev. 14:12, 21, 24), the
sheaf of firstfruits (Lev. 23:15), the two loaves at Shavuot (Lev.
23:17, 20), and the levites themselves (Num. 8:11, 13, 15, 21).
Votive Offerings ( , neder)
This was usually a peace offering, and the flesh could be eaten
on the second day but not the third (Lev. 7:1617); but it could
also be a burnt offering (Lev. 22:1720). A specific example was the vow of a Nazirite which was consummated by a
peace offering (Num. 6:1720). In the broadest sense the vow
included any kind of offerings or gifts promised to the Lord
(Num. 30, passim).
Freewill Offerings ( , nedavah)
The minimum offering that one could bring to the holy
convocations that took place on the three Pilgrim Festivals
(II Chron. 35:8; Ezra 3:5) was the freewill offering (Lev. 7:16;
22:18, 21, 23; Num. 15:3; 29:39; Deut. 12:6, 17). Like the votive
offering, it could be a burnt as well as a peace offering (Lev.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
sacrifice
22:1724; Ezek. 46:12), and if it were the latter, the flesh could
be consumed on the second day but had to be burned before
the third (Lev. 7:1617).
Ordination Offerings (, milluim)
The Septuagint interprets this sacrifice as one of completion,
or perfection; however, the same Hebrew term is used with
regard to the settings of precious stones (Ex. 25:7; 35:9, 27;
I Chron. 29:2), so perhaps the modern expression installation is more suitable. The ordination offering was intimately
related to the concept of filling the hand ( ; mille yad),
which meant consecrating someone, or oneself, to divine
service (Ex. 28:41; 29 passim; cf. Ex. 32:29, et al.), and it required a state of ritual purity and spiritual devotion (II Chron.
29:31). The details of the ritual are spelled out in a prescriptive
(Ex. 29:1934) and a narrative-descriptive (Lev. 8:2232) text.
Moses appears in the role of the officiant, since Aaron and his
sons were obviously not qualified to serve in their own ordination. He brought the ram of consecration and the priests laid
their hands on it. Then Moses slew it and handled the blood
in a special manner. It was applied by him to the tip of the
right ear, thumb, and big toe of Aaron and of each of his sons;
then the rest was thrown about the altar. The waving of this
offering was also unique in its execution: the choice entrails,
three of the accompanying cakes, and the right thigh were
all placed in the hands of the candidates for priesthood and
waved before the Lord; then they were all consumed together
on the altar as a pleasing odor. Though Moses did not receive
the thigh, he was granted the breast, which he waved himself
and took as his portion. Finally, the anointing oil mixed with
blood from the altar was sprinkled upon the candidates and
their garments. They were thus prepared to eat the remaining
flesh of the ordination offering, which they had to boil at the
entrance to the sanctuary. Like the votive offering, none was
allowed to remain to the following day.
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Daily Service
The service began immediately after dawn, when the herald
announced that The priests should prepare for the service,
the levites for song, and the Israelites for the maamad (TJ,
Shek. 5:2, 48d). The first part of the service was the removal of
ashes from the altar, since sacrificial meat was consumed on it
all night. Those priests desiring to do this rose early and immersed themselves before the superintendent came. He usually came around dawn, and lots were then drawn to choose
the priest to remove the ashes (see *Lots). The superintendent
then took the key, opened the small door, and went from the
Fire Chamber into the Temple court. The priests went in after him, carrying two lighted torches. They divided into two
groups, one of which went along the portico to the east, while
the other went along it to the west. They made an inspection to
see whether all the vessels were in order, finally arriving at the
place where the griddle cakes (Lev. 6:1215) were made. There
the two groups met and verified that all was in place. They then
appointed the griddle cake maker to make the cakes, and instructed the priest who had won the lottery exactly how he
was to clear away the ashes. When he had completed this task,
the other priests hastened to wash their hands and feet in the
laver. They then went up to the top of the altar, where they rearranged the unconsumed limbs and pieces of fat on special
large blocks of wood which were brought up to the altar for
that purpose. They then kindled the fire, and descended and
went to the Chamber of Hewn Stone (Tam. 1:24; 2:15).
Lots were then cast to decide which of them should
carry out the various duties associated with the sacrifice. A
priest stationed on a roof would announce that the first light
of dawn had illumined the whole of the sky as far as Hebron.
The silver and gold vessels for the days service were then arranged, and the sacrificial lamb which had been examined on
the previous evening was again inspected by torchlight. They
to whom it fell to clear the inner incense altar of ashes and to
trim the candlesticks now proceeded toward the porch. The
priest selected for slaughtering the tamid did not commence
his duties before he heard the great gate that led to the sanctuary being opened. The priest who cleared the inner altar
scooped up the ash in his fists and deposited it inside the ashbin. He then swept up what was left and departed. The priest
who cleaned the candlesticks entered, and if he found the two
western lights burning, he trimmed the rest, leaving these
two burning. If he found that they had been extinguished, he
trimmed them and kindled them from those that were still
alight, and then trimmed the rest (but see Maim. Yad, Temidin u-Musafin 3:13 and Rabad ad loc.). Meanwhile the lamb
was slaughtered and its blood sprinkled against the altar. The
portions of the sacrifice were then prepared for the altar and
left on the lower half of the ascent of the altar, together with
the fine flour for the meal offering, the griddle cake offering
of the high priest, and the wine for the drink offering. The
priests then came down to the Chamber of Hewn Stone to
recite prayers (Tam. 3:19; 4:13).
At this point the superintendent told them to pronounce
one blessing, either the blessing for light or the Ahavah Rabbah (Ber. 11b). It was followed by the Ten Commandments,
the three portions of the Shema, and three benedictions. These
were: True and Firm, Avodah, and the concluding Sim Shalom blessing of the Amidah (Tam. 5:1). On the Sabbath a fourth
blessing was added for the incoming watch of priests. On the
completion of the prayers, those who had never yet offered the
incense cast lots for this privilege. All the priests were, however, permitted to cast lots for the right to take the sacrificial
portions from the ramp (kevesh) to the altar. The incense was
then placed in the sanctuary by the designated priest, assisted
by another priest who brought glowing coals from the outer
altar to the inner altar for this offering. Afterward they struck
with the magrefah, a gong shaped like a shovel, between the
porch and the altar. It caused a reverberation so loud that it
drowned conversation in Jerusalem. Priests would thus know
that their colleagues were about to prostrate themselves and
would rush to join them. Similarly, levites would hasten to join
their fellow levites in the singing. All ritually unclean priests
were made to stand at the eastern gate to show that it was not
out of idleness that they were not serving in the Temple (Tam.
5:16; Rosh to 5:6).
Those who had been chosen to clear the inner altar and
the candlestick led the procession back to the sanctuary. The
ash-bin was removed, and only the westernmost lamp of the
candlestick was left burning for the day, since from it all the
lights were later kindled in the evening. The coals were then
spread on the inner altar and the incense was scattered and
burned by the designated priests. As each priest finished his
duty, he prostrated himself and left the sanctuary. The high
priest next went in and prostrated himself, followed by the
other priests (Tam. 6:13; 7:1). While the incense was being
offered, the maamad of Israelites present in the Temple also
gathered together to pray. Apparently Jews outside the Temple
also prayed at this time (cf. Judith 9:1).
All the priests who had completed their allotted tasks
came and stood on the steps of the porch. They then pronounced the priestly blessing over the people as a single benediction, enunciating the ineffable Name of God. All apart from
the high priest raised their hands above their heads during the
blessing. The high priest did not raise his hands above the plate
(z iz ) on his forehead, since the Name of God was inscribed on
it (Tam. 7:2; Sot. 7:6). When those assembled in the Temple
heard the Divine Name pronounced, they prostrated themselves (Ecclus. 50:21; for the practice of praying daily in the
Temple see Lam. R. to 3:9, no. 3). After this benediction, the
limbs were lifted up to the top of the altar and thrown onto
its fire, the meal offering was sacrificed, and the wine offering was poured out upon the appropriate places of the altar.
Before the libation of the wine, a tekiah, teruah, and tekiah
645
and the New Moon, the additional *Musaf sacrifice was also
offered. There were also specific services for the various holidays such as the *omer on Passover, the two wave-loaves of
Shavuot, and the water-drawing ceremony of Sukkot.
sacrifice
(see *Shofar) were sounded on the trumpets. During the libation, the cymbals were struck, and the levites chanted the daily
psalm. At stated intervals in the psalm, a tekiah was sounded
and the public prostrated themselves. With the conclusion of
the psalm, the service of the morning tamid was completed
(Tam. 7:34; Suk. 5:5).
The offering of individual sacrifices was completed by
half past the eighth hour of daylight, and the sacrifice of the
concluding afternoon tamid then took place. It was slaughtered and offered up an hour later (Pes. 5:1). The ritual of the
afternoon tamid resembled that of the morning lamb, except
that the wood on the altar was not rearranged and the priestly
blessing was not recited. Two new logs of wood were brought
up by two priests to reinforce the flames (Yoma 26b). Oil
was also added to the candlestick, and all seven lamps were
kindled. Following the sacrifice of the afternoon tamid, the
gates to the sanctuary and to the priestly court were closed.
Nonetheless, a few priests still entered the court during the
night, so that they could place the limbs from the days sacrifices on the altar and continue to add wood to its fire (cf.
Zev. 9:6; Ber. 1:1).
could see the Temple vessels (Yoma 54a; Jos., Ant., 3:128). For
these festivals, priests from all parts of Erez Israel came to the
Temple, and they all shared equally in the holidays sacrifices
and in the division of the shewbread (Suk. 5:7).
PASSOVER. The paschal lamb was unique in that it was offered by groups of Israelites rather than individuals. Between
ten and twenty persons jointly brought one lamb (Pes. 64b;
Jos., Wars, 6:425). To accommodate the large number of paschal sacrifices, the daily afternoon tamid on the eve of Passover was slaughtered at half after the seventh hour and offered
up an hour later. After this, the Passover offering was brought
(Pes. 5:1), and it was slaughtered in three groups. When the
first group entered and filled the Temple court, its gates were
closed and the shofar was sounded. The priests stood in rows
and in their hands were basins of silver and gold. The basins
were not mixed, each row being wholly silver or wholly gold.
The Israelites slaughtered their own offerings and the priests
caught the blood. The priest passed the basins filled with blood
to fellow priests, each receiving a full basin and giving back
an empty one. The priest nearest to the altar tossed the blood
in one motion against the base of the altar. When the first
group left, the second group came in; and when the second
group was finished the third group came in. The rite was repeated for each group, and during the entire time *Hallel was
chanted by the levites (Pes. 5:57). After the lamb was roasted,
it was eaten after nightfall by the company which brought it as
part of the Passover seder (Pes. 10:19). The size of the throng
that participated in this ritual is emphasized by the Talmud,
which relates that King Agrippa once took a census of the
Jewish people. At his request, the high priest took a kidney
from each paschal lamb, and 600,000 pairs of kidneys were
counted, despite the fact that those who were unclean and
on a distant journey were excluded from participating. Since
there was not a single paschal lamb for which a minimum of
ten people had not registered, they called it the Passover of
the dense throngs (Pes. 64b). Josephus estimated from the
number of lambs offered on the Passover before the outbreak
of the Jewish War (65 C.E.) that more than 3,000,000 Jews
gathered in Jerusalem for that Passover festival (Jos., Wars
2:280; cf. Wars 6:425).
The evening after the first day of Passover, preparations
began for the bringing of the Omer on the next day. This was
in accordance with the view of the Pharisees that from the
morrow after the day of rest (Lev. 23:15) means after the first
day of Passover, and not after the Sabbath that falls during
Passover as the Sadducees advocated (Men. 65b66a). The
rabbis therefore insisted that the omer be reaped with much
display to indicate that the Sadducees were mistaken in their
interpretation (Men. 10:3). After the barley was reaped that
evening, it was placed in baskets and brought to the Temple
court. There it was prepared as fine flour, and the next day it
was mixed together with oil and frankincense. A handful was
removed by the officiating priest and burned on the altar, and
the remainder was eaten by the priests. Soon after the omer
646
Sabbath Service
The sacrifices of private individuals were not offered on the
Sabbath, but all work connected with the public offerings was
permitted. In addition to the two tamid offerings, a Musaf
sacrifice was also brought and the *shewbread set in order.
After the Musaf, the watches of the priests were changed, although the new watch was already present for the morning
tamid when it was blessed by the outgoing group of priests
(Tosef., Suk. 4:2425). A section of the Song of Haazinu (Deut.
32:143), which was divided into six portions, was recited
while the Musaf was brought (RH 31a). The service of the new
group of priests began with their arranging the new shewbread. Eight priests entered the sanctuary, two carrying the
two rows of shewbread and two the two dishes of frankincense which accompanied the loaves. The other four removed
the shewbread and frankincense of the previous week. Those
who brought them in stood at the north side facing the south,
and those who removed them stood at the south side facing
north. They removed them in such a way that always one
handbreadth of one overlay a handbreadth of the other, thus
fulfilling Before me always (Ex. 25:30; Men. 11:7).
sacrifice
Symbolic
Philo devoted a treatise to the subject (De Victimis; see
Spec. 1:112256). He pointed out that only domesticated animals and the most gentle birds were suitable for sacrifice and
that they had to be free of blemish, which he took as a symbol
that the offerers must also be wholesome in body and soul.
The Jew had to approach the altar with his soul purged of its
passions and viciousness if the sacrifice was to be acceptable
(Spec. 1:166/167, 257). The wicked would be rejected, even if
they offered hundreds of sacrifices (Spec. 1:271). The rabbis
stated that the sacrificial statutes indicated that God is with
the persecuted. The ox is pursued by the lion, the goat by
the leopard, and the lamb by the wolf. Therefore God com-
647
sacrifice
648
sacrilege
In the Kabbalah
The kabbalistic interpretation of the sacrifices is usually associated with the esoteric exposition of the tabernacle and
the Temple, whose every detail has symbolic significance in
the realm of the Sefirot, and with the connection between the
individual Jew and the Jewish people as a whole and the divine world, both the good powers and the evil. In the Sefer
ha-*Bahir, the earliest text of the Kabbalah, the sacrifices are
explained as the process which symbolically unites the priest
performing the sacrifices with the divine world. The Hebrew
term for sacrifice, korban, is interpreted as coming from the
root karev to bring together, to unite. The ideas of the Bahir were explained and details added by *Isaac the Blind and
developed by his pupil *Ezra b. Solomon and by *Azriel of
Gerona. The mystical conception of the nature and purpose of
sacrifice explains the act as a process which brings about the
dynamic union of the divine powers, the Sefirot, and restores
the soul of man and other created elements to their place of
origin, that is to the Sefirah of which they had formed a part.
The most detailed exposition of the symbolic meaning of the
sacrifices is to be found in the *Zohar and in the writings of
the subsequent kabbalists. It is possible that their detailed
treatment of this subject had a polemical purpose to oppose
Maimonides conception of sacrifice, which denied its intrinsic
value and held that the practice originated in pagan customs
which God conceded to the Jews after the exodus from Egypt,
because they had not reached a high enough religious level to
enable them to worship Him in a spiritual manner. The kabbalists, from the Bahir to the Zohar and onward, interpreted
the sacrifices as spiritual worship of God in which material
means are employed as symbols.
In the Zohar the unifying effect of the sacrifice is explained in three ways: it joins the upper and lower worlds,
bringing together the believer and God Himself; it unites the
Sefirot H okhmah and Binah (the father and mother); and,
most important, it brings about the union of masculine and
feminine principles in the divine world the Shekhinah, that is
the Sefirah Malkhut, and her husband, the Sefirah Tiferet. This
symbolic process is interpreted in great detail in the Zohar, especially regarding the sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. The
material nature of the sacrifice, the use and slaughter of aniENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
649
rying a priest (Lev. 21). To make a replica of any of the utensils or ingredients, such as the incense used in the Temple, is
also regarded as sacrilege (Ex. 30:32). The seriousness of the
sin of sacrilege is underlined by the biblical stories of Nadab
and Abihu, burnt to death for offering strange fire, and the
stoning of Achan for taking the spoils of war dedicated to the
sanctuary (Lev. 10:12; Josh. 7). The inadvertent use of sacred
things, termed meilah, is also penalized in the Pentateuch
(Lev. 5:14ff.). The offender is required to bring a guilt offering
and reimburse the Temple treasury to the value of the theft
plus one-fifth.
A whole tractate of the Talmud (see *Meilah) is devoted
to the offense which became obsolete with the destruction of
the Temple. But the principle involved lived on to safeguard
the remaining sancta of Jewish life, in a carefully graded order of holiness: the Sefer Torah, religious articles such as tefillin and z iz it, printed holy books, and the synagogue and its
appurtenances. The rabbis adopted the formula of maalin bekodesh ve-ein moridin holiness may be increased but not
decreased. The Mishnah in Megillah (3:1, 2) forbids the sale
of a synagogue for a public bath or tannery, a Sefer Torah for
books of lesser sanctity such as the Prophets. Even a disused
synagogue may not be used as a shortcut or for spreading nets
or drying fruit. Printed pages of holy books must be buried
(see *Genizah) out of respect for the name of God inscribed
therein (see *Shemot). No benefit may be derived from the
dead, including the shroud or the corpse itself, except for the
purpose of saving life (see *Autopsies). Cemeteries must be
treated with the utmost reverence, and it is not permitted to
walk over the graves or pasture cattle there (Sh. Ar., YD 368).
The scholar who adopted an irreverent approach to difficult
passages in the Torah was guilty of sacrilege too (Maimonides,
Hilkhot Meilah, end).
Under a law promulgated by the State of Israel for safeguarding the holy sites of Judaism and other faiths (1967),
there is a penalty of seven years imprisonment for profaning
a holy place or violating it in any manner (see *Holy Places).
Detailed regulations have been gazetted by the Ministry of Religious Affairs prohibiting sacrilegious behavior at Jewish holy
sites (Protection of Holy Places Law, 5727 1967, in: Laws of the
State of Israel, 21 (1966/67), 76). These prohibit ritual slaughter,
eating and drinking, smoking, sleeping, hawking, profanation
of the Sabbath and festivals, and immodest dress. These regulations have been applied to Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem
and other parts of Erez Israel. After the Six-Day War the Israel
Chief Rabbinate proclaimed it sacrilegious for a Jew to enter
the Temple Mount because of ritual defilement.
650
[Aryeh Newman]
the community. Most of the Jewish inhabitants of the town belonged to the *Ruzhin H asidim. R. Israel Friedmann of Ruzhin
arrived in Sadagora after he was released from prison in Russia and established a magnificent court there. His royal style
of living aroused opposition from the H asidim of Zanz (see
*Halberstam). After World War II the center of the Sadagora
dynasty was transferred to Erez Israel.
SADAI, YIZ H AK (1935 ), Israeli composer and music theorist. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Sadai came to Israel at the age
of 14 (in 1949). In 1956 he graduated from the Tel Aviv Academy of Music under A.A. *Boskovich and also studied composition with Joseph *Tal (1954) and *Haubenstock-Ramati
(1959). His works consist of orchestral and chamber music as
well as electronic music, and they have been performed at four
international festivals of contemporary music. Sadai founded
the electronic music studio at Tel Aviv Univeristy (1974), and
from 1960 he was a lecturer at the Rubin Academy of Music in
Jerusalem and at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University (since 1966), where in 1980 he was appointed professor.
His special interest lies in interdisciplinary research. His early
works as a composer show an integration of maqmt with
Bergian expressionism (in the chamber cantata Ecclesiastes
and in the Ricercare symphonique). From 1965 Sadai embarked
on a post-Webern Impressionist style (Interpopulation for
strings and harpsichord; Nuances for orchestra; and Prelude
Jerusalem for choir, orchestra, and electronic tape). Among
his other compositions are three canatatas Kohelet, Ha-Z evi
Yisrael, and Psikoanalisah; Serenade for woodwinds; and Anamorphoses (198182) for orchestra and electronic tape.
He published a book on methodology of musical theory
(1960) as well as Harmony in Its Systemic and Its Phenomenological Aspects (1980).
Bibliography: Grove Music Online; A.L. Ringer, Musical
Composition in Modern Israel, in: Music Quarterly (1965), 28287.
[Yohanan Boehm and Uri (Erich) Toeplitz /
Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
651
sadan, dov
as an agricultural laborer until 1927, when Berl Katznelson offered him a position on the staff of the newspaper Davar. In
1928 he went to Germany on behalf of the He-H alutz movement. There he came in close contact with modern Germanic
culture, especially with the new trends of culture history and
psychoanalysis. Upon his return he taught in schools in Lower
Galilee and in Jerusalem, but in 1933 he resumed his work on
Davar, where he remained for the next ten years. In 1944 he
joined the staff of Am Oved, the publishing house of the Histadrut. Sadan became a faculty member of The Hebrew University, teaching Hebrew composition, and was appointed
chairman of the Yiddish department in 1952. From 1965 to
1970 he also taught Hebrew literature at Tel Aviv University.
Elected to the Knesset as a member of Mapai in 1965, he resigned before the end of his term. He was an active member
on the boards of many literary and cultural institutions, such
as the Academy of the Hebrew Language and the board of directors of Mosad Bialik.
Sadan began his prolific literary career at an early age;
his more than 50 volumes represent less than half his total
output. Although his initial literary efforts were in poetry, he
abandoned this medium and, turning to prose, became one
of the great masters of modern Hebrew prose. He developed
a highly individual style, complex, very literary, rooted in
Jewish sources, and yet graceful and flexible. Throughout his
career he experimented with various modes of fiction, ranging
from the memoir story (he published two volumes of childhood memories) to the modern surrealistic story (Sadan was
the first to translate Kafka into Hebrew). The bulk of his work,
however, comprises nonfiction, especially essays and literary and scholarly articles in Judaic studies. His essays cover
a wide variety of subjects, such as current events, memoirs,
portraits of famous personalities, and essays on problems of
Jewish culture. He pursued research in such areas as folklore,
humor, idioms, and the Hebrew and Yiddish languages, etc.
His literary and scholarly creativity, however, reached its zenith in his studies of Hebrew and Yiddish literature.
Sadans critical approach to literature and other Jewish
studies is based on a broad and novel view of modern Jewish
history. He rejects the view which identifies modern Jewish
literature only with those Hebrew and Yiddish literary trends
that grew out of the modern secular Jewish culture, beginning with the Haskalah (18t and 19t centuries) and continuing in the nationalistic literature (end of the 19t and the
beginning of the 20t centuries). He argues that modern Jewish literature was a major reaction to the crisis in traditional
Jewish culture in Central, and especially Eastern, Europe at
the end of the long Jewish Middle Ages in the 18t century.
It developed in three principal directions, and not one, as
claimed by the maskilim: (1) the new rabbinic movement,
centered mainly around the Lithuanian Mitnaggedic movement, which was a revitalized continuation of halakhic literature; (2) the mystic-h asidic trend which developed a versatile literature consisting of many genres (sermons, parables,
allegory, legend, hagiography, mystic-philosophic writings);
652
653
sadducees
654
sadeh, pinH as
rejected the Pharisaic doctrine regarding the existence of angels and ministering spirits (Acts 23:8). Because of the strict
adherence to the letter of the law, the Sadducees acted severely
in cases involving the death penalty. The Mosaic principle of
Lex talionis, for instance (Ex. 21:24), was interpreted literally
rather than construed as monetary compensation the view
adopted by the Pharisees. They were opposed to changes and
innovations and refused to accept the oral traditions with
which the Pharisees supplemented the Written Law. It was
never a question of whether certain laws were derived from
tradition, but whether those laws that were admittedly derived from tradition were obligatory. Apart from differences
between the Pharisees and the Sadducees as to the oral tradition and supernatural beliefs, there were numerous legal
ritualistic details upon which these two parties differed, especially those connected with the Temple. On the whole, it
can be said that while the Pharisees claimed the authority of
piety and learning, the Sadducees claimed that of genealogy
and position.
The rivalry between the Pharisees and the Sadducees was,
in a sense, the renewal of a conflict between the prophets and
priests of pre-Exilic times. Following the restoration of the
Temple and its sacrificial cult, the priests were also restored
to their former position as religious leaders. Priestly authority
was, however, weakened by two factors: the rise of laymen and
scribes who possessed a knowledge of the law; and the advent of Greek rule since among the Greeks themselves priests
were the servants not the leaders of the community.
Attitude Toward Prayer and Sacrifice
Josephus and the Talmud say little about the Sadducean position on prayer, but the Sadducees would naturally not favor a religious service consisting of prayer and study alone,
as would the Pharisees. This would tend to lessen the importance of the sacrificial cult and thereby weaken their own position as priests.
Fate
On the problem of human conduct and activities, the Sadducees seemed to have believed that God is not concerned with
mans affairs. As Josephus puts it: As for the Sadducees they
take away fate and say there is no such thing, and that the
events of human affairs are not at its disposal, but they suppose
that all our actions are in our own power, so that we ourselves
are the cause of what is good and receive what is evil from our
own folly (Ant., 13:173). Unfortunately no statement has survived from the Sadducean side on their beliefs and principles.
There are controversial references in rabbinical literature with
regard to the Sadducean interpretation of the law. The Sadducees have been represented as lax and worldly-minded aristocrats, primarily interested in maintaining their own privileged
position, and favoring Greco-Roman culture.
655
sadeh, yiZ H ak
echoes perceptions and views which are closer to Christianity and to marginal religious sects in Jewish history (such as
Shabbateanism and to the Frankists) than to the norms dear
to Zionist society in Israel of the 1950s. With his work distinguished by images taken from his own life, Sadeh writes about
love, erotic excitement, and loneliness, contemplates sin and
grace, alludes to the New Testament and to Kierkegaards and
Dostoyevskys oeuvre. Following the success of this unusual
novel, Sadeh became, both on account of his writing and his
sequestered, self-dramatized way of life, an idol for young
Israelis and would-be artists. In 1967 he published Al Maz z avo
shel ha-Adam (Notes on Mans Condition) followed by the
novella Mot Avimelekh (The Death of Avimelech, 1969). Sadeh published further collections of poetry, in which he extols feminine beauty and womens self-sacrifice and reflects on
nature, transience, and mortality. Among these are Sefer haShirim (Book of Poems), El Shetei Nearot Nikhbadot (To
Two Honorable Young Ladies, 1977), and Sefer ha-Agasim
ha-Z ehubim (1985). He also wrote essays on Bialik (1985) and
books for children (Ha-Ganav, The Thief, 1988), edited a selection of European stories, Mivh ar ha-Sippur ha-Eiropi (1959),
and anthologized h asidic legends (English translation as Jewish Folktales, 1989; 1990). Sadehs Collected Poems appeared in
2005. Sadeh, who lived in his later life in Ramat Gan, received
the Bialik Prize in 1990. For translations of his work see the
ITHL website at www.ithl.org.il.
656
Safdie, Moshe
SAD, SAD BEN SHELOMO (late 17t early18t centuries), Yemenite historian who lived in *San, the author of
Dofi ha-Zeman (Fault of the Times), a chronicle on the history of the Jews in *Yemen between 1717 and 1726. It was the
first historical work to be written by a Yemenite scholar, followed by many others into the 20t century. It reflects the severe moral deterioration of the Jewish community of San as
a result of the destruction of the communal system after Yemenite Jews returned from their exile in *Mawza. The authority of the religious and temporal authorities was almost completely lost there were even Jewish prostitutes in San. So the
principal objective of this work, like that of his contemporary
R. Yih ye S alih in his Peri Z addik, was to show the moral to be
drawn from the misfortunes which befell Yemenite Jewry. It is
therefore not surprising that the tokhah ot of the author hold
an important place in the work. The above events also left a
deep impression on the author himself, because he lost three
of his sons at that time.
Bibliography: S. Geridi, Mi-Teman le-Z iyyon (1938), 11922;
Y. Qfih in: Sefunot, 1 (1956), 185242. Add. Bibliography: Y.
Tobi, Iyyunim bi-Megillat Teman (1986), 1718.
[Yosef Tob (2nd ed.)]
SADIE, STANLEY (John, 1930 ), British music critic, musicologist, author, and editor. Sadie was born in London, where
he received his education, as well as at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. His dissertation was on British Chamber
Music, 17201790 (U. of Cambridge, 1958). He was a teacher
at the Trinity College of Music, London (195765), a music
critic of the London Times from 1964 to 1981, and a reviewer
for Gramophone (1965 ). He took over the editorship of the
Musical Times in 1967 and was the editor in chief of the New
Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980) as well as its
second edition (London 2000). Sadie served as president of
the councils of the Royal Musical Association (198994) and
The International Musicological Society (199297) and on the
boards of several journals, including Music and Letters, from
1989, and Journal of Musicology, from 1982. His publications
include Handel (1962), Mozart (1966, 1981), Beethoven (1967),
The Pan Book of Opera/ The Opera Guide (with Arthur Jacobs,
1964, 1969), and Handel Organ Concertos (1972). A frequent
contributor to musical journals, Sadie edited much 18t-century music, on which as on Mozart and Handel he was considered an expert. Along with his writings Sadie and his wife,
the cellist, bass viol player, and musicologist Julie Anne Vertrees, initiated the foundation of the Handel House Museum
657
Safdie, Sylvia
Modiin, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, the Rabin Memorial Center, and the new Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel.
In 1978, Safdie was appointed Ian Woodner Professor
of Architecture and Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and established his firms main office in
Somerville, Massachusetts. However, he continued to have a
strong Canadian presence. He designed major Canadian public institutions, including the Vancouver Public Library, the
Quebec Museum of Civilization, and the National Gallery of
Canada. Safdies institutional, cultural, and educational commissions are also found across the United States, in Israel, and
around the world, with projects in Singapore, Iran, Senegal,
India, and the Canadian arctic. Many of his commissions have
been honored with major national and international awards.
In addition to his headquarters in Somerville, Safdie
maintains offices in Toronto and Jerusalem. In 1986 Safdie was
made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is the brother of
the artist Sylvia *Safdie.
[Aliza Craimer (2nd ed.)]
658
templates the Work of Sylvia Safdie, in: C: International Contemporary Art, 66 (Summer 2000), 2226; G. Wajcman, Autres Territoires/
Other Places (2000); I. Zantovska Murray and S. Reid, Sylvia Safdie:
The Inventories of Invention (2003).
[Bernard Katz (2nd ed.)]
safed
Modern Period
Under the benevolent rule of *Ibrahim Pasha (183140) the
town at first progressed and became Galilees commercial center, but toward the end of his rule it suffered from the strife
between Arabs and Druzes and the Arab revolt against Ibrahim Pasha. It was particularly stricken in a violent earthquake
(1837) which destroyed most of its houses and reportedly
caused the death of 5,000 persons, 4,000 of whom were Jews.
Many of the surviving rabbinical scholars went to Hebron.
The Hebrew printing press of Israel *Bak, which had been
founded in 1831, was transferred after the earthquake to Kefar
Jarmaq (Mount Meron) and later to *Jerusalem (see below).
The Jewish community, which in 1839 had dwindled to 1,500
persons, further decreased to a mere 400 in 1845. However,
the countrys administration stabilized under the Turkish
sultan Abdul Majd and Safeds situation improved. The former Jewish inhabitants returned and new immigrants settled,
bringing the Jewish community to 2,100 persons in 1856, and
to 6,620 in 1895 (comprising 4,500 Ashkenazim and 2,120 Sephardim), who then constituted the majority of a total population of 12,820. The Jewish community increased further to
8,000 persons in 1908, and to 11,000 (out of a total population of 25,000) in 1913.
At the end of the 19t century Rabbi M. Taubenhaus
founded a weaving shop at Safed to provide employment for
Jewish workers, and opened a soup kitchen for the poor. The
first Jewish kindergarten was opened on his initiative in 1906
with the support of Bnai Brith; in 1910 it was enlarged to
become a modern elementary school. The initiative for the
changeover to productive work in this community influenced
groups of Jews from Safed to attempt agricultural settlement
at Gei Oni (later *Rosh Pinnah) and at Benei Yehudah on the
Golan. Workshops, mostly for local consumption (e.g., bakeries), were opened in the Jewish quarter, but the majority
of the community remained dependent on *h alukkah from
abroad. In World War I the Safed community was cut off from
its sources of support in Europe, and its Jewish population was
decimated by hunger and disease. The citys Arab population,
whose economy was based on trade, commerce, and auxiliary
farming, was less affected. On Sept. 28, 1918, the town was
occupied by the British forces under Allenby. In 1922 Safeds
population of 8,760 was composed of 5,431 Muslims, 2,986
Jews, and 343 Christians. While good relations between Arabs
and Jews had previously been the rule, the Arab population,
instigated by the nationalists, assaulted the Jewish quarter in
the 1929 riots and killed several of the inhabitants. By 1935 the
number of Jews decreased to 2,475, and their percentage in
the total population fell to 27. It shrank further in the 1930s
and 1940s when local educational and economic opportunities for the communitys youth were limited. In Israels *War
of Independence (1948), less than 2,000 of the 12,000 inhabitants were Jews, living in the narrow quarter on the northern and northwestern slope of Safed Hill. When the British
evacuated the town they permitted Arab forces (estimated
at 4,0004,500 men, including detachments of the Iraqi and
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Hebrew Printing
In 1573 the well-known Hebrew printer Eliezer b. Isaac Ashkenazi and his son, Isaac of Prague, left Lublin for Erez Israel,
taking with them their printing tools, type, and decorations.
After three years in *Constantinople, where they printed some
books, they proceeded to Safed. There they set up as printers
in partnership with Abraham b. Isaac Ashkenazi, a resident
of Safed who provided the funds necessary for the enterprise.
Between 1577 and 1580 they issued three books. Then Abraham
left for *Yemen as an emissary of the Tiberias yeshivah, selling
his books at the same time. In 1587 Eliezer printed three more
books; like the first three, they were all by Safed authors.
In 1832 the printer Israel Bak of Berdichev settled in Safed
and issued four books up to 1834, the year the community was
pillaged by Arab villagers. In 1836 printing was resumed with
the publication of Peat ha-Shulh an by Israel of Shklov. As a
result of the earthquake of 1837 Bak went on to Jerusalem.
Between 1863 and 1866 Dober b. Samuel Kara, of Skole (Galicia), printed some eight books in Safed. Ten years later Abraham Z evi Spiegelmann and his partners began printing, but
only three works are known to have appeared up to 1885. In
1913 Barukh Barzel and his partners opened a Hebrew press
called Defus ha-Galil, with some 20 books being printed up
to 1926. This press served Hebrew writers who found refuge
in Safed during World War I. Later, A. Friedmann took over
the press, which printed the Haganah paper Kol Z efat during
the War of Independence.
[Avraham Yaari]
Bibliography: Avi-Yonah, Geog; Neubauer, Gogr, 227;
Conder-Kitchener, 1 (1881), 248ff., 2556; S. Klein, Beitraege zur Geographie und Geschichte Galilaeas (1909), 58; V. Gurin, Description
gographique, 2 pt. 3 (1880), 419, 426; J. Braslavski, Le-H eker Arz enu
(1954), index; idem, in: BJPES, 9 (194142), 5556; Abel, in: RB, 40
(1931), 602; Israel, Misrad ha-H innukh ve-ha-Tarbut, Alon Mah leket
ha-Attikot, 3 (1951), 13; I. Ben-Zvi and M. Benayahu (eds.), Sefer Z efat,
2 vols. (= Sefunot, vols. 67, 196263), incl. bibl.; M. Ish-Shalom, Masei
Noz erim le-Erez Yisrael (1965), index; E. Rey, Les Colonies franques de
Syrie (1883), 445; I. Ben-Zvi, Sefer ha-Shomronim (1935), 76; idem,
Erez Yisrael ve-Yishuvah (19672), index; S. Schechter, Studies in Judaism, 2 (1908), 202306; M. Benayahu, in: Sefer Assaf (1953), 10925;
idem, in: Sefer ha-Yovel le-Yiz h ak Baer (1960), 24869; idem, in: Sinai,
43 (1958), 35113; J. Kenaani, in: Zion, 6 (1934), 172217; J. Katz, ibid.,
16 (1951), 2845 (second pagination); B. Lewis, Notes and Documents
from the Turkish Archives (1952), index; idem, in: Yerushalayim, 4
(1953), 1347; U. Heyd, ibid., 5 (1955), 12835; idem, Ottoman Documents on Palestine (1960), index; idem, in: Press Festschrift (1954),
184; B. Lewis, ibid., 1345; Sefer ha-Yishuv, 1 (1939), 142; 2 (1944), 54;
D. Tamar, in: Divrei ha-Congress ha-Olami ha-Revii le-Maddaei haYahadut, 2 (1968), 1817 (Heb. sec.); idem, in: Y. Raphael (ed.), Rabbi
Yosef Caro (1969), 718; J. Pinkerfeld, Battei Kenesiyyot be-Erez Yisrael (1946), 3844, pts. 2124; idem, L.A. Mayer, and J.W. Hirschberg
safire, william
SAFFRON (Heb. , karkom), the Crocus sativus; an aromatic golden dye was extracted from the stigmas of its golden
blossoms. It was also dried and used for flavoring foods. In the
Bible karkom is mentioned once among the various spices that
grew in the imaginary spice garden to which the charms of the
beloved are compared (Song 4:14). Most of them are enumerated in an early baraita as ingredients of the incense used in
the Temple (Ker. 6a; v. Pittum ha-Ketoret). Since both passages
refer to tropical spices brought from distant lands, Immanuel
Loew was of the opinion that the karkom is a tropical incense
plant, the Curcuma longa, called by the ancients Indian saffron, Crocus indicus. This belongs to the family of Zingiberaceae from whose rhizome a golden yellow material called
Curcumin is extracted and used for dyeing and flavoring food,
as well as for dyeing clothes. This identification is doubtful,
however, because the substance is not especially aromatic, nor
is there any reason to doubt the traditional explanation that
biblical karkom is indeed identical with saffron (Sanskrit kurkuma, Gr. and Lat. krokos). It is a tuber which apparently originated in the mountains of the Caspian Sea region. Its name in
Aramaic and Arabic is zafrana, from which the word saffron
is derived. During the mishnaic and talmudic period saffron
was widely used in Erez Israel and Babylon. It was planted in
fields, and a field full of saffron was considered very precious.
According to tradition, Joshua the son of Nun had already
made regulations with regard to this plant (BK 81a). The verb
nitkarkem (i.e., turned yellow, pale) derives from the yellow
color of the karkom (Gen. R. 99:9 et al.). In the Talmud, Abbaye describes the structure of the stigma from which the saffron was extracted (Nid. 20a). In medieval times saffron was
a valuable commodity and Jews traded extensively in it. Since
some adulterated saffron by adding fibers of horse meat to it,
Solomon b. Abraham *Adret of Barcelona in the 13t century
forbade its use in food. The yellow *badge the Jews were compelled to wear according to the first papal decree instituting
it had to be dyed with saffron (see Singermann in bibl.). The
importance of saffron has diminished, although Oriental Jews
occasionally use it to color and flavor their food. It is hardly
grown at all in Israel. Seven species of crocus, some with very
beautiful flowers, grow wild in Israel.
Bibliography: F. Singermann, Ueber Juden-Abzeichen (1915);
Loew, Flora, 2 (1924), 725; H.N. and A.L. Moldenke, Plants of the
Bible (1952), index; J. Feliks, Olam ha-Z omeah ha-Mikrai (19682),
24951.
[Jehuda Feliks]
661
safra
in 1949. His first job was as a researcher for Tex McCracy, who
had a gossip column in the New York Herald Tribune. After
serving as a correspondent in Europe and the Middle East for
WNBC radio and TV, he joined the U.S. Army in 1952, working
for the Armed Forces Radio Network for the next two years.
On leaving the service, Safire returned to New York,
where he worked for Tex McCracys public relations firm
and helped to produce McCracys syndicated radio show. In
1959 Safire opened his own public relations firm and traveled
to Moscow that year for the American National Exhibition.
While there, he met Vice President Richard Nixon and helped
to set up the famous kitchen debate between Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in which each leader argued
the merits of his countrys particular system of government.
During the 1960 presidential campaign, Safire was in
charge of special projects for the Nixon-Lodge candidacy and
wrote much of the campaign literature. In 1961 he established
Safire Public Relations Inc., which handled the campaigns of
a number of New York Republican leaders, including Nelson
Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, and John Lindsay. His first two books
appeared during this period, The Relations Explosion (1963)
and Plunging into Politics (1964).
From 1965 on Safire was immersed in Richard Nixons
campaign for the presidency. He ghostwrote Nixons syndicated column and, in 1968, authored Nixons election victory
speech. His third book appeared that year entitled The New
Language of Politics. As a special assistant to President Nixon,
Safire wrote major speeches for the president on the Vietnam
War and economic policies. On loan to Spiro Agnew in 1972,
Safire coined the oft-quoted alliterative phrases nattering nabobs of negativism and hopeless hysterical hypochondriacs
of history. His articles for the New York Times and Washington
Post during the campaign ultimately led to the invitation for
him to write a regular column in the New York Times, which
he began in 1974.
Safire wrote his White House memoirs in a non-fiction
volume entitled Before the Fall (1975) and in a political novel,
Full Disclosure (1977). He combined the talents of columnist
and investigative reporter when in 1977 he broke the story on
the financial affairs of Bert Lance, President Jimmy Carters
special assistant and key fundraiser. That investigation led
to Safires winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for distinguished
commentary.
In 1979 he began a regular Sunday column in The New
York Times Magazine entitled On Language, which focuses
on grammar, usage, and etymology.
An avowed hawk on foreign policy, Safire also strongly
supported Israel. He especially championed the government
of Menachem Begin and Begins bombing of the nuclear reactor in Iraq.
His other books include On Language (1980), Safires
Washington (1980), Leadership (1991), Fumblerulers (1991),
Safires New Political Dictionary (1993), The First Dissident:
The Book of Job in Todays Politics (1992), No Uncertain Terms
(2003), and the novels Freedom (1987), Sleeper Spy (1995), and
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safran, joseph
East and North America. In 1951 the Safra family moved beyond the Middle East, first to Italy and then, in 1952, to Brazil. Since then the family banking business has expanded to
Europe, the United States, and throughout selected markets
in Latin America.
Under the direction of Jacobs sons Elie (1922 ), Edmond (19321999), Moise, and Joseph (1938 ) the Safras
business expanded. Edmond and Joseph focused primarily on
furthering the familys prominence in banking worldwide,
particularly private banking.
Edmond Safra founded with his father the Trade Development Bank in 1956, which was sold to American Express in
1983. In 1966, Edmond founded the Republic National Bank
of New York, which became one of the most respected banks
worldwide. In 1988, he established Safra Republic Holdings
S.A., a wealth management firm catering to the European marketplace. Both companies were sold to HSBC in 1999.
Joseph built the Safra Brazilian banking and investment
businesses, the most prominent of which were Banco Safra
Brazil in 1957; Safra National Bank of New York in 1980;
Banque Safra Luxembourg in 1985; Banque Jacob Safra Suisse
in 2000. Among other successful global investments are Aracruz in 1985 (pulp factory) and Cellcom Israel (cellular phone
company) in 1994, which was sold in 2005.
The Safra family is distinguished for its prolific philanthropy and is particularly generous to Jewish causes. They
have undertaken numerous donations to hospitals, schools,
universities, and synagogues throughout the world.
[Rachel Mizrahi (2nd ed.)]
SAFRAI, SHMUEL (19192003), scholar in the fields of Jewish history, Talmud, and Bible. Safrai was born in Warsaw and
arrived in Palestine with his parents in 1922. From 1931 to 1939
he studied at the Merkaz ha-Rav Yeshivah, being ordained
there as a rabbi at the age of 20. In 1952 and 1957 he received
his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, becoming a professor there in 1978. With his colleagues David *Flusser and Robert Lindsey, he founded the
Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research, dedicated to the historical, linguistic, and critical study of the synoptic gospels.
He was also a frequent contributor to Jerusalem Perspective
magazine. Safrai received the Jerusalem Prize in 1986 and the
Israel Prize in 2002 for his great expertise in the Mishnah and
Talmud, in Greek and Latin sources, and in the formation of
nascent Christianity. He wrote over 80 articles and 12 books,
including Pilgrimage in the Period of the Second Temple and
Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef: His Life and Teachings.
[Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
movement. He repeatedly intervened with Romanian government officials, the Church, diplomatic representatives of neutral countries, and other international bodies to alleviate antiJewish measures and in 1942 was able to bring pressure on the
government to resist the Nazi demand that the Romanian Jews
be deported. On the advent of Communism in 1948, he moved
to Switzerland and was appointed chief rabbi of Geneva and
lecturer in Jewish thought at Geneva University. Safran was
active in many international Jewish organizations and wrote
books on Jewish subjects.
SAFRAN, BEZALEL ZEEV (18661930), Romanian rabbi.
Safran studied under his grandfather Hanoch Henikh Safran
of Pomeran, Galicia, Isaac Aaron Ittinga of Lemberg and Jacob
Wiedenfeld of Grimailov. He served as rabbi of the Romanian
towns of Secueni from 1887, and of tefaneti from 1899. From
1905 until his death he was rabbi of the Romanian oil town
Bacu and district. He was regarded as the most important
halakhic authority in Romania and virtually every Romanian
rabbi addressed problems to him. In his responsa he discusses
topical problems, such as mixed dancing at weddings, and the
heating of food in an electric oven activated on the Sabbath
by a time switch. In his responsa he makes wide use of the
Jerusalem Talmud, which was generally ignored as a source by
the authors of responsa. J.J. Weinberg described him as one
of the most erudite scholars of our generation, and a living
library of the vast rabbinic literature.
He wrote Responsa Rabaz on the Shulh an Arukh Orah
H ayyim and Yoreh Deah (1930), and on Even ha-Ezer (1962);
Yalkut ha-H innukhi, responsa on aggadic matters an appendix to Part 1 of the Responsa Rabaz; Doresh le-Z iyyon, on
the religious duty of settling in Erez Israel (about which he
expresses enthusiasm), also included in the Minh at Azkarah
(1933), which contains his biography, and letters appraising
his Responsa Rabaz; and Yevakkesh Daat, glosses and notes
to the Sheelot u-Teshuvot Maharsham of Shalom Mordecai of
Brzeziny. Yevakkesh Daat was originally lost but was recovered
among the various works saved from the Holocaust.
Safran left a ramified family, many of whom served in
the Romanian rabbinate and were later dispersed throughout the world. They included Hanoch Henikh Safran, rabbi
of Bucharest and publisher of his books; Dr. Alexander *Safran, chief rabbi of Romania and then rabbi of Geneva; Dr.
Joseph Safran, chief rabbi of Jassy; and Dr. Menahem Safran,
rabbi of Ploeti.
Bibliography: J.J. Weinberg, in: Oz ar ha-H ayyim, 8 (1932),
1735; idem, in: Kibbuz ei Efrayim, 11 (1932), 19f.; H.H. Safran, Minh at
Azkarah (1933); A. Stern, Meliz ei Esh al H odshei Kislev Adar (1962),
32 no. 103; L. Jung (ed.), Men of the Spirit (1969), 43755.
663
[Itzhak Alfassi]
664
sciousness he considers heresy, being the denial of the presence of God at every level of existence. Man is obliged to elevate impure thoughts and abolish the evil that is in them by
confronting them without utter rejection, despite the possible
moral danger resulting from this involvement with the sitra
ah ra (other side; evil; see *Kabbalah). To dismiss impure
thoughts means putting out the divine spark (niz oz ) present in evil. According to this theory, many of the disciples of
Dov Baer the Maggid of *Mezhirich and other h asidic leaders were heretics.
Safrins works include Oz ar H ayyim (1858), a kabbalist
commentary on the 613 precepts; Zohar H ai, on the *Zohar
(pt. 1, 1875; pt. 3, 1881); Noz er H esed (1856), on Avot, including
Sefer Adam Yashar, remedies against the plague, according
to Lurianic Kabbalah; and Shulh an ha-Tahor (ed. A.A. Zis,
196365) on Orah H ayyim of the Shulh an Arukh.
Bibliography: B. Yashar (Shlikhter), in: Sinai, 53 (1963),
16773, 3469; idem, Beit Komarna (1965); A.A. Zis (ed.), Shoshelet ha-Kodesh Toledot Zidachov Komarna, in: Shulh an ha-Tahor, 2
(1965); idem, in: Sinai, 59 (1966), 2836; H.J. Berl, Yiz h ak Eizik miKomarna (1943); L.H. Grosman, Shem u-Sheerit (1943), 2830; N.
Ben-Menahem, in: Sinai, 54 (1964), 26476.
[Esther (Zweig) Liebes]
sahl, mort
SAHAGN, town in Leon province, N.W. Spain. Jewish settlement there originated near the monastery, at the begin-
665
Bibliography: Conforte, Kore, index; Horodezky, in: Z iyyunim le-Zikhrono shel Y.N. Simh oni (1929), 149; Frumkin-Rivlin, 1
(1929), 107; Rosanes, Togarmah, 3 (1938), 280; Scholem, in: Zion,
5 (1940), 134, 144f.; Benayahu, in: Sinai, 35 (1954), 60f.; idem, in:
Aresheth, 2 (1960), 109, 121; idem, in: Sefer Yovel Y. Baer (1961),
249; idem, in: Sefunot, 6 (1962), 17, 24f., 28f.; idem, in: Sefer Toledot
ha-Ari (1967), index.
[Abraham David]
666
of a commentary on the Pentateuch; a theologico-philosophical treatise entitled Al-Talwh al al-Tawh d wa-al-Adl; a disquisition on the Metaphysics of Aristotle; and a treatise on incest. Other works by him are known only by title.
Bibliography: Steinschneider, Arab Lit, 113, 342; S. Poznaski, The Karaite Literary Opponents of Saadiah Gaon (1908), 5355;
Mann, Texts, 2 (1935), 39f., 99f.; L. Nemoy, Karaite Anthology (1952),
235, 377.
[Leon Nemoy]
SAHLINS, MARSHALL (1930 ), U.S. anthropologist. A native of Chicago, he was educated at the University of Michigan, where he received his bachelors degree in 1951, and at Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1954. From
1955 to 1957 Sahlins was a lecturer in anthropology at Columbia University. He then taught at the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor, in 1957 as an assistant professor, and later as a
full professor. In 1974 he left Ann Arbor to join the faculty of
the University of Chicago as a professor of anthropology; he
was later named the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Professor
of Anthropology Emeritus.
Considered one of the most prominent American anthropologists of his era, Sahlins is known as an ethnographer and
historian of Polynesia. His theories about European contact
in Polynesia have sparked major debates, and his long-running
scholarly debate with anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere
of Princeton University has apparently fueled several works
by both authors. Much of this debate has involved differing
interpretations of the reception of Captain James Cook by
native Hawaiians in 1779. Sahlins in early works argued
that Cook had been initially welcomed as the god Lono; on
his return a week later, Cook was killed by the natives because
of a cycle of worship that emphasized the warlike god Ku.
Obeyesekere responded in his Apotheosis of Captain
Cook (1992), emphasizing what he considered the erroneous influence of European myth models, and arguing that
Sahlinss theory implied a condescending view of the native
Hawaiians.
Sahlinss 1995 work, How Natives Think: About Captain Cook, for Example, continued the debate by challenging Obeyesekeres insistence on a practical rationality, which
suggests that he is captive to Western concepts. Sahlins questions whether Western scholars (including Obeyesekere, as a
Sri Lankan who works within a Western tradition) can ever
really speak for non-Western peoples. Called an analytical
masterpiece, the work was said to challenge the definitions
and practices of the postcolonial academic world.
Sahlins was a Guggenheim fellow in 19671968. He was
a fellow of the British Academy and an honorary fellow of the
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
and of the Association of Social Anthropologists of Oceania.
He was awarded the Laing Prize by the University of Chicago
in 1978 and 1996, and he received the Staley Prize from the
School of American Research in 1998.
[Dorothy Bauhoff (2nd ed.)]
667
668
saint gall
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
669
saint-giles
SAINT JAMESS CONFERENCE (known also as the London Conference), a round-table conference with Jewish and
Arab leaders convened by the British government in FebruaryMarch 1939. After rejecting the partition plan of the Royal
Commission (see *Palestine Partition Plans and *White Papers), the British government decided on a drastic change of
policy toward Palestine. The round-table conference with Jewish and Arab leaders was to discuss the entire problem. Jewish
leaders and representatives of the Palestinian Arabs and, for
the first time, the Arab states were invited and convened on
Feb. 7, 1939, in the Palace of St. James. Representatives of Iraq,
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Transjordan attended the conference,
together with the Arab delegation from Palestine, headed by
Jamal al-Husseini, the lieutenant and kinsman of Amn alHusseini, the fugitive leader of the Arab rebellion of 193639.
The Jewish delegation consisted of the leaders of the Jewish
Agency, the Vaad Leummi, Agudat Israel, and some leaders
of the Jewish community in Britain. It was headed by Chaim
*Weizmann, David *Ben-Gurion, Moshe *Sharett, and Stephen S. *Wise. The Arabs refused to attend joint meetings with
the Jews, and the British conferred with each side separately.
The new British policy was based on the assumption that
war with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy was imminent and
that the enmity of the Arab world would be a serious threat
to British interests in the Middle East, whereas the Jewish side
would have no choice in a conflict with the Nazis. The British
thus asked that the Jewish leaders of their own free will dispose of their rights by offering terms of conciliation, as Lord
Halifax, the foreign secretary, put it at a conference meeting on
February 14. On March 15 the British government offered its
proposals, according to which the ultimate objective of the
government was the establishment of an independent Palestine State possibly of a federal nature. The new state would be
neither Jewish nor Arab, but both nations would share in government in such a way as to ensure that the essential interests
of each be safeguarded. Both the Jewish and Arab delegations
670
SAINTJEANDELUZ, town in the Basses-Pyrenes department, S.W. France. There is no record of the presence of
Jews in Saint-Jean during the Middle Ages; it was only from
the 16t century that a number of Marranos settled there. In
1612 an official submitted a report to the Conseil dEtat, notifying it of the presence of a large colony of Marranos. In 1619
Catherine de Fernands, a woman who had recently arrived
from Portugal, was accused of having spat at the Host when
she went to receive communion. In spite of the criminal investigation conducted by the royal prosecutor, the populace
seized the accused and burned her at the stake in the town
square. At the same time a priest of Portuguese origin was also
accused of being a crypto-Jew and of having been chosen as
priest by a large number of Portuguese New Christians who,
in fact, conducted themselves more like Jews than Christians.
All the Portuguese New Christians were expelled from SaintJean, apparently fleeing to Biarritz.
Bibliography: M. Philippson, in: Archives Isralites, 29
(1868), 111517; H. Prague, in: Annuaire des Archives Isralites 5663,
19 (1902), 3752.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
saint louis
671
saint louis
Reform, continue in the 21st century. Other Reform congregations include Temple Emanuel, Central Reform Congregation, Kol Am, and Kol Hanishama.
ORTHODOX AND CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENTS. In the 1870s,
at least three Orthodox synagogues were formed, of which
Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol (1879) survives. Other Orthodox congregations as of 2006 include Agudas Israel of St.
Louis; Bais Abraham Congregation, Bais Menachem-Chabad,
Nusach Ari Bnai Zion, Tpheris Israel, Traditional Congregation and Young Israel of St. Louis. Bnai Amoona was founded
in 1881 as an Orthodox synagogue but later became Conservative. Shaare Zedek and Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel also serve
the Conservative Jewish community of St. Louis.
RECONSTRUCTIONIST AND JEWISH RENEWAL MOVEMENTS.
St. Louis is served by two Reconstructionist congregations,
the Reconstructionist Minyan of St. Louis and Shir Hadash
Reconstructionist Community. There is one local congregation associated with the Jewish Renewal movement, Neve
Shalom.
Philanthropic Institutions
In the mid-to-late 19t century, various institutions were created to coordinate fund-raising to serve the entire Jewish
community regardless of denomination. These included the
Hebrew Benevolent Association (1842), Bnai Brith Missouri
Lodge 22 (1855), which continues to function; and Ebn Ezra
Lodge 47, which later merged into the Missouri Lodge. The
Hebrew Relief Association was formed in 1871 in the aftermath
of the devastating Chicago Fire, which brought many Jewish
refugees to St. Louis who were in desperate need of direct relief support. By 1898, various similar organizations merged
into the United Jewish Educational and Charitable Associations, which evolved into the present-day Jewish Family and
Childrens Service. Other groups came together in 1901 to
create the Jewish Educational and Charitable Union in order
to better coordinate all Jewish philanthropic campaigns. The
JECU later changed its name to the Jewish Federation of St.
Louis, which continues to serve as the central address for all
community-wide fund-raising, planning and budgeting for a
family of local, national and overseas beneficiary agencies. The
Jewish Federations annual campaign typically raises in excess
of $10 million in its annual campaigns, and has also developed
a substantial group of major endowment funds.
672
saint louis
Community Relations
In 1938, following the infamous Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany,
the local Jewish Community Relations Council was formed,
bringing together under one umbrella a current total of 19
Jewish community relations, defense, and communal groups.
Among its founding members were the Jewish Federation,
673
saint-paul-trois-chteaux
Jew Sam. That family moved to Clearwater, and another relative, Abe Tarapani, had a store in St. Petersburg in 1911, before also moving to Tarpon Springs. The Ben Haliczers had a
gas station and tire store from 1910 and had four children in
Florida two in St. Petersburg. Bens brother Leon arrived in
1921 and had a watch repair store.
In 1920 St. Petersburg had 14,000 people, streetcars, daily
band concerts in the park, unpaved streets, and people who
went to the Beach to open businesses were thought crazy.
The pioneer Jewish families names, in addition to those already mentioned, included Jacobs, Davis, Goldman, Sierkese,
Cohen, Katz, Heller, Benjamin, Wittner, Rothblatt, Argintar,
Lew, Solomon, and Gilbert. Some of these early families had
come from Europe first to Key West, Florida, then migrated
to other areas of Florida, including St. Petersburg. The Jews
faced the gentlemens agreement and antisemitic signs, lived
near Central Avenue and had bicycle, jewelry, and grocery
stores. On Sundays and holidays, Jewish families would drive
through Pinellas County to pick oranges at the groves for 50
cents a bushel or drive to the waterfront and swim, filling jugs
with the water that supposedly had health-giving properties
an early spa. In the evenings, the families would congregate
in each others homes to play poker and pinochle while their
children played. They ordered kosher meat from Finmans in
Tampa, which was delivered by boat across Tampa Bay; often
it arrived spoiled, which discouraged many from keeping kosher. By 1925 a bridge was built and the meat came by bus a
big improvement!
The Jews also went to Tampa for religious services until 1923, when Congregation Bnai Israel was chartered and
Conservative services were held in a rented store. The first
president was Hymen Jacobs, and daughter Goldie Schuster
recalls, The discrimination and the schools were worse than
her native Chicago. The first Jewish womens organization,
the Ladies Auxiliary, was organized by Dora Goldberg to help
the needy. In 1928 Reform Jews founded Temple Beth-El. The
membership outgrew its original small home in downtown St.
Petersburg, moving to its present location in 1955, and completing the Religious School addition in 2002 to meet the
needs of its 600 member families.
During World War II, many Jewish servicemen enjoyed
the hospitality of the small Jewish community for Sabbath
dinners and the Passover seder. Bunny Rothblatt Katz collected scrap metal for the war effort in 1941 with her slogan
Your scrap will whip the Japs. Her father, David, was a legless veteran who owned Southern Grocery and was active in
both civic and Jewish affairs. After the war, the Jewish population grew rapidly to about 1,500 families, and the first Jewish nursery school was opened in 1959. Since 1960 Gulf Coast
Jewish Family Services has been helping infants, children,
families and elders in serious physical, medical, mental, social and financial crisis, enabling them to remain free and
independent with families and loved ones. In 1970 Menorah
Manor was built to serve the Jewish aged; it includes a nursing home and assisted living facility. Philip Benjamin Tower
674
SAINTPAULTROISCHTEAUX, town in the Drme department, S.E. France. The first evidence of Jews in the town
dates from 1206, when a Jew named Benicrescas is mentioned
in a document. In 1239 a Tour des Juifs is recorded. Using
the *blood libel of *Valras as a pretext, in 1247 the bishop of
Saint-Paul had the Jews of his diocese thrown into prison after
he had stripped them of their belongings; Pope Innocent IV
firmly protested against his action. Even after the Dauphin
in which Saint-Paul-Trois-Chteux was situated had come
under the authority of the king of France, Jews continued to
live in Saint-Paul. However, in 1486 only three families remained there, and there is no further mention of the Jewish
community after that date. A Hebrew inscription in the presbytery hall could still be seen at the close of the 19t century.
Bibliography: Gross, Gal Jud, 6402; M. Schwab, Inscriptions hbraiques en France du VIIe au XVe sicles (1898), 38f.; J. de FontReaulx, Cartulaire de lEvch de Saint-Paul-Trois-Chteaux (1946),
172; S. Grayzel, Church and the Jews (19662), 266f.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
saint petersburg
SAINT PETERSBURG (Petrograd from 1914 to 1924; Leningrad from 1924 to 1992), capital of Russia until 1918, now in
the Russian Federation; industrial city and major port on the
Baltic Sea. Some apostates or Marranos appeared in St. Petersburg soon after its foundation in 1703. Anton Divier, who
was of Portuguese Jewish origin, was appointed the first police minister of the new capital in 1718. The Portuguese Jew,
Jan Dacosta, was one of the jesters at the royal court during
the first half of the 18t century. Jewish physicians and financiers held various positions in the city during the 18t century:
Lippmann was financial agent of the court during the 1720s.
In 1738 the proselyte officer Alexander *Voznitsyn and Baruch Leibov of Dubrovna, who had introduced him to Judaism, were burnt at the stake in St. Petersburg. Because of the
intolerant attitude of Czarina Elizabeth (174162) the few Jews
who lived in St. Petersburg left. *Catherine II, on the other
hand, was interested in attracting Jewish contractors, industrialists, and physicians to the city, and issued instructions
to the authorities to overlook the presence of those useful
Jews who lived there with their families and clerks and had
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
675
saint petersburg
tion. In fact, the number of Jews in the city was greater at all
periods, because many, whose right to reside there was dubious, evaded the census officers.
Despite its small numbers, the St. Petersburg community
played an important role in Russian Jewish life, thanks to the
riches of individual members and their proximity to and influence at the court. The barons of the Guenzburg family, as well
as other rich Jews, were considered as the spokesmen of the
whole of Russian Jewry before the central government. From
time to time gatherings of rabbis and community representatives were called to St. Petersburg for official and semiofficial
meetings, at which vital problems were discussed. From the
1860s an organized community existed in the city. The right of
a communal vote depended on payment of 25 rubles tax, thus
assuring that the wealthy had control of the community. Several leading personalities held the position of *kazyonny ravvin (government appointed rabbi) in St. Petersburg, including A. Neumann, A. *Drabkin, and M. *Eisenstadt. Among
the traditional rabbis was Isaac *Blaser, who held office from
1864 to 1878; the last rabbi of the community was David Tevel
*Katzenellenbogen (190730). The poet J.L. *Gordon was the
community secretary from 1872 to 1879. After many endeavors and numerous refusals, a magnificent central synagogue,
containing 1,200 seats and built in the Moorish style, was
completed in 1893. In spite of prohibitions and unremitting
police persecutions, the community continued to grow, numbering 35,000 (1.8 of the population) in 1914. Severe *censorship regulations caused the Jewish press (Hebrew, Russian,
and Yiddish) to be centered in St. Petersburg from the 1870s
until the 1905 revolution. The newspapers Ha-Meliz (187173
and 18781904), Ha-Yom (188688), Dos Yudishes Folksblat
(188190), and the first Russian daily newspaper in Yiddish,
Der Fraynd (190308), were all published there. Above all, the
city was the center of Russian-Jewish journalism and literature. The periodicals Yevreyskaya Biblioteka (187180), Razsvet
(187983), and Voskhod (18811906), the Zionist organ Razsvet
(190718), and many other newspapers, were also published
in St. Petersburg. One of the outstanding publications was the
Russian-Jewish encyclopedia, Yevreyskaya Entsiklopediya.
In addition to local cultural and charitable institutions
(such as the Society for the Support of Poor Jews, which was
established in 1907 to coordinate the activities of the various
charitable societies and was recognized as a legal institution
under whose aegis their work could be carried out), many nationwide Jewish organizations had their headquarters in St.
Petersburg. Oldest of these organizations was the Society for
the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (founded
in 1863). Others included *ORT; the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA); the Hovevei Sefat Ever (called *Tarbut after
the 1917 Revolution); the Historical-Ethnographic Society,
which published the historical quarterly Yevreyskaya Starina;
and the Society for Jewish Folk Music. The citys Asian museum housed a valuable Hebrew department, based on the
library of the wealthy M. Friedland. The Imperial Public Library (now the State M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library)
contains one of the worlds oldest and most important collections of Hebrew manuscripts. Under the initiative of Baron
D. *Guenzburg, courses in Oriental studies were opened in
St. Petersburg in 1907. It was intended to develop these into a
higher institute of Jewish studies. The concentration of public
and cultural institutions in the town attracted Jewish authors
and intellectuals (these included A.A. *Harkavy, J.L. *Katzenelson, S. *Dubnow, and M. *Kulisher).
With the outbreak of World War I, *YEKOPO (Jewish
Committee for the Relief of War Victims) was established
to concentrate all the relief activities on behalf of hundreds
of thousands of Jews who were refugees from the battle regions. After the February Revolution in 1917, all residence
restrictions affecting the Jews of Petrograd were abolished,
and the city became a center of the organizational activities
of all the parties and factions of Russian Jewry. In June 1917,
the seventh conference of the Zionist Organization of Russia
was held in the town. Large numbers attended, demonstrating the strength of the movement and the loyalty of Russian
Jews to the Zionist ideal even after they had been granted full
civic emancipation. Preparations were also made to convene
a general Jewish assembly in Petrograd. During the troubled
days in the latter part of 1917 a Jewish battalion under the
command of J. *Trumpeldor was formed, made up of Jewish
soldiers of the local garrison. Around this battalion a self-defense unit was organized, which protected Jewish lives and
property during the revolution of October 1917. The transfer
of the seat of government from Petrograd to Moscow (1918)
and the shortages and famine reigning in the city during the
Russian civil war severely affected the Jewish community.
Many Jews returned to their families in provincial towns. In
1920 there were 25,453 Jews (3.5 of the total population) in
Petrograd. With the consolidation of the Soviet regime, the
number of Jews rapidly increased, to 52,373 (4.9) in 1923
and 84,505 (5.2) in 1926. The 1926 census listed their occupations as: clerks (40.2), craftsmen (14), laborers (13.5),
government and municipal employees (10.2), and liberal
professions (2.5); the remainder was unemployed. Organized Jewish life was liquidated in Leningrad as in all places
throughout the Soviet Union. A small group of Russian-Jewish
intellectuals attempted to continue its literary-scientific work
under the new regime. They maintained their former cultural
societies and continued to publish scientific and literary periodicals in Russian. By the end of the 1920s, these projects
were also liquidated by the Soviet regime. Some intellectuals
then left Russia (including S. *Dubnow and S. *Ginzburg), and
others were integrated in Soviet life (I. *Zinberg, Yu. Hessen).
In a poem, the Hebrew poet H. *Lenski described the atmosphere of the city during the Soviet period. According to the
January 1939 census, there were 201,542 Jews (6.32 of the total population). The percentage of academicians among Jews
was much higher than in the general population: 123 vs. 31 per
1,000 persons. Many thousands of Jews were drafted into the
Red Army, and tens of thousands evacuated. The city was under German siege for 900 days (September 8, 1941late Janu-
676
saint-rmy-de-provence
In the census of 1959, 162,344 Jews were registered in Leningrad but the real number was probably closer to 200,000;
13,728 of them declared Yiddish as their mother tongue. The
city had one large, imposing synagogue, from the prerevolutionary period, a wedding room, a poultry slaughterhouse,
and a maz z ah bakery. Thousands of Jews congregated in the
synagogue and its vicinity on the High Holidays. The congregation published a Jewish calendar on the eve of Rosh Ha-Shanah in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1950s the citys synagogue
board had a dynamic chairman, Gedaliah Pecherski, who was
not only devoted to the religious needs of his congregation,
but also initiated petitions to the Soviet government and the
municipal authorities asking to be allowed to organize courses
in such subjects as Hebrew and Jewish history. One petition
was also signed by scholars, among them the non-Jewish authority on ancient and medieval Hebrew literature, K.B. Starkova. The petitions were rejected out of hand, and Pecherski
was arrested in 1961 and sentenced to seven years imprisonment, ostensibly for having maintained contact with a foreign
[Israel] embassy. The rabbi of the synagogue, Rabbi Lubanov,
who had been imprisoned in a forced labor camp during the
Stalin era, returned to office and was venerated by the congregation as a scholar and spiritual leader.
The department of Oriental and Hebrew studies at Leningrad University was run mostly by scholars, Jewish and
non-Jewish, who studied there before the Revolution and who
tried to continue the tradition of independent research and
scholarly publication in the field of Jewish history, archaeology, etc. Joseph Davidovich Amusin published a book on the
Dead Sea Scrolls which became popular with the Soviet public
at large. The Saltykov-Shchedrin Library contains a rich section of Hebrew and Yiddish books (about 40,000 volumes)
and also displays a number of Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals
from abroad, including Israel. Jews and non-Jews frequented
this section, though it was generally assumed that excessive
interest in Hebrew language and literature was viewed with
suspicion by the security officials. In 1962 a Jewish drama circle was established, but it soon stopped functioning because
of lack of funds.
In 196264, as in other parts of the U.S.S.R., the baking
of maz z ah in the Leningrad synagogue was discontinued by
the authorities. In 1962, with the intensification of the antireligious drive, directed mainly against Judaism, several Jews
were arrested, some of them charged with illegally baking
maz z ah. The same year, on the eve of Simh at Torah, 25 Jewish
youths were arrested while dancing in the street near the synagogue. The local newspaper, Vecherniy Leningrad, carried an
article (Oct. 27, 1962) condemning the synagogues activity. In
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
1963 flour for maz z ah baking was confiscated in private Jewish homes. From 1963 the authorities prohibited the use of the
Jewish cemetery, which was finally closed down in 1969. Jews
buried their dead in a section allotted to them in the general
cemetery. In 1964, when thousands of Jewish youths danced
and sang near the synagogue on Simh at Torah eve, several of
them were arrested. Later the militia put up barriers in the
street opposite the synagogue to prevent Jewish youth from
congregating and dancing on Simh at Torah.
After the Six-Day War (1967), Jewish youth displayed
more openly its identification with Israel in spite of the official anti-Israel campaign. Many started to study Hebrew in
private groups; others protested publicly against the refusal
to grant them exit permits for Israel and their protests were
published abroad. In June 1970 some of them were arrested
in their homes and places of work and their trial has not yet
taken place (January 1971). Another group of young Jews,
mostly from Riga, together with two non-Jews, were tried in
Leningrad in December 1970 for allegedly planning to hijack
a Soviet plane in order to land abroad and ultimately to reach
Israel. Two were sentenced to death and the others to prison
terms of 415 years. A worldwide storm of protests, including by Communist parties and newspapers in the West, preceded the appeal of the condemned in the Supreme Court of
the Russian Republic in Moscow 1971; the death sentences
were commuted to 15 years hard labor and some of the other
sentences were reduced.
Though mass emigration reduced its Jewish population
from 107,000 in 1989 to 40,000 in 2002, Saint Petersburg reemerged as a vibrant Jewish community after the fall of Communism, with a full range of religious and educational facilities, including a yeshivah and a Chabad House. Most cultural
activities were centered in the Grand Choral Synagogue, which
included a home for the poor and an orphanage.
Bibliography: S. Ginzburg, Amolike Peterburg (1944); idem,
Meshumodim in Tsarishn Rusland (1946), 1153, 194206, 279308;
Feinberg, in: Heawar, 4 (1956), 2136; B. Dinur, Bi-Ymei Milhamah
u-Mahpekhah (1960), 44304; L. Gordon, in: Voskhod, nos. 12
(1881); O.S. Grusenberg, ibid., no. 1 (1891); H.A. Soloveychik, ibid.,
no. 5 (1892); S. Dneproveki (Dubnow), in: Nedelnaya Khronika Voskhoda, nos. 3536 (1893); L. Klyachko, in: Yevreyskaya Letopis, 2 (1923),
11422.
SAINTRMYDEPROVENCE, town in the Bouchesdu-Rhne department, S.E. France. The presence of Jews in
Saint-Rmy is confirmed from 1305 at the latest; at that time all
the metal dealers were Jews. The community increased rapidly, augmented by refugees from the kingdom of France. That
the community was important is indicated by the fact that
it owned several synagogues, a bakery, a market, a butchery, and a cemetery (the last is still in existence). Until 1339
Jews supplied all the meat sold in Saint-Rmy, and the townsmen complained that the ritually slaughtered meat was
tasteless. The community continued to exist until 1501 when
the Jews were expelled from Provence. At that time several
677
saint-simonism
SAINTSIMONISM, a 19t-century social reform philosophy and movement, inspired by Claude-Henri de Rouvroy,
Comte de Saint-Simon (17601825). It had prominent disciples of Jewish descent. Its ultimate goal was a technologically
oriented industrial society, under a dictatorship of competent
scientist-technicians and property-owning businessmen and
bankers, inspired by the bizarre ideology of a New Christianity shorn of other-worldliness and asceticism. In a nonviolent fashion, caste privileges would be surrendered, work provided for all, rewards allocated according to merit, inheritance
abolished, and equality of both sexes established. Saint-Simonism displayed an elective affinity toward the compassionate
social messianism of the Hebraic prophets. Revivalist exaltation upon which the sect eventually foundered included
the expectation of the woman-messiah Mother, a Jewess
from the Orient, who would formulate the new morality and
whom the disciples must go out and find. Saint-Simons earliest apostle was Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues (17951851), who
was of Jewish origin. He nominated the two supreme fathers
of the Saint-Simonian temple, Bazard (17911832) and Erefantin (17961864), and published Saint-Simons and the disciples
collected writings. Among those Rodrigues introduced into
the fold were his brother, Eugene, and his cousins, Emile and
Isaac *Preire with whom, later, he promoted French railway
construction and corporate banking. Other eminent Saint-Simonians were Lon *Halvy, Gustave d*Eichthal, and Jules
*Carvallo. The active presence of the Jewish element sparked
the violent reaction of both the Socialist Fourier and Catholic Church spokesmen, who denounced Saint-Simonism as a
Jewish plot to subvert civilization. After due consideration it
was rejected by Marx and Engels, together with all other preMarxist doctrines. However, among the contemporaries who
were impressed by the doctrine were the historians Carlyle and
Michelet, the sociologist Comte, the composers Berlioz and
Liszt, and the author George Sand, in addition to such German Jewish intellectuals as Eduard *Gans, Heinrich *Heine,
Rahel *Varnhagen, and Moritz *Veit.
privileges: freedom to bequeath both movable and immovable property; permission to engage in commerce and moneylending; exemption from various tolls; liberty of movement;
and protection of the community against judicial irregularities. The numerical and economic importance of the community can be gauged from the fact that it paid almost half of the
taxes imposed on the Jews of Dauphin. In 1408 the municipality asked the dauphin to reduce the rate of interest of Jewish moneylenders from 50 to 25. In the course of the 15t
century the Jewish community ceased to exist.
Bibliography: A. Prudhomme, in: Bulletin de lAcadmie
Delphinale, 3rd series, 17 (1881/82), 164ff.; idem, in: REJ, 9 (1884), 260f.;
Gross, Gal Jud, 663.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
SAINTSYMPHORIENDOZON, village in the Isre department, S.E. France. When the village was ceded to *Dauphin by *Savoy, there was already an important Jewish
community there, which in 1355 was granted advantageous
678
Bibliography: C.H. de R. Saint-Simon, Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et dEnfantin, 47 vols. (186578; repr. 1963 ); G. Weill, in: REJ,
31 (1895), 26173; Z. Szajkowski, in: JSOS, 9 (1947), 3360; F.M.H.
Markham (ed.), Selected Writings of Saint-Simon (1952); J. Talmon,
in: Commentary, 26 (1958), 15872.
[Hanns G. Reissner]
sakowitz, bernard
SAJAROFF, MIGUEL (18731958), pioneer of agrarian cooperativism in Argentina. Born in Mariupol, the Crimea (Russia), he earned a degree in agronomical engineering in Wittenberg, Germany. Under the influence of Tolstoyan thought,
he aspired to become a farmer and live close to nature. Acquiescing to the request of his brother-in-law, Noah *Yarcho, he
went to Argentina in 1899 and settled in the Colonia Leven,
Entre Ros, as an independent settler, on land granted him
by the *Jewish Colonization Association (ICA). He hoped to
improve the economy and the cultural life of the settlement
by participating in the establishment of the cooperative Fondo
Communal in Domnguez in 1904. After assuming its presidency in 1908, he advocated and promoted the development
of agricultural cooperatives not only in all the Jewish settlements but also throughout Argentinean life. After his death
a town in the province of Entre Ros was named Ingeniero
Miguel Sajaroff.
[Lazaro Schallman]
SAKEL, MANFRED JOSHUA (19001957), Austrian psychiatrist. Born in Nadvorna, Galicia (then Austria), Sakel
went to Berlin, where he specialized in treating addicts. On
an accidental overdosage of the then newly discovered insulin, given to an addict who was diabetic, he observed that the
patient lost her craving for narcotics. Sakel then started his
experiments with the insulin cure for therapeutic purposes in
schizophrenic patients. After the rise of Hitler, Sakel returned
to Vienna and continued his work at the University Clinic, the
birthplace of Wagner-Jareggs experimental malaria treatment
and a center of therapeutic initiative. It was here that Sakel developed the details of the insulin coma treatment, which for
many years was the standard therapy in schizophrenia, especially in its early stages. In 1935 he published his dissertation
on insulin therapy; Neue Behandlungsmethode der Schizophrenie. In 1936 Sakel emigrated to the U.S. and continued his
work at the New York State Mental Health Department. He
refused many offers of academic appointments, preferring to
remain independent. He died in New York. His two principal
works, Epilepsy (1958) and Schiz ophrenia (1958), were published posthumously. A Sakel Foundation was established,
which arranged two international congresses, one in 1959 and
one in 1962, that dealt with the topic of biological therapy and,
especially, insulin cure.
Sakel was a fervent Zionist and politically supported the
*Irgun Z evai Leummi movement.
Bibliography: Current Biography Yearbook 1957 (1958),
375.
679
saks, gene
of the Texas Medical Center and St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital, leading many fundraising campaigns for cancer research.
Within four years after his death, a recession in the oil industry, upon which the Houston area was so dependent, had taken
its toll and the store declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Hooker
Corporation of Australia funded the Chapter 11 petition and
took majority control, but to no avail. Sakowitz was put up for
sale, but liquidated in 1990 after failing to find a buyer.
[Mort Sheinman (2nd ed.)]
SAKS, GENE (1921 ), U.S. director, actor. Trained as an actor at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social
Research, a precursor of the Actors Studio, Saks was a cofounder of an acting troupe in the late 1940s. He made his
Broadway acting debut in Juno and the Paycock (1947). He
began directing on Broadway in 1963 with Carl *Reiners play
Enter Laughing, and went on to excel in staging comedies and
musicals, including Mame (1966), which featured his then
wife, Beatrice Arthur, and Same Time, Next Year (1975). But
he became best known for his deft touch with comedic plays
by Neil *Simon. He directed Simons autobiographical trilogy
Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Biloxi Blues (1985), and Broadway Bound (1986). He also directed several Simon movies, including Barefoot in the Park (1967), with Robert Redford and
Jane Fonda, The Odd Couple (1968), with Jack Lemmon and
Walter *Matthau, and Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1986). He
made his film acting debut in 1965, recreating his stage role
as a paranoid kiddie-show host, Chuckles the Chipmunk, in
A Thousand Clowns.
SALAMAN, English family. CHARLES KENSINGTON SALAMAN (18141901), pianist and composer, was elected a member
of the Royal Academy of Music at the age of ten, and made his
debut on the concert platform in 1828. After completing his
music studies in Paris, he returned to London in 1831 and, besides composing, teaching, and giving recitals, devoted much
time to promoting the musical life of the capital. He inaugurated an annual series of orchestral concerts (1833), founded
Londons first amateur choral society (1849), helped to establish chamber concerts (1853), and was one of the founders of
the Musical Society of London (1858).
In 70 years of composing, Charles Salaman produced
many works for piano, organ, and orchestra, and a comic
opera, Pickwick (1889). He was especially prolific as a writer of
songs in English, Italian, and Hebrew and of devotional music for the synagogue. An early advocate of Reform Judaism,
he composed more than a hundred settings for the service of
the West London Synagogue, as well as anthems and settings
of psalms. Several of his anthems were used by Anglicans,
and his setting of the 84t Psalm was sung at the reopening of
Worcester Cathedral. He wrote Jews as they Are (1882, 18852).
Four of Charles Salamans sisters rose to prominence in art and
literature. JULIA SALAMAN (18121906), who married Louis
Goodman, was a well-known portrait artist who exhibited at
the Royal Academy from 18381901. Her younger sister KATE
SALAMAN (18211856) was noted for her miniature portraits.
RACHEL SALAMAN married Sir John *Simon in 1843, and
wrote Records and Reflections, selected from her writings during half a century (1894). ANNETTE SALAMAN (d. 1879) assisted in compiling a second edition of Footsteps in the Way of
Life (18742), an illustrated guide to the Bible, and the childrens
story book Aunt Annettes Stories to Ada (18761; 18795).
680
salamanca
Charles Salamans oldest son, MALCOLM CHARLES SALAMAN (18551940), was a drama and art critic. From 1883 to
1894 he was a drama and art critic of the Sunday Times and,
from 1890 to 1899, was also on the staff of the Daily Graphic.
In the art world he was regarded as Englands outstanding authority on color prints and woodcuts.
His numerous books on prints included The Old Engravers of England (1906), Old English Colour-Prints (1909), The
Great Painter-Etchers from Rembrandt to Whistler (1913), and
the series Modern Masters of Etching and Masters of the Colour
Print. From 1923 to 1938 he published an annual review, Fine
Prints of the Year. He edited the published plays of Sir Arthur
Wing Pinero (18911900). Three of his own plays were staged
Deceivers Ever (1883), Dimitys Dilemma (1894), and A Modern
Eve (1894). He also wrote a large number of song lyrics.
SALAMANCA, city in western Spain. The Jewish settlement of Salamanca seems to have been one of the oldest in
the kingdom. From its start at the time of Christian rule, the
Jewish quarter was close to the old citadel. The first documents
681
SALAMAN, REDCLIFFE NATHAN (18741955), pathologist and geneticist. He was director of the Pathological Institute of the London Hospital from 1901 to 1904. His later scientific investigations were devoted chiefly to the genetics and
diseases of the potato, and in 1926 he was appointed director
of the potato virus research station in Cambridge. One of his
major achievements was the initiation of stocks of virus-free
seed potatoes. He wrote Jewish Achievements in Medicine (1911)
and Racial Origins of Jewish Types (1922). Two books on his
specialty were Potato Varieties (1926) and The History and Social Influence of the Potato (1949). In 1935 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
During World War I Redcliffe Salaman served in Palestine and in 1920 published Palestine Reclaimed. He had a lifelong commitment to the Jewish community and to Zionism,
was a trustee of Jews College, London, and a governor of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also served as president
of the Jewish Historical Society of England, the Jewish Health
Organization of Great Britain, and the Jewish Commission
for Relief Abroad. His first wife, NINA RUTH SALAMAN (ne
Davis; 18771925), was well known as a poet and translator of
medieval Hebrew poetry. Her own verse included Apples and
Honey (1921) and she translated *Judah Halevis poems (1924).
Their son, MYER HEAD SALAMAN (19021994), was a bacteriologist and doctor. Engaged in cancer research and pathology in World War II, he joined the Department of Cancer
Research, London Hospital Medical College, in 1946, where
he became director in 1948.
Bibliography: JC (June 17, 1955), 12; K.M. Smith, in: Royal
Society of London, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1 (1955), 23945; J.W. Parkes, in: JHSET, 18 (195355), 2968.
[George H. Fried]
salamon, erno
682
sale
SALE (Heb. , mekhirah). Sale may be defined as the permanent transfer for consideration of existing legal rights from
one person to another. The consideration may be in money or
in kind. By extension the term sale is also used to denote a
transfer of rights for a lengthy (but predetermined) period,
such as the sale of land for a period of many years (BM 79a; BB
136b; cf. Yad, Sheelah, 1:5). When sale is mentioned, however, it
primarily refers to the transfer of real or proprietary rights and
not to mere personal rights, i.e., obligations or debts, since it
was at first legally impossible to transfer such rights (see *Assignment). The geonim already laid down that rights in rem
applied only to corporeal or tangible things (Hai Gaon, Sefer
ha-Mikkah ve-ha-Mimkar, ch. 2, introd. i; cf. Resp. Maharashdam, h M 271), and therefore anything having neither length,
breadth, nor depth such as the smell of an apple or the taste
of honey or the glitter of a precious stone was incapable of being conveyed (Yad, Mekhirah, 12:14; cf. also TJ, BB 3:1, 13d and
Ha-Ittur, vol. 1, introd., ch. 2, Kinyan). This is probably the
reason why it is impossible to convey title in something which
is not yet in existence since, being intangible, it cannot be the
subject matter of a real right as also it is impossible to convey
to someone who has not yet been born (see below).
683
sale
In the biblical period the sale of real property was restricted. Thus, fields could only be sold until the Jubilee, in
which year they would automatically revert to their owners
(Lev. 25:13ff.), whereas dwelling houses in walled cities if not
redeemed within a year of their sale would rest irrevocably
with their purchasers regardless of the Jubilee (ibid.). In Jewish law the term sale does not mean an agreement to sell in
the future, but an immediately effective transfer of ownership.
Sale, nevertheless, raises many of the problems relating to the
creation, interpretation, and execution of contractual obligations. In the Talmud, mekhirah is an example used for clarifying these problems, since the laws of sale are an application
of the wider principles of property and contract. The transaction of a sale is concluded with the gemirat ha-daat (firm
decision) of the parties to transfer the relevant rights irrevocably from one to the other at which point neither may resile from the bargain. The parties rely on the sale if there has
been a manifestation of their gemirat ha-daat by such a way
of speech or conduct as will be understood by most people as
an agreement to conclude the transaction whether or not
this is in accordance with the subjective intention of either of
the parties. Undisclosed thoughts are of no consequence, and
the test of the conclusion of the sale is purely objective; if in
the particular circumstances most people would express their
intention to conclude the transaction in that particular and
manifest manner, the transaction will accordingly be effective,
and it is immaterial that either party did not really intend to
conclude the transaction in that particular way, or that there
was no consensus ad idem between one party and the other.
A corollary of this test is the principle that the parties need
not make up their minds to the identical thing, and there may
sometimes be no actual consensus between the parties even
if outwardly their conduct is so interpreted. Moreover, when
it is manifest that one of the parties had not properly made
up his mind to the transaction, he may withdraw from it but
not the other party who had done so as may happen in the
case where one party is mistaken as to the quality of the subject sold (Yad, Mekhirah, 17:1), or he has been overcharged in
respect of the price (ibid., 12:4).
The Decision of the Parties
The decision of the parties to conclude a sale is finalized by the
performance of one of the appropriate acts of kinyan (acquisition) by one of the parties generally the purchaser after
the other parties have expressed their agreement that this be
done (Ned. 44a; BB 54b; see *Acquisition (Kinyan)). Ownership thereupon passes, regardless of the question of possession, since possession sometimes accompanies the passing
of ownership and sometimes not (see, e.g., BM 46ab). If the
consideration for the sale is a monetary payment, the purchaser, upon the passing of ownership, undertakes to pay the
purchase price and it becomes a debt for which he is liable
(BM 45b, 78b).
Furthermore, if an act is performed that brings about
the gemirat ha-daat of one or all of the parties but is not con-
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exceeds one-sixth, the sale is voidable, and the party standing to lose may retract, since such a large mistake would not
usually be tolerated. Refunding the difference or avoiding the
transaction is only permitted within a specified period, during
which the party at disadvantage could have become aware of
his mistake; thereafter it is presumed that he has waived the
rights arising from the mistake in favor of the other party and
made up his mind to uphold the transaction as it stands (BM
49b; Rashi on the Mishnah, ibid.). The rules of mistake as to
price apply equally to mistake in respect of any other aspect
of the sale. Whenever the property sold or any of the conditions of the sale vary from that which the purchaser relied
upon and the variation is so great that people in similar
circumstances would normally be particular enough to look
upon the transaction as being something other than the one
upon which they relied it will be a case of a purchase in error (mikkah taut) which voids the transaction (see Sh. Ar., h M
232:6 and glosses thereto). Generally, if as a result of a variation in the property sold it is unsuited for the use for which
the purchaser wanted it, it will be a case of mikkah taut (see,
e.g., Yad, Mekhirah, 15:12, 13).
If the parties conclude the transaction of a sale and perform an act of kinyan, but have failed to determine the price,
the purchaser will not have acquired title since there was no
reliance on the transaction by the parties, and both of them
may retract; if, however, the purchase price was fixed and
known, the sale will be effective (Yad, Mekhirah, 4:1112).
Maimonides also expressed the opinion that a person cannot
acquire from another something that is undetermined even
as to species (Yad, Mekhirah, 21:13). Thus a purchaser cannot acquire title to everything that is in this house, or box
or sack, which the owner is selling for so much, even if he
has performed an act of kinyan, since he does not rely on this
transaction; however, when the species is known, e.g., this
heap of wheat or cellar of wine at such and such a price, the
sale will be effective even if the actual measure and weight are
unknown at that moment.
A sale by a person lacking legal capacity such as a deafmute, idiot, or minor is void, since he lacks understanding
and hence the absence of the element of gemirat ha-daat. The
sages prescribed, however, that certain sales by such parties
would be valid for the sake of his sustenance (Git. 59a), i.e.,
in order to procure the necessities of life. It was laid down
that the minimum required age in the case of a minor would
depend on the degree of his understanding (ibid.) and this
was detailed as follows: a minor aged six years and over, having sufficient understanding to appreciate the nature of the
transaction, could sell and purchase movable property; from
the age of 13, his sale or purchase would be effective in respect of movables, even if he could not appreciate the nature
of the transaction, but ineffective in respect of land unless he
could appreciate the nature of the transaction; a minor could
not sell land inherited from his ancestors until he reached
the age of 20 (Yad, Mekhirah, 29:6ff.). In the post-talmudic
period, too, the age of majority was varyingly determined in
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
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tions and may not even be thinking of any, but the presumption is that they intend to sell and purchase in accordance
with local custom. Hence local customs relating to purchase
and sale are superimposed to supplement the decision of the
parties; furthermore, statements of conditions which are not
clearly expressed are construed in accordance with local custom (Yad, Mekhirah, 17:6; 26:78; 27:11; also Hassagot Rabad,
Mekhirah 24:12). If the parties wish to exclude the conditions
of local custom, they must make express provisions to this effect. Thus a person who transfers ownership to another generally intends it to pass upon the performance of the kinyan
by the transferee; however, if for example, he says, perform
the kinyan and acquire 30 days hereafter, the acquisition will
only be complete after 30 days (Ket. 82a).
Of the customary conditions, the most important one is
the warranty of authority. Thus, one who purchases something
which is later taken from him for reasons connected with the
seller for instance, that the land was not his or that it was
mortgaged to his creditor may hold the seller liable and recover the cost of it from him. This warranty of ownership by
the seller is implied in every sale, even if not expressly formulated (Yad, Mekhirah, 19:3). If the seller wishes to be absolved
from all or any part of such responsibility, he must do so by
express stipulation (ibid., 19:8). Another opinion (BM 14a) is
that in an ordinary sale the seller takes no responsibility upon
himself unless a specific provision to the contrary is made.
The Mishnah, in listing various categories of sale, clarifies the different (implied) conditions that will be included
unless otherwise provided for by the parties and if not contrary to local custom. Thus one who sells a field sells also the
stones which serve the land, the unreaped grain, the watchmans booth, and the trees which have no intrinsic value, but
not the stones that are not necessary to the land, or the grain
that has been severed from the ground, and the like (BB 4:8).
So too, one who sells a field for sowing does not include rifts
in it or rocks which are more than ten handbreadths high (BB
7:1); one who buys two trees in anothers field does not buy any
land with them, but one who buys three trees, buys also the
land on which they are growing (BB 5:4); one who has sold a
wagon has not sold the mules, and if he has sold the mules he
has not sold the wagon (BB 5:1); one who has sold the head
of a large animal, has not sold its feet also, but in the case of
sheep the feet are included in the sale of the head (BB 5:5).
Similarly, the Mishnah enumerates that which is included or
excluded in the sale of numerous items of property ranging
from houses, buildings, and trees to slaves and animals (BB
47). Implied conditions also apply with regard to the price.
Thus one who has sold wheat to another for a fixed amount
of money without specifying the quantity, must deliver wheat
according to the market price at the time of the sale (Yad,
Mekhirah, 21:4).
In cases where there is difficulty in construing the parties intention, their ultimate purpose may be arrived at with
the aid of the rule that he who sells, sells in a liberal spirit,
i.e., a liberal interpretation of the agreement is made. Thus,
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sal-rabat
one who sells a house but does not include the cistern in the
sale must purchase from the buyer a right of way to it, since
the terms of the sale are to be interpreted liberally and he did
not retain a right of way (BB 64ab). However, a person who
has sold a field but retained two trees for himself will also retain the soil in which they grow, even though the purchaser of
only two trees acquires no soil with them (BB 71a). There are
conflicting views on the matter, some scholars stating that a
restrictive interpretation is also possible, i.e., one who sells,
sells in an illiberal spirit. However, all scholars accept that
the maxim of a liberal interpretation is applicable in the case
of *gifts (BB 65a).
In the State of Israel
The rules of sale are set out in the Sales Law, 5828/1968, which
in general adopts the draft uniform law relating to international sales, submitted at The Hague International Conference
in 1964. In certain matters this law takes cognizance of the attitude of Jewish law (see Elon, in bibliography).
Bibliography: J.S. Zuri, Mishpat ha-Talmud, 5 (1921), 6088;
Gulak, Yesodei, 1 (1922), 5593; 2 (1922), 1529; Gulak, Oz ar, 15982,
23842, 3068, 345f.; idem, Le-H eker Toledot ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri biTekufat ha-Talmud, 1 (Dinei Karkaot, 1929), passim; idem, Toledot haMishpat be-Yisrael bi-Tekufat ha-Talmud, 1 (Ha-H iyyuv ve-Shibudav,
1939), 10, 33 n. 12, 6265, 74, 1004, 106; Herzog, Instit, 2 (1939), 6171,
10739; ET, 1 (19513), 15360, 2168; 6 (1954), 61624, 62531, 66183;
7 (1956), 3067; B. Rabinowitz-Teomim, H ukkat Mishpat (1957); M.
Elon, in: ILR, 4 (1969), 91 n. 49, 122. Add. Bibliography: M. Elon,
Ha-Mishpat ha-Ivri (1988), 1:69, 106, 179, 327ff., 571ff., 581, 595, 741ff.;
2:1284, 1290, index; idem, Jewish Law (1994), 1:77, 120, 200, 392ff.;
2:703ff., 716, 735, 913; 3:1533, 1540; 4; index; M. Elon and B. Lifshitz,
Mafteah ha-Sheelot ve-ha-Teshuvot shel H akhmei Sefarad u-Z efon Afrikah (legal digest) (1986), 7880, 21327; B. Lifshitz and E. Shochetman, Mafteah ha-Sheelot ve-ha-Teshuvot shel H akhmei Ashkenaz,
Z arefat ve-Italyah (legal digest) (1997), 51, 16065; Enz iklopedyah
Talmudit, vol. 7, S.V. davar shelo ba le-olam, 30ff.; index.
can. He was frequently called by different governments in connection with diplomatic issues in the Near East. Salem was a
member of the Ottoman delegation to the Lausanne Conference of 1922, where he played a considerable part in elaborating those sections dealing with the status of the Dardanelles
and with the capitulations regime. In gratitude for his legal
services and efforts, he received recognition and honors from
the Ottoman sultans Abdul Hamid and Rashid, and the governments of Austria, Italy, France, Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria,
and the Vatican. His wife, like wives of other Salonikan Jewish
benefactors, dignitaries, and community leaders, received the
Ottoman honor afakat Level II or III. During the last years
of his life, Salem lived in Paris, where he was the president of
the Sephardi congregation and a member of the central committee of the Alliance Isralite Universelle.
His son RAPHAEL (18981963) was a noted mathematician. He worked in the Bank of Paris until World War II, when
he escaped to the U.S. There he taught at Harvard University
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1955 he became professor of mathematics at the Sorbonne in Paris. His
works include Theorie gnrale des Sries trigonomtriques;
Sries trigonomtriques lacunaires et alatoires; Ensembles
parfaits et sries trigonomtriques; and Algebraic Numbers and
Fourier Analysis. His collected works were published in 1967.
Add. Bibliography: D.A. Recanati, Zikhron Saloniki I
(1972), 196; E. Carasso, Les Juifs de Salonique 14921943, LEchelle de
Jacob V (2000), 132.
[Joseph Nehama / Yitzchak Kerem (2nd ed.)]
SALEM, EMMANUEL RAPHAEL (18591940), Greek lawyer. Born in *Salonika, Salem specialized in international law
and the law of capitulations, and became legal adviser to foreign consulates in *Turkey. He published several studies on
the capitulations and on the conditions of foreign subjects in
Turkey in international law periodicals in Paris and Brussels
(18881900). In 1889 Pope Leo XIII awarded him the knighthood of the order of the Holy See. He served as the legal advisor to La Banque de Salonique (The Bank of Salonika),
founded in 1888, which was Jewish run and owned, and the
first bank established in Salonika.
Salem was active in the general communal life of Salonika. He donated an orphanage to the Jewish community, and
assisted in the modernization of its hospital. With the revolution of the Young Turks of 1908, he went to *Istanbul to play an
active part in the work of the Council for Legislative Reforms,
which established the legal system of the Turkish republic. He
solved many legal problems between the Ottoman and other
governments. He also mediated between Turkey and the Vati-
687
[Shalom Albeck]
salerno
688
behalf of the Jews of Morocco, caused some of the Jews of Rabat to exceed their rights, thus setting off severe disturbances.
The rabbis and the authorities only succeeded with difficulty
in allaying the agitation. There were massive departures for
*Casablanca, where the Zagury, Hayot, Lasry, Benchaya, and
Marrache families, as well as others from Rabat, were the most
influential in the new community for a long time. Under the
French Protectorate (since 1912), various Jewish institutions
were established in Rabat, notably the Supreme Rabbinical
Tribunal (abolished by the government in 1965) which was
headed by Rabbis Raphael Encaoua and Joseph Benatar over
a long period.
In 1947 there were 20,000 Jews in the region of Sal-Rabat. Of these, 12,350 lived in Rabat and 3,150 in Sal. Until the
mid-1950s there were also branches of the *Jewish National
Fund and *WIZO in Rabat. In 1970 Sal had not a single Jewish inhabitant, while about 4,000 Jews still lived in Rabat.
The majority of the Jews of Rabat had immigrated to France,
the *United States, and *Canada, those of Sal going almost
exclusively to Israel. By 2005, only several hundred Jews remained in Rabat. Yaakov Mellul, chief rabbi of Rabat, noted
at the end of the 20t century that, with the exception of the
larger community of Casablanca, most other Moroccan Jewries, Rabat included, had no prospects for Jewish continuity.
Most of the Jewish schools in Rabat were closed, including the
wide network of the *Alliance Isralite Universelle and Oz ar
ha-Torah schools and a rabbinical seminary, founded in 1951.
There were no rabbis, no infrastructure for community life,
and the young left their homes for the West in pursuance of
their higher education. Their parents followed the children
to the West to preserve the close-knit nature of the family, as
well as to protect them from marrying non-Jews.
Bibliography: J. Goulven, in: Bulletin de la Socit Gographique du Maroc (1922), 1141; idem, Les Mellahs de Rabat-Sal (1927);
Mige, Maroc, passim; J. Caill, La Ville de Rabat jusquau Protectorat
Franais (1949), passim; D. Corcos, in: Sefunot, 10 (1966), 98f.; idem,
Les Juifs du Maroc et leurs Mellahs (1971); Hirschberg, Afrikah, index; A.N. Chouraqui, Between East and West (1968), index S.V. Rabat,
Sal. Add. Bibliography: K.L. Brown, People of Sal: Tradition
and Change in a Modern City, 18301930 (1976); M.M. Laskier, The
Alliance Isralite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco:
18621962 (1983); idem, North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century:
The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria (1994).
[Haim J. Cohen / Michael M. Laskier (2nd ed.)]
Jewish families were converted, but many continued secret allegiance to Judaism. In 1485 R. Obadiah of *Bertinoro was for
some months in Salerno and apparently frequented the medical school. With the expulsion of the Jews from the Kingdom
of *Naples in 1510, the much-reduced Jewish community of
Salerno also ceased to exist.
Bibliography: Milano, Bibliotheca, index; Milano, Italia, index; Roth, Italy, index; Roth, Dark Ages, index; N. Ferorelli, Ebrei nell
Italia meridionale (1915), passim; Carucci, in: Archivio storico della
provincia di Salerno, 1 (1921), 7479; Cerone, in: Studi Michelangelo
Schipa (1926), 5973; Marongia, in: Archivio storico per le provincie napoletane, 62 (1937), 23863; Frey, Corpus, no. 568. Add. Bibliography: C. Gambardella, Gli ebrei a Salerno, in: Architettura Giudaica
in Italia. Ebraismo, sito, memoria dei luogh (1994), 26983; N. Pavoncello, Epigrafia ebraica nel Museo Duomo di Salerno, in: Istituto
Universitario Orientale: Annali, 18 (1968) 198203; M. Galante, Tre
nuovi documenti sui cristiani novelli a Salerno nei secoli XIIIXIV,
in: Sefer Yuhasin, 9:13 (1993), 314; D. Abulafia, Il mezzogiorno
peninsulare dai bizantini allespulsione, in: Storia dItalia. Annali 11,
Gli ebrei in Italia. Dallalto Medioevo allet dei ghetti (ed. Corrao Vivanti) (1996), 544.
[Ariel Toaff / Nadia Zeldes (2nd ed.)]
SALFELD, SIEGMUND (18431926), German rabbi and historian. Salfeld, who was born in Stadthagen, Germany, served
as rabbi in Dessau from 1870, and in Mainz from 1880. Salfeld
received the title professor from the grand duke of Hesse in
1912. His scholarly interest was devoted to the history of German Jewry, and especially of the Mainz community. He described the political and social conditions of German Jews in
the Middle Ages, based on research into source material, and
his major work in this area was Bilder aus der Vergangenheit
der juedischen Gemeinde Mainz (1903).
Salfelds most important work was Das Martyrologium
des Nuernberger Memorbuches (1898), which connected the
*Memorbuch found in Mainz with Nuremberg, a contention disputed by M. Weinberg who assigned it to Mainz (Die
Memorbuecher der juedischen Gemeinden in Bayern (193738),
34). Many of Salfelds studies appeared in learned periodicals
and Festschriften. In 1879 he published Das Hohelied Salomos
bei den juedischen Erklaerern des Mittelalters.
Bibliography: Gedenkreden beim Heimgang des Altrabbiners S. Salfeld (1926).
[Jacob Rothschild]
689
690
SALIT, NORMAN (18961960), U.S. lawyer, rabbi, and communal leader. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Salit was admitted to the bar in 1920. The previous year he had received his
rabbinical degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America. Salit became rabbi of Temple Israel in the Bronx in
1920 and served as rabbi of Shaaray Tefila synagogue in Far
Rockaway, Queens, from 1924 to 1929. Salit combined his legal and rabbinical professions. He headed the Queens County
Bar Association committee on legislation from 1933 to 1937,
and in 1947 and 1949 ran, unsuccessfully, as a Democrat for
the positions of presiding supervisor of Nassau County and
of Childrens Court judge, respectively.
During World War II he was executive director of the
Wartime Emergency Commission for Conservative Judaism,
which aided congregations whose rabbis had entered military service. In 193554 he was president of the Synagogue
Council. Salit was an active member of many Jewish organizations. He was on the board of overseers of the Jewish TheoENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
with Salk vaccine was adopted routinely in the U.S. and other
countries. Salk refused to profit financially from his vaccine.
The efficacy of a killed virus vaccine led to the development
of similar vaccines against other viruses. Albert *Sabins alternative oral live-virus antipolio vaccine, with the prospect of
conferring lifelong immunity, supplanted the Salk vaccine in
the U.S. and other countries, at least temporarily. The different approaches to antipolio vaccination in 1963 led to intense
personal and general controversy. Salk founded the Institute
for Biological Sciences named for him in La Jolla, California, where he continued his research, including attempts to
develop an anti-HIV virus. His honors included the Lasker
award for clinical medical research (1956), the U.S. Order
of Merit, and a Congressional Gold Medal.
[Michael Denman (2nd ed.)]
SALKINSON, ISAAC EDWARD (Eliezer; 18201883), Hebrew translator who converted to Christianity and became a
missionary. Raised in Belorussia, he trained as a teacher, then
studied grammar, Bible, and German, and translated the first
act of Schillers Kabale und Liebe into Hebrew. While living
in London he converted to Christianity (1849). He became
a Presbyterian pastor in 1856, and in 1876 was sent as a missionary to Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life. Despite
his conversion Salkinson regarded himself as a Jew. Emotionally and intellectually he had strong ties to the Hebrew language, which he believed should replace Latin as the sacred
691
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language of Christianity. His translations reflect his dual motives and fall into two categories: some were intended to bring
Jews closer to Christianity; others were done for purely artistic reasons. The first type included Va-Yegaresh et ha-Adam
(1871), a translation of Miltons Paradise Lost; and Ha-Berit haH adashah (The New Testament), published posthumously in
1883. The second type included translations of Othello (Ithiel
ha-Kushi) and Romeo and Juliet (Ram ve-Yael; Vienna, 1874
and 1875). A conscientious craftsman who wrote in lucid, neobiblical style, Salkinson was one of the finest translators of the
Haskalah period.
Bibliography: I. Cohen, Isaac Edward Salkinson (Heb.,
1942); Kressel, Leksikon, 1 (1965), 7513.
[Elieser Kagan]
692
SALMON, KAREL (Karl Salomon; 18971974), Israeli composer. Born in Heidelberg, Salmon studied composition with
Max Reger and in Richard Strausss master class. From
1919 to 1933 he was active in Germany as conductor and singer
(bass), and in 1933 he settled in Palestine. With the establishment of the Palestine Broadcasting Service (later Kol Israel),
he became its musical director and remained at this post
until 1958. He then was director of Kol Israels transcriptionexchange service for four years. Salmon also taught at the
Academy of Music in Jerusalem and appeared as conductor and singer. Many of his works belong to the Mediterranean style period of Israel music and attempt a blending of
his European heritage with Near Eastern and Jewish folklore
material.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
salome
693
salome
In the Arts
In literature, the theme was not popular before the mid-19t
century, and most writers have considerably embroidered the
stark tale to heighten its dramatic effect. One of the very few
Jewish writers attracted by the theme was Judah L. *Landau,
whose Hebrew drama, Dam Tah at Dam, appeared in 1897. The
outstanding work on the subject was Oscar Wildes tragedy,
Salom, which had a succs de scandale following its publication in French in 1893. Wilde made Salome a depraved personality driven on by her baffled lust for the Baptist, a treatment
well calculated to outrage contemporary English opinion. An
English translation by Lord Alfred Douglas appeared in 1894
and was subsequently published as Salom; La sainte courtisane; A Florentine tragedy (1911). The play, first performed
in Paris in 1896, only reached the English stage in 1931 when
tastes had changed and censorship requirements had relaxed.
Wilde provided an original dnouement by having the tetrarch
order Salomes own execution amid her dreadful triumph. Another late 19t-century treatment of the subject was the German dramatist Hermann Sudermanns five-act tragedy, Johannes (18982; John the Baptist, 1909). The theme retained its
popularity in the 20t century, beginning with Salome (1908),
a Swiss-German tragedy by Richard Zwez. Salome also inspired a poem by the French surrealist Guillaume Apollinaire
and a Croatian drama by Miroslav Krlea. Her mother, Herodias, was the heroine of two French works of the 19t century
on closely related themes: Hrodiade (1869), a verse drama
by Stphane Mallarm, and Hrodias, the third of Gustave
Flauberts Trois Contes (1877), which imaginatively recreates
the atmosphere of Roman-occupied Judea.
In art, there were from the 11t century a number of representations of the feast at which Salome danced. In these
Herod presides, wearing a crown or a medieval Jewish conical hat. On a capital from the cloister of St. Etienne (Muse
des Augustins, Toulouse) he is shown in the act of tenderly
chucking Salome under the chin. In the oldest representations,
Salome dances in an upright position with movements of the
hips, but in those produced after the 12t century she turns
somersaults and stands on her hands in the manner of medieval acrobats. She was known in medieval France as la danserelle or la sauterelle (the grasshopper) and an acrobatic
dance was named after her. In art she is shown performing
dances which vary according to the fashion of the period. The
dance of Salome appears in medieval carvings, stained-glass
windows, the 12t-century bronze doors at St. Zeno, Verona,
and in 12t- and 13t-century mosaics at the Florence Baptistery and St. Marks Cathedral, Venice. It was also a popular
subject in the early Italian Renaissance, when it was treated by
Giotto (1266/671337) in his fresco at St. Croce, Florence; by
Donatello (13861466) in a bronze bas-relief in the Baptistery
of St. Giovanni, Siena; and by Fra Filippo Lippi (14061469)
in a fresco at Prato Cathedral. The subject later appears in
17t-century Russian frescoes and in a drypoint etching by
Picasso in which Salome dances before Herod in the nude.
The scene where Salome receives Johns head on a charger
694
In Music
In music, the story has inspired general works, which the fancy
of the librettists elaborated far beyond anything that can be
found in the sources. Jules Massenets Hrodiade (text by Paul
Milliet and Georges Hartmann under the pseudonym of Henri
Grmont) was first performed in Brussels in 1881 and has remained in the repertoire. Here, Salome loves John and does
not know that she is the daughter of Herodias; Herod falls in
love with her and in the final dnouement, Salome kills herself.
The most famous universal treatment of the theme is Richard Strausss opera, Salome, written in 190405 to a libretto by
Hedwig Lachmann based on Oscar Wildes play. The operas
gruesome theme and the horrors it contained aroused strong
opposition wherever it was performed, the sensuousness of
the text being faithfully paralleled by the music. The Dance
of the Seven Veils which forms Salomes climax is sometimes
performed as a concert piece and, in the early 1920s, it was
often presented as a vaudeville attraction. A setting of Wildes play in the original French version was composed by Antoine Mariotte before 1905, but had its premire only in 1908
(at Lyons), and this involved the composer in difficulties with
Richard Strauss. Three works on the same subject followed
almost immediately. Florent Schmitts ballet, La Tragdie de
Salom (1907), included many Oriental themes which he had
collected in 1900 on his travels in the Near East, especially in
Palestine (heard near the Dead Sea). The same year saw the
appearance of Karol Szymanowskis Salome, a circle of songs
with orchestra (text by J. Kasprovicz; revised orchestration
1912), and Granville Bantocks opera, The Daughter of Herodias. Bantock also wrote incidental music for the Wilde play
in 1918. Paul Hindemiths Hrodiade (1944), for chamber orchestra, was based on the verse drama by Mallarm; it has also
served for a ballet. Among compositions of incidental music
for the play is that by Leonard Bernstein (1955).
[Bathja Bayer]
Bibliography: H. Daffner, Salome, Ihre Gestalt in Geschichte
und Kunst (1912); R. Cansinos-Assens, Salome en la Literatura. Flaubert, Wilde, Mallarm, Eugenio de Castro, Apollinaire (1919), includes
translations; H.G. Zagona, The Legend of Salome and the Principle
of Art for Arts Sake (1960); M. Roston, Biblical Drama in England
salomon, alice
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salomon, haym
first used this camera for behind-the-scenes glimpses of internationally famous political personalities at League of Nations conferences in the late 1920s. An audacious, ingenious
cameraman, his many subterfuges included cutting a hole in
his derby hat for a concealed lens; wearing an armsling which
hid both camera and the little glass slides he first used; and
carrying an impressive leather-bound volume hollowed out to
serve the same purpose. Another of his famous tricks was to
place the camera in a flowerpot, window sill, or desk, and trigger the shutter by a cable release hidden in flowers, carpet, or
wall. Salomon was one of the worlds first photo-historians. He
covered the League of Nations, diplomatic and other meetings
in Geneva, Paris, London, and Washington. Erich Salomon
died with his family in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. A son,
Peter Hunter-Salomon, survived the Holocaust and published
a book on his father, Portraet einer Epoche (1963).
[Peter Pollack]
SALOMON, GESKEL (18211901), Swedish artist and art historian. Born and educated in Denmark, he settled in Sweden
in 1850 and became professor at the Stockholm Art Academy.
Among his books on art history were Die Statue des Venus
von Milo and Die Statue des Belvederischen und Vatikanischen
Apollo. He painted historical events, portraits, and genre sub-
SALOMON (Solomon), HAYM (17401785), early American merchant and Revolutionary War patriot. Salomon, who
was born in Lissa, Poland, arrived in New York about 1775 after wandering in Europe and became one of the most prominent 18t-century American Jews. During the Revolutionary
War he was a distiller and sutler to the American army, and
697
was captured as a spy by the British. His life was spared, and
he served as an interpreter in their commissary department.
Continuing to give information to the Americans, he assisted
their prisoners to escape British captivity while operating a
profitable victualing business in New York City under British
occupation. Married to Rachel Franks in 1777, he had to flee
a year later to Philadelphia, where he began a brokerage and
commission business. In 1781 he became an assistant to Robert Morris, superintendent of the Office of Finance, after serving in a similar capacity as broker and treasurer for the huge
expenses of the French army stationed in America. Morris
characterized him as useful to the public interest. Salomon
also lent money without charge to impecunious members of
the Continental Congress, among them James Madison, who
recommended him as our little friend in Front Street. In
1784 Salomon expanded his business activities to New York,
opening a brokerage and auctioneering house there with Jacob
Mordecai. A mason, Salomon was a major contributor in 1782
to the Congregation Mikveh Israel building, Philadelphia. He
argued against a New Testament oath taken by officeholders in Pennsylvania and worked for political rights of Jews.
Though a successful merchant, Salomon invested most of his
money in Continental stocks and bonds, and his accounts
showed a deficit at the time of his death. The newspaper obituary referred to him as an eminent broker of this city remarkable for his skill and integrity in his profession, and for
his generous and human deportment. He left four children
and a widow, who later married David Hilborn. By 1799 she
was living in the Batavian Republic. Benjamin Gomez was
appointed guardian of Salomons son HAYM M. (17851858),
and Joseph Andrews of his daughter DEBORAH (17831808).
Exaggerated claims were made for Salomons services to the
American Revolution, largely as a point of Jewish apologetics.
Without question, however, he was a vigorous patriot at great
personal risk, and a competent financial servant of American
independence and of some of its leaders.
[Leo Hershkowitz]
agricultural work. Salomon was one of the founders of Jerusalems Nah alat Shivah quarter (1869), one of the first to be built
outside the walls of the Old City, and participated in the establishment of Meah Shearim and other quarters. He took active part in the Yishuv Erez Israel Association, which endeavored to purchase agricultural land for settlement. In 187778
he published the paper Yehudah vi-Yrushalayim (Judea and
Jerusalem), in which he advocated plans for agricultural settlement and called for action and deed. In the autumn of 1878
he was among the founders of Petah Tikvah; after the first settlers were severely affected by malaria, he helped establish the
nearby settlement of Yahud and to attract to it scholars, in order to establish a yeshivah there. After living there for seven
years, he returned to Jerusalem and took up his public work
for the institutions of the old yishuv.
Bibliography: A. Yaari, Goodly Heritage (1958), index; M.
Salomon, Sheloshah Dorot ba-Yishuv (19602); Sefer ha-Yovel le-Petah
Tikvah (1929), 8196; Y. Trivaks and E. Steinman, Sefer Meah Shanah
(1938), 15162; M. Smilansky, Mishpah at ha-Adamah, 1 (1954), 5862;
G. Kressel (ed.), Yehudah vi-Yrushalayim (1955), 1339; B. Gat, Ha-Yishuv ha-Yehudi be-Erez -Yisrael 18401881 (1963), index.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
SALOMON, JULIUS (18531922), Danish archivist and historian of 19t-century Danish Jewry. Appointed librarian of
Copenhagens newly established municipal library in 1897,
Salomon assembled an outstanding collection of material for
scholarly research. From 1907 to 1917 he was assistant secretary to the upper house of the Danish Parliament.
In 1914, to celebrate the centenary of the royal decree
which granted Danish Jewry full civil liberties, he published
Mindeskift i Anleding of Hundredaarsdagen for Anordningen
of 29 Marts 1814. Together with J. Fischer, he wrote Bidrag til
dansk-jdisk Historie 18201845 (Contribution to Danish-Jewish History 18201845, 1918). He was a cofounder and editor of
the Jewish journal Tidsskrift for Jodisk Historie og Literature, in
which many of his studies of Danish-Jewish history appeared
between 1917 and 1922.
[Herbert A. Strauss]
SALOMONCALVI, WILHELM (18681941), German geologist. Salomon-Calvi was a member of the faculty of Heidelberg University from 1897, being appointed professor of
geology in 1908. In 1934, despite the fact that he was a convert
to Christianity, he left Germany and went to Turkey, where
he became head of the geology department of the agriculture
faculty at Ankara University.
His main work was connected with the Adamello-Marmolata and Gotthard massifs of the Alps, the tectonics of the
rift valley of the Rhine, and the influence of magmatic upheavals on mountain building. Salomon-Calvi discovered thermal
springs near Heidelberg and played a part in the groundwater exploration of Turkey. He was for many years editor of the
Geologische Rundschau and an active member of the Heidelberg Academy.
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[Leo Picard]
salonika
SALOMONS, SIR JULIAN EMANUEL (18361909), Australian politician and jurist. Born in Birmingham, England,
Salomons, the son of a merchant, emigrated to New South
Wales in 1853 and worked first for a bookseller and then for a
stock jobber. His mothers sister married Sir Saul *Samuel. Salomons became secretary of the Sydney Great Synagogue, and
his ability as a public speaker led the synagogue to send him
to England in 1858 to study law. In 1861 he returned to Sydney
and was admitted to the bar. His keen powers of analysis and
gift for submitting evidence rapidly led him to outstanding
success. In 1868, he defended the Irish nationalist OFarrell
on a charge of shooting at the Duke of Edinburgh, a son of
Queen Victoria. In 1869 Salomons was nominated a member
of the New South Wales Legislative Council and in the same
year became solicitor-general, representing the government
in the Upper House. He resigned in 1870. Salomons was made
chief justice of New South Wales in 1886, but resigned before
even being sworn in because of the hostility of some members of the court. He was reappointed to the legislative council in 1887 and was vice president of the cabinet until 1889. He
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
SALOMONSEN, CARL JULIUS (18491924), Danish physician and bacteriologist. Born in Copenhagen, Salomonsen
began his bacteriological investigations in 1873 as an assistant
at the Copenhagen Municipal Hospital. He studied with Julius
Friedrich Cohnheim (183984), Robert Koch (18431910), and
Louis Pasteur (182295), and then introduced bacteriology as a
scientific discipline into Denmark and was appointed lecturer
on bacteriology at the University of Copenhagen. Salomonsen was professor of pathology from 1893 to 1920 and rector
magnificus (191920). With the introduction of serotherapy
and the discovery of diphtheria antitoxin, Salomonsen established a serotherapeutic laboratory in 1895 which became the
foundation of the well-known Danish States Serum Institute.
Salomonsen was known as the last polyhistor at the University
of Copenhagen. A great number of monographs on various
branches of science afford evidence of his extensive knowledge and interests.
Bibliography: Dansk biografisk leksikon, 20 (1941), 5169.
[Julius Margolinsky]
SALONIKA (Thessaloniki), port located in N.E. Greece. Although historical evidence is scarce, it is believed that the Alexandrian Jews who arrived in ca. 140 B.C.E. were among the
first Jews to settle in Salonika. Several sources give evidence
of the existence and growth of the Jewish community during
the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It is known that the apostle Paul preached for three consecutive Sabbaths in the synagogue of Salonika and that afterward he was forced to leave
the town. The Romans granted autonomy to the community,
whose members lived in a neighborhood near the port; therefore, the Jews had the opportunity to develop strong commercial ties with many parts of the world. The Jews of Salonika
during the Roman and Byzantine periods had Greek names
and spoke Greek.
Byzantine Period
After the splitting up of the Roman empire in 395 C.E., Salonika became the second most important city after Constantinople in the *Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine emperors
in their efforts to Christianize their subjects were hostile
to the Jewish communities in their territory and especially
to the Jews of Salonika. Constantine the Great (30637) and
Theodosius II (40850) enforced anti-Jewish laws. Justinian I
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salonika
(sick wards); yeshivah; and bet din. The religious head of each
kahal kadosh was the marbiz torah or h akham shalem, who
was elected for a limited period of time and usually came from
the town or country of origin of the kahal kadosh. The marbiz
torah taught at the yeshivah of the congregation, was usually
also the dayyan of the congregation, and delivered sermons
on Sabbaths and holidays. Jews were forbidden by the halakhah to go to the Turkish authorities for matters pertaining
to inheritance and ketubbot. The Talmud Torah Hagadol was
formed in 1520 as a communal solution to education, since
maintaining a school for each of the more than 30 kahalim
became an insurmountable burden. It was a very large institution of 200 teachers, serving more than 10,000 students,
and was not only a school but also had a communal treasury,
library, printing press, a fabric industry, and its own prayer
congregation. Salonika became a center of Torah learning and
attracted many students from abroad. During the 16t century
there were numerous important rabbis whose influence spread
beyond the borders of Salonika and even the Ottoman Empire. Among the most prominent were: Joseph *Caro, the famous rabbinic decisor who lived in Salonika during the years
153234 and continued to work there on his monumental Bet
Yosef; Solomon *Alkabetz, the author of Lekhah Dodi; Isaac
*Adarbi, the author of Divrei Rivot and Divrei Shalom; Moses
*Almosnino, the author of many important works including
Regimiento de la Vide and inventor of an astrolabe; Moses de
Boton (d. 1570) and his son Abraham de *Boton (d. 1592), the
author of the responsa Leh em Rav and Leh em Mishneh, a commentary on Moses *Maimonides 12t-century code of Jewish
law, Mishneh Torah; and Samuel di *Medina (RaSHdaM),
who left over 1,000 responsa and is considered among those
halakhic authorities whose decisions both in halakhah and in
practice can be relied upon. Salonika was also renowned as
a center of Kabbalah. In addition to the rabbinical schools in
Salonika in the 16t century, there was a bet midrash for piyyutim and singing, as well as a bet midrash for secular studies
where medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, and other subjects were taught. Saadia Longo was a noted local poet, and
Israel *Najara of Damascus, who was of Salonikan familial origin, spent time there. The physician *Amatus Lusitanus, who
wrote treatises on circulation, taught in that above school of
medicine when he settled in Salonika in 1558.
From 1515 the Jewish weavers of Salonika provided the
Ottomans with cloth for army uniforms. Later the community could pay the mandatory poll tax (the jizya) as a protected
minority religious group through this service. Thus, the Jewish community was recognized as Musselemlik, recipient
of a freedom letter which exempted it from other taxes and
made it an autonomous administrative body directly under
the Sublime Porte.
17t Century
At the beginning of the 17t century the city once again suffered from plagues and fires (1604, 1609, 1610, 1618, 1620,
1630, 1636, 1640, 1648), causing emigration; nevertheless,
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noted rabbinic works, stories, historical pieces, folkloric stories, commercial issues, and the like.
The main Judeo-Spanish newspaper of Salonika, La
Epoca, was founded in 1875 by Saadi Halevi Ashkenazi, who
was an active publisher in Salonika and was a scion of a family that published many exegeses from Sephardi h akhamim
in Salonika and elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire. This commercial and literary newspaper appeared twice a week until
the summer of 1898, when it appeared also every Friday. The
Halevis struggled financially to print the newspaper and keep
it running, and it closed in 1912.
Parallel to Yiddish theater in the Ashkenazi world, the
Sephardim of the Balkans had an active Judeo-Spanish theater. The Judeo-Spanish theater was the most active in Istanbul in the last quarter of the 19t century, but by the end of
the 19t century it would be surpassed by the Salonikan stage.
The first plays took place at the time of the opening of the
local Alliance schools. The play Saul by Vittorio Alfieri was
adapted into Judeo-Spanish by Joseph Errera, a local poet and
train station manager who coordinated the dramatic productions of the organization. In 1882, El Tiempo, a translation of
Racines Esther, was also performed in Salonika, and in 1884,
David Hassid adapted LAvare of Molire into Judeo-Spanish
for the local Salonikan stage. In the 20t century in Salonika, ideological movements like the Socialist Labor Federation, which essentially was a Jewish movement with 6,000
Sephardi Judeo-Spanish speaking members Jews, or Zionist
movements and organizations like Betar, Bnai Mizrachi, Maccabi, Tiferet Israel, Bnai Zion, Cercle Max Nordau, and Poalei
Zion organized Judeo-Spanish theatrical productions. In 1914,
the drama group of the Socialist Federation produced both
Molires Garonudo and the comedy El hastron. In 1919 the
above group performed Tolstoys Resureccion.
Some of the Judeo-Spanish plays performed by the religious Westernization helped in the development of trade. In
Istanbul and Izmir, the Jews could not compete against the
Greek-Orthodox and Armenian merchants, as the latter were
much more numerous and powerful, but in Salonika, where
the Jews were a majority, they attained great wealth, developed
the city industrially, and controlled the port, the commerce,
banking, the tobacco trade, and the artisan professions. As a
result of their European education, Salonikan Jews represented
big European firms as maritime, commercial, insurance, and
tobacco agents. As Salonika became connected to Mitrovitsa
(1871), Belgrade (1880), Vienna (1888), Monastir (1893), and
Istanbul (1895) by rail, exports from the city increased greatly,
but the local Jews also developed industrial infrastructures,
with small factories supplying Macedonia and Ottoman markets with flannel, knitted goods, and wool and cotton products. Nevertheless, the export of cotton, hides, silkworms, and
wool continued to represent an important part of its activity.
The volume of the Salonikan port rose from one to two million tons between the years 1880 and 1912.
As a result of this Westernization, liberalism became paramount among the Jews of Salonika. Nevertheless, this did not
702
a supreme council composed of three rabbis and seven dignitaries. The three rabbis were elected for life and could not be
replaced unless all three died. The first triumvirate was composed of Moses b. Hayyim Shabbetai, Abraham di Boton, and
Elijah Kovo. Another important step was the reorganization of
all the rabbinical courts into three bodies along the following
lines: matrimonial; rents, possessions (H azakot); and ritual
matters (issur ve-hetter). Each bet din was composed of three
rabbis who were elected by the triumvirate; they were known
for their justness, and many Muslims and Greeks preferred
to try the cases they had with Jews in these courts instead of
the Turkish ones.
18t19t Centuries
As the Ottoman Empire declined, the communitys financial
situation in Salonika worsened, and French merchants began
to gain control of business interests. In 172030, Portuguese
Marranos, called Francos, immigrated to Salonika. Most of
them were well-educated, and among them were merchants
and bankers, who had been established in Italy and in particular in Livorno.
They did not pay taxes to the sultan since they were considered as interpreters of the consuls. In the beginning they
also refused to pay the relevant taxes to the Jewish community, but after a decision by the central committee of the community, they acceded to the communitys demands. The Jewish population at that time was between 25,000 and 30,000.
Nevertheless, both religious and secular studies declined, and
only study of the *Kabbalah still flourished.
Leading rabbis of the 18t century were Asher Ben Emanuel Salem, author of Responsa Asher (1748), Moses ben Solomon Amararillo, who wrote the 3-vol. Responsa Devar Moshe
(1742, 1743, 1750), and Joseph ben David, author of Responsa
Bet David (1740).
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Holocaust Period
The Salonikan Jewish community, which was the most prolific
Sephardi cultural and religious center in the world and which
dominated the city as a plurality or majority throughout most
of 450 years since the Spanish expulsion, suffered greatly in
the Holocaust. Its pre-World War II population of 56,000 was
almost totally annihilated in the Holocaust 98 percent of its
Jewish community, 54,000 Sephardi Jews, died in AuschwitzBirkenau, or during the long, exhausting Death March from
January to May 1945. Salonika, the heart of the Sephardi world,
was thus destroyed, and everyday Sephardi life in a natural setting would never return. By the time of the Holocaust, whether
in Turkey, Jerusalem, the Americas, or elsewhere, Sephardi
communities had assimilated into local cultures to such an
extent that Judeo-Spanish Sephardi culture had nearly vanished as a vital and dominant force. Only in Salonika, where
the community had an active Judeo-Spanish theater, a thriving Judeo-Spanish press, a vast secular and religious literature,
and a wide array of Sephardi musical performers, ensembles,
salonika
and choirs, was the Sephardi Judeo-Spanish culture an all-inclusive and self-perpetuating phenomenon.
World War II began for Greece and Greek Jewry on October 28, 1940, when Greek dictator Metaxas refused to surrender to Mussolini, and Italy attacked Greece from Albania.
Greece fought valiantly to push back the Italians but finally
capitulated on April 26, 1941. The Jews had a very active role
in fighting for the Greek army, with 12,898 Jews conscripted
for this special war effort. Four-thousand Jews fought on the
front line in the Albanian campaign and in Macedonia, and
513 fought against the Germans. A total of 613 Jews were killed
on both fronts, and at least 174 were from Salonika. Other Jewish casualties included 3,743 wounded, 1,412 of them severely.
The Greek Macedonian Brigade 50 that fought in Albania was
nicknamed the Cohen Battalion, as it included many Jews
from Salonika and other parts of Macedonia.
At first the German rule in Salonika was relatively quiet.
The Jewish newspapers were closed, including El Mesagero,
the last Judeo-Spanish newspaper to be published in traditional script. New pro-Nazi Greek newspapers, Nea Evropi
and Apoyevmatini, appeared and spread vehement antisemitic
sentiment. Jews were forced to guard train lines against sabotage by the resistance, and Jews had to give rooms in their
homes to German soldiers. There was little terror against the
Jews and very few restrictions. As the Germans neglected the
Greek economy, there was mass starvation in 194142, with as
many as 60 Jews dying each day in Salonika. The Rosenberg
Commission entered Salonika in mid-June 1941 and confiscated massive amounts of Jewish books, documents, Torah
scrolls, and religious artifacts, taking them back to the Nazi
Institute for Jewish Research in Frankfurt. In the early 1990s,
some of the communal documents from Salonika and Athens appeared as part of confiscated German documents in the
Osobyi Archives in Moscow.
On July 11, 1942, the Germans assembled 9,000 Jewish
males between the ages of 18 and 45 for forced labor. Waiting
on the Sabbath in their holiday clothes, they were compelled
to do humiliating calisthenics and many were beaten. Some
4,000 Jews were recruited for grueling road work from August
to December 1942. The Jews were released from forced labor
after paying an exorbitant ransom, but the Germans ordered
the destruction of the 500-year-old Sephardi cemetery with
its half-million graves.
From the beginning of German occupation in Salonika
on April 9, 1941, until the end of the deportations of Salonikan Jewry to Birkenau from March 15, 1943, to August 1943,
as many as 3,0005,000 Jews fled Salonika, mostly by train,
to the temporarily safe Italian zone below the Platona line
(below Katerini and to the north of Larisa in the Thessaly region) and sought refuge in Athens. While most Salonikan
Jewish families hesitated to leave their familiar surroundings
and appear not to have known what was happening under
German occupation in northern Europe, there were many
Jews who were politically astute and succeeded in finding a
way to flee.
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salonika
ment, and as a boxer worked in the kitchen and daily smuggled out a 25-liter soup barrel, which served as an extra ration
at night for fellow Salonikans and other Jewish inmates. In
Auschwitz, the Salonikan Jews were a main part of the work
force throughout 1943 and 1944 since they numbered some
11,000. Jacko *Maestro, a crafty young Salonikan Sephardi
youth who spoke German, became Arbeitsdienst coordinator in Auschwitz, assigning the daily work schedule to some
16,000 camp inmates and saving numerous lives by finding
easier work places for the weak and the sick.
As a large part of the work force in Birkenau, the Salonikan Jews were also a large part of the *Sonderkommando, the
work group that labored by the gas chambers and pulled out
the dead bodies and burned them in the crematorium. Since
the prisoners in this kommando were witnesses to the German death process, they were executed after working three
months in the gas chambers. When a general camp revolt was
canceled, the Greek Sonderkommando Jews decided to revolt
themselves, joined by the French and Hungarian Jews as well
as by 19 Russian Jewish soldiers. Isaac Kabelli estimated that
135 Greek Jews participated in the revolt in Crematoria III and
IV, which started at about 2:152:20 P.M. on October 7, 1944.
After attacking two German guards in Crematorium IV and
taking their weapons, a group of 25 Greek prisoners ran to
Crematorium III. During the furious battle there, numerous
German guards were killed when the Germans from outside
shot at the prisoners inside. Historian Steven Bowman noted
that some 20 guards were killed. Isaac Baruch, a Salonikan
Jew of Skopjian familial descent, placed a bomb in the furnace
of Crematorium III. The explosion demolished the building.
Before the Germans killed all of the prisoners in the crematorium, the prisoners sang a tune from the Greek partisans and
finally the Greek national anthem. The Sonderkommando in
Crematorium II did not revolt, since at the beginning of the
uprising the Germans acted quickly and locked up all of them
in a crowded room for the day.
Auschwitz Salonikan Jewish prisoners, as foreigners who
were unfamiliar with Polish Jewry and Warsaw, were sent to
clean up the destroyed Warsaw Ghetto and establish a forced
labor camp there. The Salonikan Jews were the first group sent
from Auschwitz to Warsaw in August 1943 and physically built
the camp. A second group of Salonikans was sent in October
1943. Together, the Salonikan Jews numbered over 1,000, and
they were the largest group of any origin in the Genshovka
camp. A Salonikan Jew, Shaul Senor, who had previously made
aliyah to Erez Israel and returned to Salonika to organize
further immigration under the pioneering Heh alutz movement, tried to escape from Warsaw, was caught, and executed
a month later on June 25, 1944, in front of all the Salonikan
and other Jewish prisoners. His death inspired his Sephardi
brethren not to give up hope and continue their struggle to
survive despite the typhus, meager food, and terrible conditions. Most of the Salonikan and other Jewish prisoners were
cleared out of Warsaw by foot at the end of July 1944 and
headed toward Germany.
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Contemporary Period
After the war, survivors of the Salonikan community, together
with remnants of smaller communities, concentrated in Salonika. As the Jews of the other communities spoke Greek, Ladino
has all but disappeared as a spoken language in the community. The number of Jews fell from about 2,000 in 1946 to about
1,500 in 1971 as a result of emigration to Israel and, to a lesser
degree, other countries. In 1971 there was an organized community, but only two synagogues were in use. Religious services took place on festivals, and there was a minyan for Sabbath services only. The children of the community studied in
Greek schools, but provisions were made for Jewish education,
which was handled mostly by teachers from Israel. In addition, there was a youth club and the *Maccabi organization. In
the 1980s, the population of the community was around 800,
but by the early 21st century it had grown to 1,100 due to increased family size. In the 1980s, the synagogue on Irakleon
Street was renovated, and a Jewish study center and library
was set up on an upper floor of the same office building. In
the mid-1990s, Andreas Sephiha became community president and placed emphasis on cultural proliferation, Jewish
religious continuity, and education. Rabbi Dayan was brought
over from Israel and later replaced by the Athenian-born and
Israeli-educated Mordechai Frizis. In 2005 the Jewish community had an active youth center and pedagogical resource
staff and center, and employed two full-time rabbis. The elderly were cared for at the Modiano Old Age Home, and the
community also ran a nursery school, elementary school
with six grades, and a summer camp for all the Jewish youth
of Greece. A new Jewish museum was founded at the turn of
the century.
The major collections of archival material on the community of Salonika are located in Jerusalem, at the Central Archives of the Jewish People and Ben-Zvi Institute, and in the
Instituto Arias Montano in Madrid. Until Greece took over
the city in 1912, the great majority of the communitys docu-
salonika
Hebrew Printing
Early in the 16t century (c. 1512), Don Judah *Gedaliah and
his son (Moses) and daughter arrived in Salonika after fleeing from Portugal. Gedaliah had previously managed the
printing press of Eliezer Toledano in *Lisbon; he brought at
least some of the latters typographical material with him, and
later he had some new types cut. Many of his productions,
in the main liturgical works, have been lost, but some important items have survived: a Pentateuch with Onkelos and
Rashi (1513); the first edition of Jacob ibn H abibs Ein Yaakov
(151523); parts of Hagiographa with Rashi (1515); the tractate Yoma; Tur, Orah H ayyim; a Pentateuch with Rashis and
Nahmanides commentaries (1520); Yalkut Shimoni on Prophets and Hagiographa (1521); and Solomon *Molchos sermons
(1529). In 1525, Moses *Soncino left Rimini (Italy) for Salonika, and in 1526 he issued the Yalkut on the Pentateuch and a
mah zor of the Catalonian rite in 1527. His kinsmen Gershom
and Eliezer arrived also from Rimini in 1526 and printed
David Kimhis Sefer ha-Shorashim, together with Abraham Bedersis dictionary of biblical synonyms, H otam Tokhnit (1527),
and a mah zor of the Aragonian rite (1529), before moving on
to Constantinople.
The Italian Soncino printing house of Rabbi Gershon
Soncino established a branch in Salonika in 1527 and later
in Istanbul in 1530. The famous dictionary Sefer Shoreshim
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salonta
707
Salsberg, Joseph B.
Holocaust From 1885 the community also served as the official center for the Jews living in 15 villages in the vicinity. The
Jewish-Zionist cultural activity initiated by R. Nbel caused
some agitation in this assimilated community; but though it
gave rise to ramified Zionist activities, it did not diminish the
Jews Hungarian acculturation and sense of belonging.
The Jewish population numbered 534 (42 of the total)
in 1891; 843 in 1910; 740 (4.8) in 1930; 593 (3.7) in 1941.
The Jews of Salonta were involved in the processing of the
agricultural produce of the entire region, which was then sold
throughout the country and even exported. Many Jews were
landlords and also involved in agricultural production.
After 1919 the majority of the Jewish population continued to support the Hungarians, even in the face of the conflict between the former rulers, the Hungarians, and the new
ones, the Romanians.
SALT. Considered the most common and essential of all condiments, salt plays an essential role in Jewish life, ritual, and
symbolism. It was plentiful in Erez Israel, with inexhaustible
quantities being found in the area of the Dead Sea. Its first
mention in the Bible is in reference to Lots wife turning into
a pillar of salt (Gen. 19: 26).
Salt was an essential requisite for all sacrifices. The possibility that the verse with all thy sacrifices shalt thou offer
salt (Lev. 2:13) may, in fact, refer only to the meal-offering
mentioned in the context, is denied by the Talmud (Men. 20a)
which lays it down that the statement applies to all sacrifices.
The significance of this injunction seems evident from the
prohibition, in the same context, of honey and leaven to be
used in sacrifices. Honey and leaven symbolize fermentation
and subsequent decay and decomposition; salt is a preservative. The idea of permanence is the basis of the covenant of
salt mentioned on various occasions in the Bible. The rights
of the priests to their share of the offerings is a due for ever,
an everlasting covenant of salt (Num. 18:19), and Abijah,
king of Judah, assures Jeroboam, who had seceded from the
House of David, that God has given the kingdom to the House
of David by a covenant of salt (11 Chron. 13: 5). It is in this
sense that the passage in Ezra (4:14), in which the enemies of
the returned exiles protest their loyalty to the king of Persia
because we eat of the salt of the palace is to be understood
as an expression of abiding loyalty to the palace, and not as
the Authorised Versions maintenance of the palace. The extent to which salt was used in the sacrifices may be seen in
the statement in Josephus (Ant. 12: 140) that Antiochus the
Great made a gift of 375 medimni (bushels) of salt to the Jews
for the Temple service, and there was a special Salt Chamber
in the Temple (Mid. 5:3).
The cleansing and hygienic power of salt is reflected in
Elishas act of purifying the bad waters of Jericho by casting
salt into the springs (II Kings 2:20, 21), and in the custom of
rubbing newly born infants with salt (Ezek. 16:4). On the other
hand, it was known that salinity in soil caused aridity (Deut.
29:22; Job 39:6), and when Abimelech captured and destroyed
Shechem, he sowed it with salt as a sign that it should not
be rebuilt (Judg. 9:45).
The importance of salt as a condiment is also stressed in
the Bible. Job asks rhetorically whether that which hath no
708
savor be eaten without salt (6:6), and Ben Sira includes salt
among the nine essentials of life (Ecclus. 39:26). Salt was an
essential element of the Jewish table, and it became customary to put salt on the bread over which grace before meals was
recited. A Yiddish proverb has it that no Jewish table should
be without salt which is in accordance with the homily that
makes ones table an altar before the Lord (cf. Avot 3:4). The
ability of salt to absorb blood (H ul. 113a) is the basis of the important laws of kashering meat so that all blood be removed
(see *Dietary Laws). Salt of Sodom (Melah Sedomit) was particularly potent, having an admixture probably of the acrid potassium chloride of the Dead Sea. Its presence in common salt
(one grain in a kor of salt), and the harmful effect it might
have on the eyes, caused the custom of mayim ah aronim, the
washing of ones hands after a meal, to be instituted, in addition to the statutory washing before meals (H ul. 105b). There
is a difference of opinion as to whether this washing of the
hands is obligatory or merely advisable. Tosafot (loc. cit.) lays
it down that, since salt of Sodom does not exist in France, the
custom of mayim ah aronim did not obtain there. Despite this
ruling, the retention of the custom is widespread today. Salt of
Sodom was also an ingredient of the incense used in the Temple during the period of the Second Temple (Ker. 6a).
In modern Israel the custom has developed for the mayor
of Jerusalem or the elders of the city to greet distinguished
visitors with an offering of bread and salt at the entrance of
the city, and not with bread and wine as Melchizedek, king of
Salem (Jerusalem), greeted Abraham (Gen. 14:18). There is no
rabbinic authority for this practice. Philo (Jos. 35: 210), however, states that Joseph invited his brethren to a meal of bread
and salt (cf. Gen. 43: 16, 31), and among the ancient Arabs it
was the custom to seal a covenant with bread and salt.
Austria for Hollywood but after World War II settled in Zurich, Switzerland.
Bibliography: S.J. Kunitz (ed.), Twentieth Century Authors
(1944), 1224; ibid., first supplement (1955), 860 (both incl. bibl.).
[Sol Liptzin]
709
Saltzman, Harry
710
SALTZMAN, MAURICE (19181990), U.S. apparel manufacturer, philanthropist. Saltzman was born in Cleveland,
Ohio, one of 10 children. Having lost both parents by the time
he was four, he was raised in a local orphanage, but went on
to become a preeminent maker of moderate-price womens
sportswear and a leading philanthropist in the Cleveland area.
His company, Bobbie Brooks Inc., was one of the first U.S.
clothing manufacturers to reach an annual volume of more
than $100 million. Following his graduation from Cleveland
Heights High School at the age of 16, Saltzman went to work
in the shipping room of Lampl Fashions, a local dress manufacturer. Five years later, in 1939, he and Max Reiter borrowed
a couple of thousand dollars and launched Ritmore Manufacturing Co., producing dresses with a label that said Barbara Brooks. A year later, they changed the label to Bobbie
Brooks and switched from dresses to junior sportswear, then
a relatively new clothing category. In 1953, when Reiter left
to go into his own business, Ritmore became Bobbie Brooks
Inc., with Saltzman as chairman and chief executive officer.
Its concept of coordinated sportswear pieces that could be
purchased separately and worn in various combinations was
highly successful, and the company went public in 1960. In
the 1970s, Bobbie Brooks reached $100 million in volume, a
mark attained by few apparel firms up to that time, but overexpansion was a problem. By 1977, the company initiated a restructuring program to sell or liquidate its marginal or losing
units. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1982 and emerged
a year later. In 1986, the company began licensing the Bobbie
Brooks label to other manufacturers. After suffering a stroke
in 1987, Saltzman retired. He was one of Clevelands leading
philanthropists, donating millions to such institutions as the
Jewish Community Federation, Mt. Sinai Medical Center,
and Bellefaire/Jewish Childrens Home, formerly the Jewish Orphans Home, where he spent 11 years as a child. The
campus of that home is now called the Saltzman Campus for
Child Care. Saltzman, who was vice president of Clevelands
Temple Emanu-El, also founded the Saltzman-Wuliger Senior Citizens Center in Tel Aviv and a library and museum
at the Childrens Village of Gan Yavneh in Israel. He received
a Humanitarian Medal from Bnai Brith and a National Human Relations Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
[Mort Sheinman (2nd ed.)]
salvador
711
salvador, joseph
and scalped. He was the first Jew to give his life in the struggle
for American independence.
Bibliography: J. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History
(1956), 10912, 1145, 1536, and passim; B.A. Elzas, Jews of South Carolina (1905), 6877, 10818; L. Huehner, Francis Salvador, in: The Jewish Experience in America (ed. Karp) 11 (1969), 27691; C. Reznikoff,
Jews of Charleston (1950), 3440; Rosenbloom, Biogr Dict; 151; M.
Woolf, in: JHSET, 21 (196267), 10437.
[Thomas J. Tobias]
SALVADOR, JOSEPH (17961873), French scholar. Salvador, the descendant of Spanish Jews, was born in Montpellier. He studied medicine there and graduated at the age of
20. His thesis dealt with the Application of Physiology to Pathology (1816). Shortly afterward he settled in Paris, where
he became known mainly for his scholarly interest in the history of religions. To the study of religion in general and Jesus
in particular, he applied the methods of historical criticism
and might thus be considered in some respects in advance of
German scholarship. His Jsus-Christ et sa doctrine (1838) was
violently criticized by the Gazette de France when it was published, but was favorably reviewed by A.I.S. de *Sacy in the
Journal des Dbats of the same year and by J.E. *Renan in his
tudes dhistoire rligieuse (1857). In Paris, Rome, Jrusalem, ou
la Question rligieuse au 19e Sicle (1859), Salvador attempted
to outline a universal creed, founded on a kind of reformed
Judaism, or on the fusion of Judaism and Christianity into
one single doctrine of progress. Salvador imagined that the
center of the syncretistic religion of which he dreamed would
be in Jerusalem, and he saw this ultimate faith as the lineal
outgrowth of what he imagined classic Judaism to have been.
This emphasis on Jerusalem has led a number of historians of
Zionism, beginning with Nahum Sokolow, to regard Salvador
as one of the precursors of Zionism, but the Jerusalem of his
dreams was a heavenly Jerusalem, and the society of which
it was to be the center was a universal culture and not that of
a restored Jewish people. In his search for a general religious
synthesis, Salvador might also have been motivated by the
urge to solve his own spiritual dilemma, as his mother was
a Catholic. Moreover, Salvadors outlook comes close to that
of the Saint-Simonians; Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues, one of
Saint-Simons foremost Jewish disciples, seems to have been
influenced by Salvadors writings (see *Saint Simonism).
He also wrote La Loi de Mose, ou, Systme rligieux et
politique des Hbreux (1822); De quelques faits relatifs au systme historique des Evangiles (1839); and Histoire de la domination romaine en Jude et de la ruine de Jrusalem (1846). The
Catholic Church put two of Salvadors works, Jsus-Christ et
sa doctrine and Paris, Rome, Jrusalem, on its official index
of forbidden books.
Bibliography: G. Salvador, J. Salvador; sa vie, ses oeuvres et
ses critiques (1881); H. Reinhold, in: Zion, 9 (1944), 10941.
SALZBURG, city and province in W. Austria, formerly archbishopric and duchy. The first mention of Jews in the archbishopric occurred as early as 803 in a letter from Archbishop
712
salzman, pnina
713
salzman, william
714
samael
resembles that of your guardian angel, according to the version of the Sefer Mattenot Kehunnah (Theodor ed.). Surprisingly, in the section of the Midrash Yelammedenu on Exodus
14:25, Samael fulfills a positive function during the dividing
of the Red Sea, pushing back the wheels of the chariots of the
Egyptians. In gematria, Samael is the numerical equivalent of
the word ofan (wheel; in Ms. British Museum, 752, 136b; and
in the Midrash Ha-H efez ha-Teimani, which is cited in Torah
Shelemah, 14 (1941) to this verse).
Mention of Samael as the angel of death first occurs in
Targum Jonathan on Genesis 3:6, and this identification frequently appears in late aggadot, especially in the legends on
the death of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy Rabbah, at the
end of Avot de-Rabbi Nathan (ed. Schecter (1945), 156). In
Deuteronomy Rabbah 11, Samael is called Samael the wicked,
the head of all the devils. The name Samael the wicked is
repeated consistently in Heikhalot Rabbati (1948), chapter 5,
an apocalyptic source. The Hebrew Enoch 14:2, acknowledges
him as chief of the tempters greater than all the heavenly
kingdoms. This text differentiates between Satan and Samael,
the latter being none other than the guardian angel of Rome
(ibid. 6:26). In traditions concerning the rebellion of the angels in heaven (Pd RE 1314 (1852)), he is the leader of the rebel
armies. Prior to his defeat he had 12 wings, and his place was
higher than the h ayyot (holy heavenly creatures) and the seraphim. Several tasks are attributed to him: Samael is in charge
of all the nations but has no power over Israel except on the
Day of Atonement, when the scapegoat serves as bribe for him
(ibid. 46). It is he who rode on the snake in the course of the
fall of Adam and hid in the golden calf (ibid. 45). In Midrash
Avkir (see *Midrashim, Smaller), Samael and Michael were
active at the time of the birth of Jacob and Esau, and even on
the way to the *Akedah of Isaac, Samael intervened as a prosecutor (Gen. R. 56:4). The war between him and Michael, the
guardian angel of Israel, will not be completed until the end of
days, when Samael will be handed over to Israel in iron shackles (Gen. R., ed. Albeck, 166, following Mak. 12a, and similarly
in the messianic chapters (pirkei mashiah ) in A. Jellinek, Beit
ha-Midrash 3 (1938), 66f.).
Particular motifs on Samael in later aggadah include the
following: Samael does not know the path to the tree of life,
even though he flies through the air (Targ. Job 28:7); he has
one long hair in his navel, and as long as this remains intact
his reign will continue. In the messianic era, however, the hair
will bend as a result of the great sound of the shofar, and then
Samael will also fall (Midrash Piyyutim, quoted in a commentary on Ms. Munich 346, 91b). In Jewish astrological sources,
which in time influenced those of other groups, Samael was
considered the angel in charge of Mars. This idea recurs at first
among the Sabans in Haran, who called him Mara Samia (D.
Chwolson, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, 2 (1856); Picatrix,
ed. H. Ritter (1933), 226) and later in medieval Christian astrological magic literature. He appears as the angel in charge of
Tuesday in Sefer *Raziel (Amsterdam, 1701), 34b; in H okhmat
ha-Kasdim (ed. M. Gaster, Studies and Texts, 1 (1925), 350; in
715
samama, nessim
The exact site of ancient Samandar is unknown, but it is generally agreed to have been somewhere in the region of present-day Qizlar on the Terek, which, like Samandar, is noted
for its vineyards. Remains of a large town which may be Samandar have been found deep in the woods along the lower
Terek (communication of M.I. Artamonov to D.M. Dunlop,
November 1964).
Bibliography: Dunlop, Khazars, index; A.N. Poliak, Kazariyyah (1951), index; M.I. Artamonov, Istoriya Khazar (1962), 392ff.,
399.
[Douglas Morton Dunlop]
SAMARIA (Heb. Shomron, modern Sebaste), city established as the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel during
the reign of Omri c. 884 B.C.E. Prior to the Omride period the
site appears to have been the center of an extensive wine and
oil production area, which may have accounted for its choice
as the new capital. Apparently the origin of the name of the
site was from Shemer, the eponymous owner of the land that
Omri purchased for two talents of silver (I Kings 16:2324).
The site has been excavated by two archaeological expeditions. The first was the Harvard Expedition, initially directed by G. Schumacher in 1908 and then by G.A. Reisner
in 1909 and 1910 with the assistance of architect C.S. Fisher
and D.G. Lyon. The second expedition was known as the
Joint Expedition, a consortium of five institutions directed
by J.W. Crowfoot between 1931 and 1935, with the assistance
of K. Kenyon, E.L. Sukenik, and G.M. Crowfoot. The leading institutions were the British School of Archaeology in
Jerusalem, the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the Hebrew
University. In the 1960s small-scale excavations directed by
F. Zayadine were carried out on behalf of the Department of
Antiquities of Jordan.
The city is built on the summit of a rocky hill, and the
foundations of the monumental buildings from later periods
often plowed down through the earlier strata to the bedrock,
which was never far below. In modern times the site has been
used as farmland by the villagers of neighboring Sebaste; this
meant that most of the excavated areas had to be back-filled
and returned to agricultural use. These two developments
hindered excavation and later analysis of the remains. The
earliest remains consist of extensive rock-cut installations,
initially thought to date to the Early Bronze Age by Kenyon.
These were reevaluated, first by Stager and then by Franklin, and are now recognized to be the remains of an extensive early Iron Age oil and wine industry (designated Building Period 0).
Only the acropolis of Samaria has been extensively excavated down to the bedrock. The palace was excavated solely
by the Harvard Expedition and recognized by it as the Palace
of Omri (designated Building Period I). The Omride palace
was located on an elevated 4-meter-high rock-cut platform
that isolated it from its immediate surroundings. Immediately below the palace, cut into the face of the bedrock platform, there are two rock-cut tomb chambers that have only
716
samaria
Roman Period
9. City wall
10. Gate with round towers
11. Colonnaded street
12. Temple of Augustus
13. Temple of Kore-Persephone
14. Stadium
15. Theater
16. Agora (forum with basilica on its western side)
Christian Period
17. Byzantine church
18. Crusader church (now mosque)
Plan of the site of Samaria. Based on Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Jerusalem, 1970.
717
samaritans
in this area that the Ivory House that Ahab built for Jezebel (I Kings 22:39) stood. Northeast and below the acropolis
a number of Iron Age tombs were found and their location
probably delimits the area of the city in that direction. In essence only the acropolis was excavated down to the Iron Age,
but it is presumed by the excavators (the Joint) that the city
extended down over the northern and southern slopes of the
hill. During the reign of the last king of the northern kingdom,
Hosea (II Kings 10), the Assyrians invaded in 722/721 B.C.E.
(initially under Shalmaneser V and finally under Sargon II),
when they established complete control over the capital city
and the remainder of the northern kingdom. The fragment of
a stela with an Assyrian inscription attributed to Sargon II was
found on the eastern slope of the acropolis testifying to their
presence. In addition, according to inscriptions from Sargons
palace at Khorsabad, the inhabitants of Samaria were deported
to Assyria. The remains of a wall relief in Room 5 of Sargons
palace are thought to depict Samaria and its defeated defenders. New inhabitants were brought in (from Arabia and the
Syro-Mesopotamian area, II Kings 17:24) and, together with
the remnant not deported, they formed a new Samaritan population. The city together with the neighboring highland area
became known as Samerina and was ruled by an Assyrian
governor. There are only meager remains from the succeeding
Babylonian period and it was only in the Persian period, in the
mid-fifth century, that the city reemerged in importance. The
tensions between the ruling family of Sanballat and Jerusalem
under the governorship of Nehemiah are documented in the
Bible (Ezra 4:10, Neh. 2:18). Samaria became a Hellenistic
town in 332 B.C.E. and thousands of Macedonian soldiers
were settled there following a revolt by the Samaritans. Three
13-m.-diameter round towers dating to that period have been
excavated (the first two by Harvard, which attributed them
to the Israelite period) and a later, massive, fortification wall
with square towers. These fortifications were breached during the destruction of the city by John Hyrcanus in 108 B.C.E.
Traces of the destruction wrought by *Hyrcanus were found
by the excavators, but the city was apparently resettled under
*Yannai. In 63 B.C.E. Samaria was annexed to the Roman province of Syria. In 30 B.C.E. the emperor Augustus awarded the
city to *Herod, who renamed it Sebaste in honor of Augustus (Gr. Sebastos = Augustus). The outstanding remains from
this period are: the Augusteum, consisting of a temple and a
large forecourt built over the Omride palace at the summit of
the acropolis; a city gate and an east-west colonnaded street;
a theater on the northeast slope of the acropolis; a Temple to
Kore on a terrace north of the acropolis; and a stadium to the
northeast in the valley below. East of the acropolis and in an
area that today links the ancient city with the modern village
of Sebaste lies the forum, flanked on the west by a partially
excavated basilica. Water for Roman Sebaste was provided by
an underground aqueduct that led into the area of the forum
from springs in the east. The city was encompassed by a city
wall 2 mi. (4 km.) long, with imposing towers that linked
the gateways in the west and north. A number of mausole-
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samaritans
Kiddushin
Erusin
Nissuin
Intermarriage
Divorce
Mourning
Samaritan Chronology
The Samaritan Calendar
Historical Chronology
Language and Literature
Language
Literature
Liturgists
Chronicles
Halakhic Literature
Pentateuch Commentaries
Grammatical Works
In Islam
Musical Tradition
Samaritan Origins
There are a number of theories about the origins of the Samaritans, all of which have in common a tradition that originally the cult of YHWH was widespread through the land of
Israel. Even so, the origins and early history of the Samaritans
are quite problematic because the sources are far removed
from the events and because the non-Samaritan sources tend
to be hostile.
One tradition is that the Samaritans originated with the
northern tribes of Israel because only a small proportion of
these tribes was deported during the Assyrian conquests of
the late eighth century B.C.E. and that those who remained
on the land formed what later became the Samaritans (Mor
1989, 1).
Another Samaritan tradition claims Samaritan origins
lie in the pre-exilic period, at the very beginnings of Israelite
history, and that the split between Samaritanism and Judaism
only arose when the heretical priest Eli stole the Ark of the
Covenant and established a rival cult.
Until that time, the Ark of the Covenant had been kept
at the sanctuary of YHWH on Mt. Gerizim. According to this
tradition, the priest Eli was prevented from rising to the high
priesthood because he was of the family of Itamar, not the
high priestly family of Eleazar. Nevertheless, he took the Ark
of the Covenant from Mt. Gerizim to Shiloh and established
a rival cult there. As a result of this, two centers of the priesthood arose. One center was on Mt. Gerizim, at whose head
stood the legitimate high priest, Uzzi (a descendant of Phineas
and of the family Eleazar). The second (heretical) priesthood
was at Shiloh, and the priest Eli, a descendant of Itamar, was
at its head.
Thus, according to Samaritan tradition, Samaritanism is
a perpetuation of the true Israelite faith, and Judaism only the
continuation of Elis heresy. This is the case, the Samaritan tradition claims, all the way through Samuel, Saul, David, and the
Judaean monarchy, with the rival cult of Eli eventually shifting
from Shiloh to Jerusalem and continuing up to this day.
A non-Samaritan tradition from the same period claims
that the Samaritans originated in the Assyrian post-conquest
settlement of populations from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim in northern Israel (II Kings 17:2441),
and that they were forced to worship the god of Israel by the
native peoples. These immigrant groups brought with them
the idols of their native cities, whom they continued to worship in conjunction with the deity of their new home. (II Kings
17:2441; Ezra 4:2, 10; Mor 1989, 1): Even while these people
were worshipping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To
this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as
their fathers did (II Kings 17:41).
Another non-Samaritan tradition is that the Assyrian
conquest of Israel was far from total, that significant num-
719
history
samaritans
bers of Israelites remained on the land, and that the Assyrians settled a separate group of exiles in what used to be the
Israelite northern kingdom. These populations eventually intermingled, in time becoming a discrete group of people who
later came to be referred to as Cutheans and Samaritans (Jos.,
Ant. 9:288391; Mor 1989, 1).
But, unfortunately, even Samaritan historical traditions
are not in agreement on either the time or the circumstances
of their return. The Samaritan text Chronicle Adler relates
the story of two returns, one under the high priest Seraiah in
the early seventh century B.C.E. and another under the high
priest Abdiel in the late sixth century B.C.E.!
720
samaritans
721
samaritans
722
samaritans
deed, it could be that the offerings were made on Delos, perhaps in the form of votives, and were dedicated by Samaritan visitors to the island, Samaritan residents of the island, or
even friends or business partners of Samaritans elsewhere on
their behalf as the two inscriptions are the only evidence
of Samaritans on the island, it is impossible to know. There
is certainly no evidence of a synagogue (either Jewish or Samaritan) on the island, but the inscriptions do at least indicate
there was a permanent colony of Samaritans on Delos in the
Second Temple period (Matassa 2006).
tan eyes, resulted in a gathering of people destroying the building and then purifying the place ritually. The outcome was
that Hadrian sent an army which attacked and killed many of
the Samaritans. At last one clever Samaritan managed to put
the blame on the Jews and managed to persuade Hadrian of
the Samaritans innocence, so that the emperor attacked the
Jews instead. Throughout the chronicles, statements are made
about the loss of Samaritan literature during times of persecution. The worst of these periods seems to have been during the
rule of Hadrian (and later of Commodus and Severus), when
most of the literature kept in Shechem was destroyed. The high
priest lists, however, were probably preserved.
Both Samaritan and Jewish sources tell of the friendship
of Antoninus Pius (13861) for their respective peoples. For the
Samaritans, the worst of all persecutions was that of Commodus (18092). They were forbidden to read the Torah or teach
it to their children, synagogues were closed, and many Samaritans suffered crucifixion for minor offenses. The reason for
Commodus persecutions given in Abu-al-Fath and Chronicle II was a dispute between *Alexander of Aphrodisias and a
Samaritan called Levi. A philosophical discussion, which was
the starting point, led to the anger of the emperor and severe
repression of Levis compatriots, with the consequent destruction of their written documents and scrolls (some of which
were hidden and saved). Claudius Gelenus (who died c. 200)
is brought into the story, and it is claimed that he persuaded
Commodus to force the Samaritans to eat the meat of pigs.
Subsequent trials compelled many Samaritans to flee to other
regions. At the end of Commodus reign, 300,000 Samaritans
were reported living in the Shechem area.
Nothing is reported of Septimius Severus (193211), but
Alexander Severus (22235) is reported to have persecuted the
Samaritans almost as severely as had Commodus. He enforced
the worship of Roman gods, thus bringing about a series of
rebellions against his rule, which he put down mercilessly. His
reign was also a time of famine and pestilence. Since the Samaritans great hero *Baba Rabbah is recorded as having lived
during Alexander Severus rule, it may be assumed that there
is some confusion in the account (see Montgomery, 96, for
an alternative view). Severus successors are correctly stated
to have been Gordianus (23844), Philip (24449), and Decius (24951). This period seems to have been a difficult one
for Samaria on the whole, but little more is heard from Samaritan sources until the advent of Muhammad. From the
evidence of external sources, it is confirmed that Samaria suffered from the many political and military maneuverings of
the era. The next source of trouble and change for Samaria was
the Christianization of the empire. The edict of Constantius,
which prohibited the marriage of Christian women to Jews
(Montgomery, 100), led to social intolerance throughout Palestine. Circumcision, prohibited by Hadrian, seems to have
been prohibited again in the time of Bishop Germanus, whose
jurisdiction included Nablus.
The story of Baba Rabbah may properly be related to the
period of Bishop Germanus. The chief importance of this Sa-
723
samaritans
maritan hero was that he revived the Samarian hopes of freedom. He organized Samaria into districts, built synagogues,
encouraged literature, and raised a standing army. The Baba
Rabbah story, despite some legendary accretions, is not as absurd as Montgomery claims (103), for a great change in Samaritanism undoubtedly took place at about this time (witness the
work of *Markah and his family, who gave new shape to religious thinking and gave Samaritan religion a firm base).
During a long period of gradual Christianization in Palestine, the Samaritans fared badly; there were continual attacks
by Samaritans on Christians and Christians on Jews and Samaritans, and the holy places of Israel were taken over by the
Christians. Under certain rulers, a measure of protection was
accorded to both Jews and Samaritans, but the long reign of
Theodosius II (40850) brought in its wake many deprivations, and both Jews and Samaritans became in effect secondclass citizens with minimal rights. It was not until the latter
part of the fifth century that the full fury of the new order was
felt in Samaria, for under Zeno (47491) Jews and Samaritans
suffered terrible massacres, and the Samaritan chronicles tell
of many incidents during this period which resulted in increasing repression. For the period of Anastasius (491518)
and Justinian I (52765), the chronicles have little information, but external sources (see Montgomery, 113ff.) reveal
further devastations of the dwindling Samaritan community.
Many small-scale uprisings had taken place almost annually
throughout the Christian period, but the greatest seems to
have occurred soon after Justinian I became emperor. This
was in the year 529, and there are many sources of information about it (Montgomery, 1146). It is clear that thousands
of Samaritans died in the fighting and that they tried to establish their own state. Jews and Samaritans seem to have been
treated alike by the Christian victors; sources speak of 50,000
Jewish and Samaritan soldiers being offered by the Samaritans to the Persian king if he would take over Palestine. This
attempt, which was foiled, was symptomatic of the state of affairs in Samaria. The people of Samaria became increasingly
desperate, and things were to become even worse as more
repressive laws were promulgated by Justinian, for a rising
number of Samaritans relinquished their faith and embraced
Christianity, thus further reducing the number adhering to
the ancient faith. Indeed the Samaritans, as a recognizable religious group, had all but been outlawed by Christianity. They
lived in territory sacred to the Christians; they were regarded,
with the Jews, as eternal enemies of the new faith; and even
when they converted, they were not accorded the full rights
of other Christians.
According to the chronicles, many Samaritans fled eastward after 634, when the Muslims were victorious at Yarmuk.
Throughout the account of Samaritan history, from earliest
times, there were frequent emigrations eastward, and contact
between the migrs and *Nablus seems to have been lost frequently until the 13t century, when migrations back to Nablus began. The story of life under the caliphs is one of revolt
and suppression. Little information on the basic cause of the
troubles is available because Muslim and Samaritan historians hardly refer to the Samaritans in historical terms. During
the early part of the reign of Hrn al-Rashd (d. 809), plague
and famine blighted Samaria, but after these calamities the
Samaritans enjoyed peace in his time. The reign of Mamn
(81333) was a period of respite, on the whole, but the reign
of his successor, Mutas im (83342), brought considerable calamity to Samaria when certain Muslim fanatics demolished
many synagogues and all but destroyed Nablus.
As time went on, religious bitterness increased and the
Muslims imposed prohibitions on religious practices, especially pilgrimages to Mt. Gerizim. During the tenth century,
however, matters improved under the Fatimid caliphs. Samaritan, Islamic, or Christian sources tell little about the period of
the Crusades. The Samarian capital was the center of political intrigue and ecclesiastical debate during the early part of
the 12t century. In 1137 Nablus seems to have undergone the
catastrophe of further devastation and decimation of its inhabitants when the Saracens attacked it. Thereafter, until 1244,
Muslims assumed rule of the Samarian capital.
724
[John Macdonald]
Later History
The final destruction of crusader rule in Palestine by the Mamluks (1291), who established their own hegemony over the
country, did not bring about an improvement in the situation
of the Samaritans. Instead of the Christian rule that unceasingly pressured the thousands of Samaritans who remained
true to their ways came the rule of the Mamluks, who were
even more cruel and fanatic about their religion: and in place
of forced conversion to Christianity came the conversion out
of fear of entire Samaritan families. At the very beginning of
their rule, the Mamluks plundered the Samaritan religious
center in Shechem (Nablus) and turned it into a mosque, in
addition to destroying all the other buildings there.
Muslim pressure created substantial opposition on the
part of the Samaritans. It was expressed in the figure of the
high priest, Phinehas b. Ysuf (130863), who, together with
his sons and other members of the family of high priests, established a religious movement among the Samaritans to reinforce their faith and stand up against the pressure to convert to
Islam. In addition to their foremost center in Shechem, the Samaritans also had an important center in Damascus from the
11t century. In the course of the 14t century the two centers
achieved the height of their social and religious development,
and the contact between them, which sometimes reached the
dimension of competition, brought about the strengthening
and crystallization of the Samaritan life by the renewed writing of books on religious law, history, and the order of rituals. By the beginning of the Ottoman conquest, however, this
movement was no longer intact.
During the same period the Samaritans had centers of
secondary importance in Cairo and Gaza. Both these centers,
as well as the one in Damascus, observed annual pilgrimages
to Mt. Gerizim and the community centered in Shechem. The
samaritans
family of the high priests in Shechem functioned as the supreme institution for all the Samaritan centers. The center in
Cairo was influential in the Mamluk court. Its wealth aided
the Mamluk authorities in their conquests, but was also a burden to the Samaritans themselves. Of the three sects in Egypt
at the end of the 15t century the Jews, the Karaites, and the
Samaritans the last were forced to pay half the royal taxes
that were imposed on the three sects as a whole. The center
in Damascus reached the height of its development in the
13t and 14t centuries, and a family of high priests, which
was subordinate to that in Shechem and was a scion of Aarons descendants, was even established there. The community
produced important writers, poets, commentators, and grammarians, as well as physicians, some of whom became viziers
in Mamluk courts.
With the beginning of the Ottoman conquest, the persecutions suffered by the Samaritans at the hands of their
Muslim neighbors and local governors grew in strength and
frequency. The beginning of the collapse of the Samaritan
center in Damascus is recorded by Samaritan historians as
taking place in the middle of the 16t century, with the transfer of the Damascus family of high priests, together with important members of the Damascus community, to Shechem
to strengthen the community there. In 1625 the remaining
Samaritans in Damascus were massacred, and their spiritual
centers were transferred to Muslim hands.
The Samaritans in Egypt were, likewise, plagued by persecutions. The community there, which had been in existence
since the age of Alexander the Great, reached the height of its
development and wealth at the end of the 16t century, when
their affairs with the Mamluks were under the control of
the Jewish nagid. The Samaritans nonetheless frequently incited the Mamluks against the Jews. With the penetration of
Ottoman rule into Egypt, the Samaritans were accused of supporting the Mamluks, and many of them were imprisoned and
converted to Islam. The small Samaritan community remained
in existence until the beginning of the 18t century, when the
surviving members joined the community in Shechem and
Samaritan settlement in Egypt came to an end.
The most important event relating to the decrease in
the size of the Samaritan community was the disappearance
of the line of high priests descending from Aaron. The last
high priest of this line, Shalmiah b. Phinehas (161324), did
not father any sons, and with his death the priesthood passed
to the family of levites, the sons of Uzziel b. Kehat, which has
filled this office until the present. After the death of Shalmiah,
the persecutions by local Muslims against the Samaritans increased: houses and fields were plundered and many families were forced to convert to Islam for fear of their lives. Access to Mt. Gerizim was forbidden to the Samaritans by the
Arabs, and they were forced to hold the Passover sacrifice on
the eastern slope of the mountain. Beginning with the middle
of the 17t century, there was a community of Samaritans in
Shechem, a small but strong one in Gaza, and an even smaller
one in Jaffa. The levite family descended from Uzziel the uncle
of Aaron was also about to die out as a result of internal conflicts, but at the last moment it was saved, due to a compromise when a Samaritan woman from Jaffa was married to the
last offspring of the family, Tabia b. Isaac (175186).
At the beginning of the 19t century the Samaritans lived
in a certain degree of comfort in Shechem, but once again
the Muslims interfered and prevented them from ascending
to the top of Mt. Gerizim for the Passover sacrifice. This prohibition was in effect until 1820, when the Samaritans were
again allowed to go up the mountain due to the intervention
of the British consulate with the Turks. During the same period, however, the community in Gaza came to an end as the
result of its expulsion by the Muslims.
By the third decade of the 19t century, only the small
community of Samaritans in Shechem remained. This community was also on the verge of extinction in 1842. The Arabs
of Shechem, incited by their religious teachers, cruelly persecuted the Samaritans and threatened to murder the entire
community, claiming that the Samaritans were atheists because the script in which the Samaritan Pentateuch was written was not recognized by the Muslims. After the Samaritans
turned to the Jewish community in Jerusalem, they received
an authorization from the chief rabbi, Abraham H ayyim, that
the Samaritan people is a branch of the Jewish people that
confesses to the truth of the Torah. In the same year the Samaritans were again forbidden to sacrifice on the top of Mt.
Gerizim, and the prohibition lasted until 1849, when it was
again rescinded through the influence of the British consulate.
It can be seen with certainty that the replenishment of
the Samaritan community in Shechem by the survivors of
other Samaritan centers was the factor that allowed the Samaritans to survive the 400 years of Ottoman rule. The surviving community was led by the high priest Jacob b. Aaron
(Hrn; 18741916), who reinforced the religious framework
of Samaritan life in the hope of reviving the Samaritans, although scholars and writers of the end of the 19t century had
begun to envision certain annihilation for the Samaritans. All
the communitys lands, riches, and property were taken from
it, and the Samaritans remained in a dark ghetto, as it were,
on the northern slope of Mt. Gerizim. Their situation deteriorated, both from a personal and economic point of view. The
state of their industry and finances was expressed by the fact
that most of the Samaritans engaged in copying documents
for scholars and tourists who visited Shechem at the beginning
of the 20t century. These books were sold for pennies, as it
were, and the profit, in many cases, saved the Samaritans from
starvation. The number of men was greater than the number
of women, at a ratio of about two to one.
The Turkish administration tended to deal with the Samaritans harshly, and the latter were subject to the whims
of the Arab families in Shechem, who competed for the local position of leadership at the office of the Turkish pasha in
Acre. The Samaritans were often punished on accusations that
they had cooperated with the party that lost the competition
725
samaritans
were able to find a middle road between these two forces. The
Six-Day War ended the isolation of the two branches of the
Samaritan community.
By 1977 the Samaritan population of Israel, including
both Shechem and Holon, had risen to 500, a level that was
maintained into the 21st century. A study undertaken by the
Samaritan journal A.B. in 1977 revealed that the community
had been transformed from an aging and dwindling one,
numbering only 150 at the end of the 1920s, to the youngest community in the world, 21 being within the age group
110 and the same percentage in the age group 1120; the disproportion between the ratio of females to males is, however,
5:3. The average number of marriages per year increased from
1.23 between 1910 and 1948 to 4.53 during 19671974. The attempts of the four clans of the Samaritans, Kohen, Tsedaka,
Danfi and Marchiv, to keep their females within their clans
was causing genetic problems arising from interbreeding. A
study undertaken by an anthropologist, Dr. Joseph Ginat, in
1975 revealed that 58 of the 128 marriages contracted between
1910 and 1974 were within the same clan, and in the same year
Dr. Bat-Sheva Bonne, the head of the faculty of genetics of Tel
Aviv University, pointed to the frequency of color blindness
and to the considerable number who are in need of genetic
guidance before marriage in order to avoid the birth of physically handicapped children. The percentage of marriages with
Jewesses had increased to 5.
726
[Benyamim Tsedaka]
Statistics
An inscription from the period of Sargon II describing the
destruction of Samaria tells that 27,290 Samaritans were exiled (721 B.C.E.). It is clear, however, that this number is only
a minority of the inhabitants of the northern Kingdom of
Israel, which, in the days of Menahem b. Gadi (743 B.C.E.),
numbered 60,000 landowners who each paid 50 shekels tax
to Tiglath-Pileser III (II Kings 15:1920). It can therefore be
assumed that the Israelite majority, which included an alien
minority that was brought by the Assyrian kings, numbered
more than 100,000 people at the beginning of the seventh
century B.C.E. This community developed and spread into
the Assyrian provinces in the center of the country. It is possible to learn of the large number of Samaritans during the
period from the expansion of their settlement from Samaria
into Gaza and Egypt in the south, and Beth-Shean, Acre, and
Sidon in the north.
Clearer figures are known for the first centuries of the
Common Era. In the three uprisings against the Byzantines
(484, 529, and 579), the Samaritans lost tens of thousands of
soldiers. In the largest uprising (in 529), which was a reaction
to the Justinian persecutions, the Samaritans lost 100,000
soldiers, according to Procopius, or 20,000, according to the
version of Malalas. Theophanes and Malalas related that the
Samaritans sent emissaries to the king of Persia suggesting
that he conquer the country from the Byzantines and agreeing to place 50,000 Samaritans and Jews at his disposal for
this purpose. These sources imply that there were hundreds
samaritans
of thousands of Samaritans in the country. The decisive decrease in this number was a result of the frequent uprisings
against the Byzantines.
The massacre of Samaritans continued even after the collapse of Byzantine rule. Tens of thousands were massacred or
taken captive at the time of the Arab conquest, which led to
the flight of the Samaritans eastward. In 1163 *Benjamin of
Tudela found some 1,000 Samaritans outside of Shechem. It is
therefore possible to surmise that the total Samaritan population of the country was about 2,000. The Arab writers a-Brn
(1048), Idrs (1173), Yqt al-H amaw (1125), al-Dimashq
(1300), and others relate that there was a large number of Samaritans in Shechem, and some of them estimated the population at more than 1,000.
In 1480 Meshullam of Volterra found 50 Samaritan clans
in Egypt and 700 other Samaritans outside Shechem. According to the testimony of all the above-mentioned writers, and
if one takes into account that the census was restricted to
adults only, it can be assumed that in Palestine alone there were
5,0006,000 Samaritans before the beginning of Mamluk rule,
and 2,0002,500 remained by the beginning of Ottoman rule.
The Defters (land records of Palestine kept in Constantinople which were published by Bernard Lewis) determined
that in 152526 there were 25 Samaritan families in Gaza; in
1533 there were 15 families in Gaza and 29 in Shechem; and in
1548 there were 18 families in Gaza and 34 in Shechem. The
high priest Shalma b. Tabia notes in his letter to Europe in
1820 that we number less than 500 souls, and even then he
was exaggerating the size of the Samaritan population, which
stood at less than 200 people, as Shechem was the only center
that remained. According to a letter of the British consul James
Finn in 1851, there were 35 tax-paying Samaritans in Shechem,
a fact which raises the number of Samaritans to over 150. The
traveler M.E. Rogers related, on the basis of testimony from
the high priest Amram b. Shalma, that in 185559 there were
196 Samaritans in Shechem. According to the census of the
British consulate, there were 160 Samaritans in 1881; 196 in
1902; and 162 in 1904. M. Gaster counted 103 in 1905, and P.
Kahle 173 in 1909.
With the end of Ottoman rule, a total of 146 Samaritans
remained in Shechem, but suddenly their numbers began
to grow. One of the causes for this was marriages to Jewish
women, so that in 1934 the community numbered 206 (according to the testimony of the high priest published in that
year). In 1948 there were 58 Samaritans in the State of Israel
and 250 in Shechem. As a result of the unification of families
(from Shechem to H olon), in 1954 there were 87 in the State
of Israel and 200 in Shechem; in 1963 there were 350 Samaritans in all, and in 1970 there were 430. In 2005 the two communities numbered around 500.
727
[Benyamim Tsedaka]
samaritans
The problem of belief in the resurrection in sectarian Samaritanism is fraught with difficulties. *Dositheanism may or
may not have been one large sect. It may have comprised two
or more sects stemming from an initial heresy. Whether or
not Dositheanism as a whole, or originally, believed in the
resurrection as distinct from the priestly authority, there is
no lack of evidence in the mainstream of Samaritan religious
writing for such a belief. It is hardly likely that all such literature is heretical.
The best view of essential Samaritan religion may be
gained from a study of what the religious literature claims
about Moses in relation to God and Israel. Lord of all worlds,
the word of living truth, Moses is preeminent in all things; as
the word in creation, the light shining on and in men, mens
intercessor before God, lawgiver, teacher, priest, savior. All
these and many other attributes, which are commonplace
from the Memar Markah onward, indicate how far Samaritanism is Mosaism. Almost a christological position is reached
when Markah writes: He who believes in him [= Moses] believes in his Lord (Memar Markah, 4:7). Gnostic elements
are prominent in the religious literature. These are elements
found in common with the early Jewish and Christian literatures, but their influence on Samaritanism is often terminological rather than doctrinal. However, the emphasis on Moses
as the word and the light seems to be best explained by reference to Gnosticism.
A typical Samaritan feature is the prominence of their
priesthood in the life of the community. The priests are the
interpreters of the law and the keepers of the secret of the
calendar, upon which the true observation of their festivals
depends. The famous *Baba Rabbah was the firstborn of a
high priest.
Since the Samaritans possessed only the Pentateuch as
against the threefold Bible of Judaism and had no codified
second law corresponding to the Mishnah, the outlines of
their beliefs were easier to delineate. Moses was the prophet
to the Samaritans, and Joshua alone of all the other biblical
prophets is held in high esteem, even called king, because he
is mentioned in the Pentateuch as the servant of Moses, who
was initiated by him to fill his place. This last remark gives the
clue to the development of Samaritan doctrine, namely that
no concept which had no warrant in the Pentateuch could be
regarded as valid. So the resurrection doctrine is bound up
with the Samaritan text of Gen. 3:19, to your dust you shall
return. There are many instances of Samaritan and masoretic
textual disagreements, mostly insignificant, but a few are of
the significance of the example just quoted, where a doctrine
is at stake. The Ten Commandments of the masoretic Bible
are regarded as nine by the Samaritans, who have a tenth of
their own (of considerable length) stipulating the prime sanctity of Mt. Gerizim.
Some of the differentiae of Samaritan and Judaic religion
are explained in this way. Other doctrines developed during
certain eras, such as the belief in the judgment day. Belief in
a day of vengeance and recompense, as it is called, could well
728
[John Macdonald]
samaritans
729
samaritans
during the period they devote the service to one of the seven
stations the Children of Israel passed on their Exodus from
Egypt until they arrived at Mt. Sinai: the (Red) Sea (Exodus
14:2615:21); the second Sabbath is called Shabbat Marah (Exodus 15:2226); the third Sabbath is called Shabbat Elim (Exodus 15:2716:3); the fourth Sabbath is Shabbat ha-Man (Ex.
16:436); the fifth is Shabbat ha-Z ur ba-H orev (Ex. 17:17); and
the seventh Shabbat Amalek (Ex. 17:817).
On the fourth day after the sixth Sabbath of sefirat haOmer, the Samaritans celebrate the day of standing at Mt.
Sinai. According to their tradition, the Pentateuch was given
to the Children of Israel from above Mt. Sinai on this day. They
pray and read from the Pentateuch from the middle of the
night until the following evening. The seventh Sabbath during sefirat ha-Omer, the 49t day of the period, is called the
Sabbath of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 19:120:14).
The pilgrimage on the Festival of Pentecost begins early
in the morning, and during the processional all the places
holy to the Samaritans that are situated on the peak are visited: Givat Olam, on which Moses tabernacle stood; Isaacs
altar, the spot where Abraham bound his son; and the site of
the 12 rocks that Joshua placed before erecting Moses tabernacle, according to Samaritan tradition.
The Festival of the Seventh Month. The Samaritan calendar begins with this festival each year, and it is the beginning of the
Days of Awe for the Samaritans. The festival is celebrated one
day only, the first day of the seventh month. At the close of
this day begin the prayers of the Ten Days of Repentance each
evening and each morning until the Day of Atonement.
Day of Atonement. This holiday begins during the late afternoon and the fast continues for 2526 hours of prayer
and continuous reading of the Pentateuch and piyyutim.
Every member of the community over the age of one year
must fast.
carries the Torah around the synagogue for one round, while
the worshipers clap hands.
Religious Ceremonies
Circumcision. The Samaritans are obligated to circumcise
their sons at the age of eight days, for any male who is not
circumcised eight days after birth is not considered an Israel
Samaritan (Genesis 17:14). Because of the limited number
of Samaritans who can perform the circumcision ceremony,
this act has been handed over to non-Samaritans. The high
priest officiates at the circumcision ceremony, which must
take place immediately after morning prayers, at dawn. At
the end of the ceremony, the high priest gives his blessing by
reciting a poem on the subject ascribed to Markah (fourth
century). The father of the infant then honors his guests and
pays the high priest.
The Laws of Ritual Impurity and Purity. These laws
are completely binding within the Samaritan community.
During her menstrual period, for seven days, the woman is
obliged to remain separated from her family, who must wait
upon her and supply all her needs. She is forbidden to touch
any household vessels, and anything upon which she sits must
be rinsed with water. On the seventh day she bathes in water
and becomes clean at sundown. A man who has had a nocturnal emission must wash his body in water and is unclean
until nightfall. He sits during prayers in a special place outside
the worshipers hall, is forbidden to raise his voice, and is forbidden to touch holy articles until evening comes. A woman
giving birth to a son is unclean for 40 days, and if the child is
a daughter she is unclean for 80 days, after which she purifies
herself (Lev. 12 and 15). The redemption of the circumcised
firstborn son takes place only after the mother is cleansed
of impurity of her childbirth. The high priest collects the redemption money.
Sukkot and Shemini Azeret. On the eve of Sukkot, the Samaritans place palm branches on the net roof of the sukkah, put interwoven twigs on the palm branches, hang citrus
fruit on string from the net roof of the sukkah, and hang willow branches from the roof, which is supported by four poles.
The sukkah is erected inside the house. The Arab riots that
plagued the Samaritans during various periods forced them
to build their sukkot in their houses, and over hundreds of
years this has become a tradition. The eve of Sukkot is devoted to building the sukkah, and on the morning of the holiday the Samaritans make the third pilgrimage to the top of
Mt. Gerizim.
The periods are of h ol ha-moed Sukkot and also of Passover are devoted to special prayers each morning and evening.
The Samaritans sit in the sukkah but do not sleep there.
Shemini Az eret begins on the 22nd day of the seventh
month and is also called Simh at Torah. After prayers, which
begin shortly after midnight and continue for more than ten
hours, like the prayers of all holidays and festivals, the priest
730
samaritans
gives the signal. The child, standing in the center upon a high
chair, clothed in his best outfit, recites the blessing of Moses,
following it by a speech (by heart) prepared for him by his
teacher. He then descends from the chair, kisses the hands of
the priests and other dignitaries, and receives gifts from them.
He is now regarded as one of the quorum needed for community prayers. On the following Sabbath after the prayers he
reads a portion of the Pentateuch immediately after the high
priest. The Samaritans are then invited to a feast prepared by
the parents of the child. The ceremony takes place to the accompaniment of liturgical hymns and poems written by Samaritan *paytanim of all eras.
Kiddushin. The proposal is the first of three stages in Samaritan marriage: kiddushin, erusin, nissuin. They express the
status of the girl in family life. When a Samaritan girl is certain
of her choice, she urges him to request his parents to ask her
parents for her hand. Occasionally, when a young man is in
love he may request his parents to approach the girls parents
even without telling her of it. On being asked, the girls parents reply: We will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth
(Gen. 24:57). The girls wish is now tested. If she desires the
man, though her parents are opposed, she may reply affirmatively. She then appoints a guardian to perform the erusin
(betrothal) ceremony on her behalf. The kiddushin ceremony
takes place in the girls home, and even a minor priest can
sustain the bond and bless it by recital of the Shema and
similar verses from the Pentateuch. The breaking of the kiddushin does not require divorce. Whenever conditions do not
permit the continuation of the attachment, the man informs
the girls parents of it in writing or by word of mouth, and he
is not liable for damages.
Erusin. The betrothal usually takes place a short time after
the kiddushin. Release from erusin requires a divorce. The girl
is herself not present, but her representative, her father or her
uncle, or, in the event of her father not consenting to the betrothal, the guardian, sits opposite the young man. They clasp
right hands together as a sign of the bond. The high priest sitting opposite, places his right hand upon their clasped hands
and pronounces the erusin blessings over the bond. The high
priest then receives a tied handkerchief containing six silver
shekels from the young man and hands them to the girls representative as a symbol of the dowry. When the priest finishes
reading, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will
make him a helpmeet for him (Gen. 2:1825), the fianc kisses
the hand of the priest and of the notables. The fianc and his
fianc are now regarded as husband and wife.
Nissuin. Marriage is the final stage, the formal act whose
purpose is to complete the betrothal. Rejoicing on these occasions is greater than at any joyful Samaritan ceremony. The
bridegrooms family proclaims a week of rejoicing to begin
the Sabbath before the wedding. This is called the Shabbat
ha-Petih ah (the Opening Sabbath of the rejoicing). On this
Sabbath the weekly portion of the law is read in the house of
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
731
samaritans
samaritan chronology
No extant Samaritan work explains the Samaritan chronology,
and the facts relating to this topic must therefore be gleaned
from their writings.
732
samaritans
733
Historical Chronology
In the Pentateuch, which is also regarded by the Samaritans
as a historical book for Samaritans, no fixed date era is given
as the starting point from which years are counted successively; instead, the time of a certain event is given in relation
to one preceding or following it. Nonetheless, several eras are
mentioned in the Samaritan chronicles and datings of their
manuscripts. The main era, to which all the others are related,
after the Creation of the World or from Adam, is based on
the lifespan of each of the Patriarchs in the Pentateuch, from
samaritans
Adam to the death of Moses, i.e., until the entry of the Israelites into Canaan. According to the Samaritan Pentateuch, this
era extended for 2,794 years. The continuation of this calculation is founded on the lists of Samaritan high priests in their
chronicles, especially the Salsalah and Tolidah (see below, Samaritan Language and Literature), and several other eras are
mentioned. The Table: Beginning of Eras in Six Samaritan
Chronicles, shows the beginning of some of the more important eras in six Samaritan chronicles.
The date of the entry into Canaan is identical in all six
chronicles, except for a slight deviation of two years in the
oldest, the Asatir. This conformity is a result of computations based upon figures mentioned in the Samaritan Pentateuch. From then on, one must rely on the other five Chronicles one begun in the 12t century C.E., two from the 14t
century, and two from the beginning of the 20t century. The
date of the beginning of the divine disfavor is alike in all of
them; it is reached by adding 260 years, the reign of six high
priests, to the date of the entry into Canaan. The disappearance of the holy Tabernacle, which was the beginning of the
divine disfavor, occurred one year before the death of Uzzi,
the sixth high priest, when Eli b. Jafni usurped the functions
of the high priest. The Tolidah and the chronicle from 1908
(edited partly by J. Mac-Donald) postpone this event to the
year of Uzzis death. There are wide discrepancies in dates
given for the start of three of the last eras. One of the reasons
for the differences is omissions or additions in the lists on
which they are based.
Some scholars surmise that all the numbers in the Samaritan chronicles are founded on the theological concept
that the world, in its present state, was meant to exist for
6,000 years 3,000 years of divine favor (Rahutah) followed
by 3,000 years of divine disfavor (Fanutah), after which the
Messiah (Taheb) would appear, and return the holy Tabernacle and bring redemption and peace to all the world. The
date 3054 after creation fits approximately into that theory as
marking the end of the period of the divine favor. From then
to the appearance of Alexander the Great, about 1,000 years
elapsed, i.e., one third of the period of divine disfavor. The date
Abu al-Fath
756 A . H .;
1354 C . E .
Asatir c.
11th century C . E .
Tolidah
rst part 544
A. H .;
1149 C . E .
Samaritan
Book of
Josua
1362 C . E .
2796*
2794
3055
2794
3054
2794
3054
2794
3054
2794
3055
3930
4100
4350
3944
c. 4321
c. 4600
4921
3945
4292
4600
4893
4600
5047
All the years in this table are counted After Creation of the World (A.C.).
734
samaritans
Language
Throughout their history the Samaritans have used four languages: Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Arabic. Apart from
the Pentateuch (see Samaritan *Pentateuch), Hebrew was retained as the language of liturgy, revived from the 14t century on. This later Hebrew was mixed with Aramaic words
Literature
Extant Samaritan literature is relatively rare. The earliest work
is the Pentateuch, which is the center of Samaritan life. To this
day, the Samaritans jealously guard their most precious scroll,
known as the Abisha Scroll, which they believe to be the actual
copy of the Pentateuch made by Abisha, grandson of Eleazar,
in the 13t year of the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan.
All scholars agree that it belongs to a later period, but there is
no agreement as to the exact time, and opinions vary between
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the first (M. Gaster) and the 14t century C.E. (P. Kahle). Perez
Castro reached the conclusion that the scroll consists of one
older part, which belongs to the 12t or 13t century C.E., and
of more recent additions from the 14t century. *Abu al-Fath
ends his account on Sefer Avisha with the encouraging message that after having been lost it had reappeared in his days,
this being a sign of the approaching return of the Divine Favor (p. 35). Next in order comes the Targum written in the
Aramaic type similar to that of the Defter and Memar Markah
(see *Markah). It is a fairly literal translation, but manuscripts
exist with interpretive additions. The presence of a number
of Greek words suggests a date between the first and fourth
centuries C.E., as Greek was probably still in use as a literary
medium alongside Aramaic during the early part of that period in Samaria. Apart from some fragments, the oldest manuscript is the Barberini Triglot of 1226 C.E.
The Defter (Gr. diphtera, book) constitutes the oldest
part of the liturgy and was probably composed in the fourth
century C.E. (for the text, see A.E. Cowley, I, pp. 192; Z. BenH ayyim, III, 2, pp. 41274). Additions were made in later times
in Aramaic and Hebrew. This part of the liturgy contains
some early hymns (e.g., the Hymn of the Angels, the Hymn of
Joshua), and these, together with the hymns of Amram Darah,
Markah, and Nanah, the son of Markah, may be described as
the basic prayer book of the Samaritan community. The Memar Markah is of prime importance for the study of Samaritan
Aramaic and for the history of Samaritan concepts.
LITURGISTS. Liturgists of a later period who still wrote in Aramaic were Taviya ben Darta of the 10t11t century C.E., Abu
al-H asan al-S ur of the 11t century, al-Dustn before the 13t
century, and Av Gillugah of the 12t century. Aaron b. Manr
of Damascus from the 13t to 14t centuries, and Mattanah
Hamazri from the Samaritan community in Egypt, wrote in
Hebrew, like the high priest of Shechem, Phinehas b. Yusuf,
the reviver of the Samaritan piyyut in Hebrew (13081367 C.E.),
and his sons Eleazar and Avisha. Phinehas himself and his son
Eleazar occasionally still used Aramaic in attempting to write
verses of Markah, i.e., to imitate the style of the Samaritan
Poet. Avisha, who received the epithet baal ha-mmar (i.e.,
the writer) and, after Markah, perhaps the most famous
and beloved liturgist in the Samaritan community, wrote in
the Samaritan Hebrew that began to emerge by then and consisted of a mixture of classical Hebrew and Aramaic forms
and words. He was a very prolific writer and his poems were
included to a large extent in the Samaritan liturgy. Another
famous liturgist was the scholar Ibrhim b. Yaqb al-Ayya of
the 18t century. In the 19t century the outstanding Samaritan scholar Phinehas b. Isaac (d. 1898), who was surnamed
Fard Zavnh (unique in his time), composed liturgical poems of great beauty.
HALAKHIC LITERATURE. Several halakhic works have survived, all in Middle Arabic:
(1) Al-Kfi (the [all] sufficient) composed by Ysuf alAskar in 1042 C.E.
(2) Kitb al-T abbkh of the same period by *Abu al-H asan
of Tyre. Abu al-H asan is also said to be the translator of the
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are all from the Arabic period and are written in Middle Arabic. Apart from lexicographical and grammatical material
contained in them, they show familiarity with medieval philosophy, astrology, astronomy, and even medicine, as famous
Samaritan physicians were among the commentators. The
influence of Karaite or Rabbanite writings is discernible in
some commentaries.
(1) A commentary on Genesis 128:10 by an unknown
author (composed in 1053 C.E.), a specimen of which has
been published by Neubauer, is of Karaite provenance. It was
adapted to the Samaritan pentateuchal text in an external and
very perfunctory manner prior to the year 1348, when the
single extant manuscript was copied (Loewenstamm, Perush
Karai al ha-Torah bi-Levush Shomroni).
(2) S adaqa b. Munajja al-H akm (d. 1223 in Haran), physician to Malik al-Ashraf, composed a philosophical treatise
Kitb al-Tawh d (Book of [Gods] Oneness), in which he adduces proofs for the absolute oneness of God from verses of
the Pentateuch. A commentary to Genesis is ascribed to him
(M. Steinschneider, ALJ, 331).
(3) Abu al-Faraj Nafis al-Dn (author of Kitb al-Farid)
wrote a commentary on Leviticus 26 called Sharh (interpretation) im be-H ukkota. In it he cites from a lost Aramaic
commentary of al-Dustn, well known as a liturgical poet in
the Aramaic language.
(4) Several treatises are ascribed to Ghazzl or Tabiah
b. alDoweik of the 13t14t century: (a) the Story of Balaam,
(b) the Affirmation of the Second Kingdom (Rylands Catalogue, p. 110, Cod. VIII), and (c) an unfinished commentary
to Exodus.
(5) Ibrhim al-Kabs i, noted scholar and liturgist of Damascus (16t century), wrote a book Sair al-Qalb (Conducts
of the Heart), wherein he expounds the need to conduct a
life in accordance with divine teachings. He, too, enumerates
613 commandments. His system, like that of Aaron b. Manr,
shows striking resemblance to that of Maimonides. His second
book, a commentary to Deuteronomy 32:3, 4 called Sharh Efshem or al-Ftih a, deals with the power of the divine name.
Deuteronomy 32:3, 4, like the first Sura of the Koran, became
the basic verses in the Samaritan prayers. This book is of special interest as it shows influence of esoteric teachings.
(6) An important midrashic work from 1537 C.E., Molad
Moshe, a panegyric to Moses, was composed in Arabic by
Yishmael Haramh i (Isml al-Rumyh ) of Damascus, a disciple of Ibrhm al-Kabs , who honored him by writing the introduction to his pupils work (edited by S.J. Miller, New York,
1949, together with a Samaritan Hebrew version by Phinehas
b. Isaac ha-Kohen).
(7) the most comprehensive commentary to Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers was composed in the 18t
century. Begun by Meshalma or Muslim b. Murjn, of the
Danafite family, renowned for its scholars and scribes, it was
continued and partly rewritten by his nephew and disciple
Ibrhm b. Yaqb al-Ayya from Genesis 46:28 to the end.
Ibrhm al-Ayya, commentator, liturgist, grammarian, chro-
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because of his proficiency in Samaritan chronology and fixing of the calendar. He is said to have encouraged Av-Sakhva
to compile his chronicle (i.e., the New Chronicle), as the high
priest Phinehas b. Ysuf of the 14t century asked Abu al-Fath
to compose his Annals (B.H . I pp. xlvii, xlviii). Another modern chronicle is ascribed to him. Like many contemporaries,
among them the high priest Jacob b. Hrn, he translated Samaritan manuscripts from Arabic into Samaritan Hebrew.
Samaritan literature, only part of which has been dealt
with here, is wholly centered around the Pentateuch and the
religious life of the community. The liturgical, halakhic, midrashic, grammatical, lexicographical, philosophical, and
chronological literature all developed with the same aim: to
guide the community to understand the very meaning and
intention of the divine book and to teach them to fulfill its
commandments. Even the historical literature fits into this
system, as it sets out to show that mans welfare depends on
his obedience to the laws of The Book.
[Ayala Loewenstamm]
in islam
In the Koran, al-Smir is a strange figure. He incited the
people of Israel to make the Golden Calf and Aarons warnings were of no avail. Al-Smir succeeded by using sorcery
and was punished by having to proclaim forever: l missa
(touch me not!, Sura 20:8597). The name al-Smir is difficult to explain and usually is interpreted as an allusion to
the Samaritans, who according to Muhammad bore some of
the responsibility for calf worship in Samaria. Speyer, however, believes that it alludes to the act of Zimri b. Salu, who
was killed by Phinehas for his misconduct with a Midianite
woman (Num. 25:115). This assumption appears to be forced
and the tale of the Smir remains a mystery.
[Ham Zew Hirschberg]
musical tradition
The musical tradition of the Samaritans, which is closely
linked to their linguistic tradition, is completely devoid of instrumental music; in fact, the Samaritans do not even sound
the shofar. Moreover, the Samaritans have no formal theoretical system of tones, meter, or rhythm. The two main styles
of the Samaritan melos are the kal (light) and the kaved
(heavy) style. The kal style is mainly syllabic. Its rhythm is
linked to that of the text and its range is extremely limited. The
center tone generally serves as the axis of the melody, with seconds on either side, and only occasional extensions to a third,
fourth, and fifth. The kaved style is basically nonsyllabic and
rich in embellishments. The melodic axis in this style consists
of the center tone with the embellishments adjacent to it, but
at times the melody projects over larger intervals such as the
fifth, sixth, seventh, or even the octave, and then returns to
its center. The manner of rendering Samaritan songs is chiefly
characterized, in almost every melodic texture and prominently so in the kaved style, by strong vibrato, by glissando
to the degree that it is difficult to fix the duration of the tone,
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
samaritans
739
[Shlomo Hofman]
Bibliography: BIBLIOGRAPHY: A.D. Crown, A Bibliography of the Samaritans (1984); UNTIL 1300: E. Vilmar, Abulfath i; Annales Samaritani (1865); A. Neubauer, Chronique Samaritaine (1873),
= JA, 14 (1869), 385470; T.W.J. Juynboll, Chronicon Samaritanum
(1848); E.N. Adler and M. Seligsohn, in: REJ, 44 (1902), 188222; 45
(1902), 7098, 160, 22354; 46 (1903), 12346; J. Macdonald, The Samaritan Chronicle no. 2 (or Sefer ha-Yamim). From Joshua to Nebuchadnezzar (1969), = BZAW, 107 (1969); C.D. Mantel, in: Bar Ilan, Sefer
ha-Shanah, 78 (1970), 16277; G.E. Wright, in: HTR, 55 (1962),
35766; idem, Shechem (1965); F.M. Cross, in: BA, 26 (1963), 11021;
idem, in: HTR, 59 (1966), 20111; J.A. Montgomery, The Samaritans
(1907, 1968); I. Ben-Zvi, Sefer ha-Shomronim (19702). 13001970: J.A.
Montgomery, The Samaritans (1907, 1968), 1345, 12542; A.E. Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy (1909); S. de Sacy, Correspondance des Samaritains de Naplouse (1831); R. Tsedaka, Samaritan Legends (Aggadot
Am Shomroniyyot) (1965), 3356, 8688; E.T. Rogers, Notices of the
Modern Samaritans (1855); Ben-Zvi, Erez Yisrael, 41930; R. Kirchheim, Karmei Shomron (1851, 1970), 154; M. Ish-Shalom, Masei haNoz erim le-Erez Yisrael (1966), index s.v. Shomronim; I. Ben-Hanania,
in: Yediot ha-H evrah la-H akirot Erez Yisrael va-Attikoteha, 11 no. 34
(1945), 5763; B. Tsedaka, in: Ba-Maarakhah (1969). STATISTICS: E.
Robertson, Catalogue of the Samaritan Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 2 (1962), 275ff.; P. Kahle, in: PJB, 26 (1930), 89103. RELIGION AND CUSTOMS: J.A. Montgomery, The Samaritans (1907,
1968), ch. 12 and 13; M. Gaster, The Samaritans (1925), second lecture;
J. Macdonald, The Theology of the Samaritans (1964); M. Haran, in:
Eretz Israel, 4 (1956), 1609; A.S. Halkin, in: Goldziher Memorial Volume (1958), 86100. NEW YEAR AND DAY OF ATONEMENT: B. Tsedaka, in: Ba-Maarakhah, 101 (1969); R. Tsedaka, Siddurei Tefillot Moed
ha-H odesh ha-Shevii, Shabbat Aseret Yemei ha-Selih ot u-Moed Yom
ha-Kippur (1963) (in Samaritan-Hebrew letters). THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES AND SHEMINI AZERET: B. Tsedaka, in: Ba-Maarakahah,
samarkand
97 (1969); 102 (1969); I. Tsedaka, Siddur Teffilat H ag ha-Sukkot veShabbat Moed H ag ha-Sukkot (1963); D.J. Boys, London Quarterly
and Wolborn Review (1961); 3237; R. Tsedaka, The Prayer of the Ten
Commandments (in Samaritan Hebrew letters; 1962). PASSOVER: R.
Tsedaka, Samaritan Legends (1965), 7376 (bibl.); Pesach on Hargrizim. The Samaritans; special edition of the Samaritan newspaper
AB The Samaritan News (n.d.). SHAVUOT: B. Tsedaka, in: BaMaarakhah, 98 (1969). SAMARITAN CHRONOLOGY: Chronique Samaritaine, ed. by A. Neubauer (1873), 612; Abu-al-H assan al-S uri,
al-Tabbah , Ms. Huntingdon 24 (= Nicholl, Sam. Arab. V), pp. 17, 42,
5, 5859, J. Al-Kirkisn, Kitb al-Anwr wa-al-Marqib, ed. by L.
Nemoy (1942), 40; 1856; 8001; Z. Ben-H ayyim, Ivrit ve-Aramit
Nosah Shomron, 3 pt. 2 (1967), 74, 80, 212, 240; E. Robertson, in: BJRL,
23, 2 (1939), 45886; A.A. Akavyah, in: Melilah, 34 (1950), 32844;
H.J. Bornstein, in: Ha-Tekufah, 8 (Warsaw, 1921), 287ff.; 9 (1921),
20258; I. Ben-Zvi, Sefer ha-Shomronim (1970), 163226; S. de Sacy,
Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la bibliothque du roi, 12 (1831),
153; M. Heidenheim, Bibliotheca Samaritana, 3 (1896), 11922; PaulyWissowa, S.V. Demetrios; A. von Gall, Der hebraeische Pentateuch der
Samaritaner, 1 (1914), li; L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und
technischen Chronologie, 2 (1826), 2317; 44453; F.K. Ginzel,
Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, 1 (1906),
2635; 2 (1911), 8082. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE: J.A. Montgomery, The Samaritans (1907, 1968); A.E. Cowley, The Samaritan
Liturgy (1909); Z. Ben-H ayyim, Ivrit ve-Aramit Nosah Shomron, 4
vols. (195767); I. Ben-Zvi, Sefer Ha-Shomronim (19702); F. Prez Castro, in: Sefarad, 13 (1953), 11929; J. Macdonald, Memar Marqah, in:
BZAW, 84 (1963); A.S. Halkin, The Relation of the Samaritans to Saadia Gaon, in: Saadia Anniversary Volume (1943), 27192; L. Goldberg,
Das samaritanische Pentateuch Targum (1935); M. Gaster, The Samaritans (1925); idem, The Samaritan Literature in: EI, 4 (1925; supplement to the authors article The Samaritans); Steinschneider, Arab
Lit, 31934; E. Vilmar, Abu-al-Fath , Annales Samaritani (1865); A.
Neubauer (ed.), Chronique Samaritaine (1873); J. Bowman, Transcript
of the Original Text of the Samaritan Chronicle Tolidah (1954); T.W.J.
Juynboll, Chronicon Samaritanum Liber Josuae (1848); M. Gaster,
in: JRAS, 31 (1909), 11527, 14953; E.N. Adler and M. Seligsohn, Une
nouvelle Chronique Samaritaine (1903); A. Loewenstamm, in: Sefunot, 8 (1964), 165204; M. Haran, in: Eretz-Israel, 4 (1956), 25268;
A.S. Halkin, in: Memorial Volume I. Goldziher (1958), 86100; S.J.
Miller, Molad Moshe (Ar. with translation in Samaritan Hebrew by
Phinehas b. Isaac ha-Kohen; 1949); M. Klumel, Mishptim, ein samaritanisch-arabischer Commentar zu 2122:15 von Ibrahim ibn Jacub
(1902); G. Levin-Rosen, The Joseph Cycle (Genesis 3745) in the Samaritan-Arabic Commentary of Meshalma ibn Murjan (1951); H.G.
Kippenberg, Garizim und Synagoge (1971). M. Gaster in: Festschrift
zum 75-jaehrigen Bestehen des Juedisch-theologischen Seminars (1929),
393404; L.A. Mayer, Bibliography of the Samaritans (1964); R. Weiss
(ed.), Leket Bibliografi al ha-Shomronim (1970). IN ISLAM: Tabar,
Tavzxrikh, 1 (1357 A.H.), 2967; Tharlabi, Qis as (1356 A.H.), 1757;
Kisi, Qisas (1956 A.H.), 21921; H. Speyer, Die biblischen Erzaehlungen im Qoran (1961), 32333; J.A. Montgomery, The Samaritans (1907,
1968), 1512, no. 39. MUSICAL TRADITION: A.Z. Idelsohn, Toledot
ha-Neginah ha-Ivrit (1924), 5358; idem, in: Yerushalayim, 1112
(1916), 33573; idem, in: MGWJ, 61 (1917), 11726: Z. Ben-H ayyim, Ivrit
ve-Aramit Nosah Shomron, 1 (1957), 5357; 2 (1957), 304403; D.
Cohen and R. Torgovnik Katz, in: Ethnomusicology, 4 (1960), 6774;
J. Macdonald, in: Islamic Quarterly, 6 (1961), 4754; M. Ravina, Organum and the Samaritans (1963); C. Sachs, Wellsprings of Music, ed. by
J. Kunst (1965), 64f., 169f.; E. Gerson-Kiwi, in: Yuval, 1 (1968). 16993
(Eng. section); S. Hofman. ibid., 3651 (Heb. section); idem, in; Divrei
ha-Congress ha-Olami ha-Revii le-Maddaei ha-Yahadut, 2 (1968),
740
38594 (Eng. abstract, 208f.); J. Spector, ibid., 1536 (Eng.); R.T. Hassafarey, Kitb al-Tasbich (Heb., 1970). Add. Bibliography: J.
Bowman (ed.), Samaritan Documents Relating To Their History, Religion and Life (1977); P. Bruneau, Les Isralites de Dlos et la juiverie
dlienne, in: Bulletin de Correspondence Hellnique, 106 (1982),
465504; R.J. Coggins, Samaritans and Jews. The Origins of Samaritanism Reconsidered (1975); S.J.D. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness. Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (1999); M.F. Collins, The
Hidden Vessels in Samaritan Tradition, in: Journal for the Study of
Judaism, 3 (1972), 97116; F.M. Cross, Samaria Papyrus 1: An Aramaic Slave Conveyance of 335 B.C.E. Found in the Wadi el-Dliyeh,
in: Eretz Israel (EI), 18 (1985), 717; A.D. Crown (ed.), The Samaritans
(1989); A.D. Crown, A Bibliography of the Samaritans (19932); idem,
New Light on the Interrelationships of Samaritan Chronicles from
Some Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, in; Bulletin of the
John Rylands University Library of Manchester (BJRL), 54 (1971/72),
283313; 55 (1972/73), 86111; F. Dexinger and R. Pummer (eds.), Einfhrung in den Stand der Samaritanerforschung, in: Die Samaritaner
(1992), 166; L. Grabbe, Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian (1994); C.
Hezser, Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine (2001); I. Hjelm, The Samaritans and Early Judaism (2000); K.G. Hoglund, Achmaemenid
Imperial Administration in Syria-Palestine and the Missions of Ezra
and Nehemiah (1992); S. Isser, Jesus in the Samaritan Chronicles,
in: Journal of Jewish Studies (JJS), 32 (1981); idem, The Samaritans
and Their Sects, in: W. Horbury, W.D. Davies, and J. Sturdy (eds.),
The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 3 (1999); A.T. Kraabel, New
Evidence of the Samaritan Diaspora Has Been Found on Delos, in:
Biblical Archaeologist (March 1984); Y. Magen, Mt. Gerizim A
Temple City, in: Qadmoniot, 33:2 (120) (2000(a)), 74118; idem, Mt.
Gerizim During the Roman and Byzantine Periods, in: Qadmoniot,
33:2 (120) (2000(b)), 133; Y. Magen, L. Tsafania, and H. Misgav, The
Hebrew and Aramaic Inscriptions from Mt. Gerizim, in: Qadmoniot,
33:2 (120) (2000(c)); 12532; L.D. Matassa, The Myth of the Synagogue on Delos, in: Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology 2004,
Trinity College, Dublin, British Archaeological Reports (2006); M.
Mor, Samaritan History, in: A. Crown (ed.), The Samaritans (1989);
R. Pummer, The Samaritans (1987); idem, Samaritan Material Remains and Archaeology, in: A.D. Crown (ed.), The Samaritans (1989);
idem, The Samaritans A Jewish Offshoot or a Pagan Cult? in: Bible
Review, 7:5 (1991), 2229, 40; idem, How To Tell a Samaritan Synagogue from a Jewish Synagogue, in: BAR, 24:3 (May/June 1998),
2435; J.D. Purvis, The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Origin of the
Samaritan Sect (1968); idem, The Samaritans, in: W.D. Davies and
L. Finkelstein (eds.), The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 2 (1989);
L.Y. Rahmani, Stone Synagogue Chairs: Their Identification, Use and
Significance, in: IEJ, 40:23 (1990), 192214; D.L. Smith-Christopher,
The Mixed Marriage Crisis in Ezra 910 and Nehemiah 13: A Study
of the Sociology of the Post-Exilic Judaean Community, in: T.C. Eskenazi and K.H. Richards (eds.), Second Temple Studies, 2. Temple
and Community in the Persian Period, in: Journal for the Study of the
Old Testament, Supplement Series 175 (1994); E. Stern and Y. Magen,
The First Phase of the Samaritan Temple on Mt. Gerizim New Archaeological Evidence, in: Qadmoniot, 33:2 (120) 2000, 119124; T.
Shemaryahu, A Masada Fragment of Samaritan Origin, in: IEJ, 47
(1997), 22032; L.M. White, The Delos Synagogue Revisited: Recent
Fieldwork in the Graeco-Roman Diaspora, in: Harvard Theological
Review (1987), 13554.
matzot was carried on at home. Since Uzbekistan attained independence in 1991 there has been a steady exodus of Jews to
Israel and the West (mainly the United States), with around
2,000 remaining in Samarkand in 2005. One of the citys two
synagogues is still in use, but often there is no minyan for
Sabbath services.
Bibliography: Z.L. Amitin-Shapiro, Ocherk: Sotsialisticheskogo stroitelstva sred: sredne-aziaskikh Yevreyev (Tashkent, 1933);
I. Ben-Zvi, in: He-Avar, 1 (1953), 6773; A. Ben Ami, Between Hammer and Sickle (1967), 191ff., 198 and passim.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
Contemporary Period
In the late 1960s the Jewish population was estimated at 15,000
(mainly Bukharan Jews), most of whom resided in the former
Jewish quarter. There remained one synagogue in the old part
of the city, where the Jewish quarter is located; it included a
separate section for the Ashkenazi Jews. Samarkand retained
a Jewish cemetery. In 1951 the rabbi H akham Ezekiel was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for religious activity, but
was released in 1957, having served six years. In March 1964
the community was compelled by the authorities to protest
against the sending of matzot from Israel and the baking of
741
finance (sarrafbashi) of the governor of Ottoman Egypt. Owing to the close contacts of his patron with *Shabbetai Z evi,
it is most likely that Sambari himself also became one of the
adherents of that messianic movement. The collapse of Shabbateanism after the apostasy of the false messiah had made
Sambari disillusioned, and this was one of the main drives
that brought about the accomplishment of the SDY in 1673.
Sambari began this historical work with the emergence of Islam, presenting the figure of *Muhammad, as seen through
Jewish eyes. Henceforth he included the history of the Jewish
people in the history of the Islamic nations. The full scope of
the eastern Islamic dynasties from the earliest, the *Ummayads to the Ottomans, served him as backdrop to the Jewish
historical materials. Sambaris uniqueness lies in the fact that
he successfully integrated these two histories, connecting
them through the chain of cause and effect. His access to the
Arabic material enabled him to enrich the Islamic chapters of
his book with the essentials found in the Islamic biographical
literature (Sira), in *Hadith traditions, and in Muslim historiography. In dealing with the Muslim kingdoms he mainly relied
on al-Maqrizi, Ibn Taghri-birdi, and Ibn Zunbul.
The centrality of Egypt in the SDY made Sambari enter
into great detail in describing the Jewish settlements that existed in the Nile Valley during the 10t16t centuries; portraits
of their leaders, foremost among them *Maimonides, his descendants and other negidim (i.e., heads of the Jews); the persecutions they had undergone there; and even the hydrological regime of the Nile. Indispensable for an understanding of
Jewish life in *Fatimid and *Mamluk Egypt are Sambaris details about the various synagogues in Fustat, Cairo, Jizeh, and
other places in the region of the Delta.
Sambaris main sources for his history of the Jews were
Yuh asin by Abraham Zacuto; Shevet Yehudah by Solomon
Ibn Virga; Divrei ha-Yamim by Joseph ha-Kohen; Shalshelet
ha-Kabbalah by Gedaliah Ibn Yahya, and Seder Eliyahu Zuta
by Elijah Capsali, Kore ha-Dorot by David Conforti. He also
integrated into his work archival documents, excerpts of Responsa (of Maimonides and R. David Ibn Abi Zimra) and
bio-bibliographical notes about prominent sages living in
Spain and later on in the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman
Empire.
As Sambari was imbued with Jewish mysticism, he was
fascinated by *Kabbalah, and therefore he depicted outstanding kabbalists who were active in *Safed during the 16t and
17t centuries. Moreover, he includes in his work the complete, most precise, and earliest version of the hagiography
of R. Isaac Luria, Sefer Toledot ha-Ari. In the wake of his personal involvement in the messianic experience of his generation, Shabbateanism, Sambari incorporated in the SDY the
stories of eight messianic and prophetic figures, beginning
with David Alroy and concluding with ha-Ari and Shabbetai
Z evi. It is especially significant that Sambari wrote down the
story of *Nathan of Gaza who prophesied concerning Shabbetai Z evi, his prophet, but unfortunately this has been torn
out from the manuscripts of the work.
742
sambatyon
SAMBATYON (also Sanbatyon and Sabbatyon), a legendary river across which part of the ten tribes were exiled by the
Assyrian king, Shalmaneser, and which rested on the Sabbath.
The river is mentioned in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Ex.
34:10): I will take them from there and place them on the
other side of the Sambatyon River. The rabbis declared that
the ten tribes were exiled three times: once beyond the Sambatyon River, once to Daphne of Antioch, and once when the
divine cloud descended upon them and covered them (TJ,
Sanh. 10:6, 29c; Lam. R. 2:9; cf. Gen. R. 73:6). The first ascription of miraculous qualities to this river is found in the Talmud. When *Tinneius Rufus asked R. Akiva how he could
prove that the Sabbath was divinely ordained as the day of rest,
he replied, Let the River Sambatyon prove it (Sanh. 65b). It
was unnavigable on weekdays because it flowed with strong
currents carrying along stones with tremendous force, but it
rested on the Sabbath (Gen. R. 11:5). These passages give no
indication as to the supposed location of the river or of the
origin of its name. The only inference that can be drawn from
them is that it was located in Media. The most extensive description of both its name and locality is given by Nah manides
(to Deut. 32:26). He identified the river with the River Gozan
of the Bible (e.g., II Kings 17:6), explaining the name (on the
basis of Num. 11:31) as meaning removed, i.e., the ten tribes
were removed from the rest of their people. Nah manides
also held that its name derived from its Sabbath rest, since
Sabbat was the local word for the Sabbath.
743
Bibliography: Ashtor, Toledot, index; A. Berliner, Quellenschriften zur juedischen Geschichte und Literatur, 1 (1896), index; idem,
in: MWJ, 17 (1890), 5058; W. Fischel, in: Zion, 5 (1939), 20413; Z H B,
10 (1906), 154; M. Schreiner, in: ZDMG, 45 (1891), 295300; M. Brann,
in: MGWJ, 44 (1900), 1424; 13840; M. Benayahu, Sefer Toledot haAri (1967), 1518; 1236; R.A. Ibn Simeon, Tuv Miz rayim (1908), 19;
H.Z. Hirschberg, in: Eretz Israel, 10 (1971); Sh. Shtober (ed.), Sefer
Divrei Yosef: Eleven Hundred Years of Jewish History under Muslim
Rule (1994); idem, Muhammad and the Beginnings of Islam in the
Chronicle Sefer Divrey Yosef, in: D. Ayalon Festschrift (1986), 31952;
idem., Divrei ha-Yamim shel ha-Mamlakhot ha-Muslimiyyot beSefer Divrei Yosef, in: H. Beinart Festschrift (1988), 41527; idem,
Mi-Bet ha-Din ha-Yehudi el Bet ha-Din ha-Shari: Ha-Sikhsukh bein
ha- Mustaribim ve-ha-Maghribim be-Kahir ba-Meah ha-Shesh-Esreh,
in: Meh karim be-Aravit ve-Tarbut ha-Islam, 2 (2001), 10728; H.Z.
Hirschberg, The Agreement between the Mustaribs and the Maghribis in Cairo 1527, in: S.W. Barons Jubilee Volume (1974), 57790; A.
Gross, R. Yosef ben Avraham Hayun: Manhig Kehilat Lisbon (1993),
2527; M. Winter, Historyon Yehudi ben ha-Meah ha-Sheva-Esreh,
in: Peamim, 65 (1995), 15456.
[Shimon Shtober (2nd ed.)]
samberg, isaac
the fantastic stories of Gershon b. Eliezer ha-Levi in his Gelilot Erez Yisrael and by *Manasseh Ben Israel in his Mikveh
Yisrael. The former related that, in his journey through India
in 1630, he heard the clattering noise of the Sambatyon River,
which was a distance of two days journey from where he was
staying. He claimed that the Sambatyon was 17 miles wide and
threw stones as high as a house. On the Sabbath it was dry and
resembled a lake of snow or of white sand. The river ceased to
flow on Friday, two hours before sunset, and during this interval before the start of the Sabbath, the Jews beyond the river
raided the neighboring lands. Manasseh Ben Israel, while attempting to prove the existence of the river, claimed that even
when its sand is kept in a glass, it is agitated during six days
of the week and rests on the Sabbath (Mikveh Yisrael, ch. 10,
Lemberg, 1847 ed., p. 10ab). The Sambatyon also figured in
kabbalistic works. In 1260 the kabbalist Abraham *Abulafia
traveled to Erez Israel, where he started to search for the Sambatyon. He was trying to contact the Ten Lost Tribes. Sambatyon was also associated with *Shabbetai Z evi. The students
of *Nathan of Gaza circulated a story after Shabbetai Z evis
death that he had gone to the Ten Lost Tribes that live on the
other side of the Sambatyon. There he married the daughter of
Moses. For a similar tale, see the Letter of Nathan of Gaza to
Raphael Joseph (1665; published in Z iz at Novel Z evi, ed. Tishby
(1954), 1112). The students were to wait for Shabbetai Z evi to
return after the seven-day wedding celebration and to redeem
them if they were worthy of it. If they were not worthy, he
would stay beyond the Sambatyon and great troubles would
befall Israel (Zikkaron li-Venei Yisrael (1676), 68).
Bibliography: E.N. Adler, Jewish Travellers (1930), index; J.D. Eisenstein, Oz ar Massaot (1926), 84, 122, 184f.; M. Gruenbaum, in: ZDMG, 23 (1869), 62730; D. Kaufmann, in: REJ, 22 (1891),
2857; A. Epstein (ed.), Eldad ha-Dani (1891), introd. 1316; S. Krauss,
Griechische und lateinische Lehnwoerter, 2 (1899), 369f.; J. Theodor
and H. Albeck (eds.), Midrash Bereshit Rabba, 1 (19652), 93 n. 3. Add.
Bibliography: H. Halkin, Across the Sabbath River: In Search of
a Lost Tribe of Israel (2002).
[A.Ro.]
SAMBERG, ISAAC (Aizik; 18891943), Polish Yiddish actor. Samberg helped to organize the Warsaw Central Theater in 1920 and acted in Sholem Aschs Motke the Thief and
Gogols Inspector-General. Joining the Vilna Troupe in 1923,
he appeared with them in various productions. A relative of
the Kaminskis, he also acted with their company in Shalom
Aleichem, Peretz, and Shakespeare. He visited the U.S. in 1932,
London in 1934, and played in the film version of Der Dybbuk,
1937. He and his wife Regina Zukor perished in Maidanek, or
possibly in Dachau.
townsmen of Sambor obtained a royal privilege de non tolerandis Judaeis which was ratified by Queen Bona in 1551, and Jews
were moved to the suburb of Blich. In the middle of the 17t
century the municipal authorities of Sambor prevented Jewish
merchants and craftsmen from entering the town and endeavored to expel the Jews from Blich, where there was an organized community under the jurisdiction of that of *Przemysl,
but they were allowed to remain on payment of an indemnity,
guaranteed by the Przemsyl community (1682). A privilege
granted by King Augustus II in 1725 authorized the Jews to reside in the area controlled by the fortress of Sambor and placed
them under the jurisdiction of the royal governor. The king also
permitted them to trade freely and to maintain a synagogue,
a cemetery, and one slaughterhouse. This privilege was ratified by King Augustus III in 1740. Permission to build a synagogue was officially granted in 1763; this magnificent building,
which took a number of years to complete, remained standing
until World War II. In 1764 the Jewish community numbered
513 persons. At the close of the 18t century there was a Jewish
press in Sambor which specialized in printing calendars. In the
1790s the Austrian authorities ordered a reduction in the size
of the Jewish quarter. Throughout the 19t century H asidism
exerted a powerful influence on the community.
The Jewish population of Sambor numbered 2,129 (42
of the total population) in 1880, rose to 3,072 (48) in 1900,
and 4,073 (38) in 1910, decreasing slightly to 4,067 (42)
in 1921. The majority earned a livelihood as small craftsmen
and shopkeepers, while the wealthy families engaged in the
wholesale trade of wood and cereals. At the beginning of the
20t century the municipal council was headed by a Jewish
delegate, Dr. Steierman. A Jewish commercial school, which
received government recognition, was founded at that time.
There was also a Jewish hospital and a hostel for Jewish students of the local high school, where 150 Jewish youths studied in 1910. At the end of 1918, a Jewish national council was
established. Between the two world wars *Tarbut and Beth
Jacob schools functioned in the town. Zionist parties and
organizations played a considerable role in the Jewish public life of Sambor. According to the 1931 census, there were
6,068 Jews in Sambor. Estimates for 1939 put the number of
Jews at about 8,000.
[Meir Balaban and Arthur Cygielman]
Holocaust Period
When war broke out, a wave of refugees from further west
came to Sambor. During the period of Soviet occupation,
which lasted from the end of September 1939 until the end of
June 1941, Jewish communal activities were banned, the only
exception being the synagogues, which continued to function
while paying heavy taxes. In the summer of 1940 hundreds of
Jews were deported to the Soviet Union. When war with Germany broke out in June 1941, many young Jews from Sambor
joined the Soviet Army. When the city fell to the Germans
(July 1, 1941), about 100 Jews were immediately killed by the
Ukrainians, with German support. In the winter of 194142
the able-bodied Jewish men were sent to labor camps to work
744
745
[Paul G. Werskey]
SAMEKH
Yosef (Pt. 1, Venice, 1590), novellae on the works of Isaac *Alfasi and *Nissim b. Reuben Gerondi to Ketubbot, H ullin, and
Bez ah, and a few novellae on other tractates of the Talmud;
Perush Derekh Yemin (ibid., 1606), a criticism of the Yemin
Adonai Romemah of Menahem Azariah Da *Fano. Josephs responsum, permitting the use of the mikveh of *Rovigo, about
the ritual fitness of which arose a great controversy involving many scholars, was published in the Mashbit Milh amot
(ibid., 1606). In the introduction to Mikraei Kodesh he refers
to two other works he wrote: Binyan Olam, homilies, and
Kevod Elohim.
Bibliography: Conforte, Kore, 43b, 44a, 50a; GhirondiNeppi, 136; Fuehn, Keneset, 4889; S. Simonsohn (ed.), in: Yehudah
Aryeh of Modena, Ziknei Yehudah (1956), 50 (introd.).
[Abraham David]
SAMEKH, the fifteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet; its numerical value is 60. The early Proto-Canaanite form of this
letter has not yet been attested, but in the tenth century b.c.e.
it consisted of three horizontal strokes crossed by a vertical
downstroke . Later there was a tendency to draw the various strokes continuously; thus in the Hebrew script , in the
Phoenician , while in the Aramaic the samekh developed as
follows: . Hence the Jewish and Nabataen
samekh, , evolved. In the Arabic script the samekh has been
replaced by (sin), which developed from the Aramaic shin
(Arabic shin = ). See*Alphabet, Hebrew.
[Joseph Naveh]
746
SAMOGITIA (Yid. and Heb. Zamet or Zamut; Lith. emaitisa; Pol. mud; Rus. Zhmud), historical region of W. Lithuania. Jewish settlement in the area dates from the 14t century,
and it gained in importance under the grand duke Witold of
Lithuania, who granted the Jews a number of significant privileges. In the 16t century, especially after the union of Poland
and Lithuania (1569), several Jewish communities were established. The Jews acted as government tax collectors, exporters
of raw materials to Germany (timber, grain, etc.), and importers of silver and gold objects and manufactured goods.
Samogitia played an important role in the second half of
the 17t century, when Lithuanian Jewry had a semiautonomous organization. This came about because of the growth
of the already established communities and the creation of
many new ones. The area attracted immigrants from other
parts of Lithuania and Poland, and in particular refugees from
the *Chmielnicki massacres, from which Samogitia itself had
been spared. In the early period of the Lithuanian Council
(see *Councils of the Lands; which lasted officially from 1623
to 1764) most of the communities of the Samogitia region belonged to the province of Brest-Litovsk, except for those in the
vicinity of the Niemen River, which belonged to the Grodno
district. In the third quarter of the 17t century Samogitia became a separate administrative unit, named Medinat Zamet,
and consisted of three districts: *Kedainiai (in the southwest),
*Birzai (in the northwest), and Vyuonis in the east. At its
beginning, the entire Samogitia unit had a single rabbinical
court, but in the course of time several of the larger communities appointed their own rabbis.
The Kedainiai district, which was the largest, comprised
the communities of *Jurbarkas, *Plunge, *Siauliai, *Raseiniai, *Palanga, *Kelme, Kraziai, *Skuodas, and *Telsiai, the
spiritual leaders of the district being the rabbis of the *Katzenellenbogen family. The Birzai district consisted of the
communities of Salantai, Pasvalys, Seta, Pumpenai, and Pakrojus. The Vyuonis district comprised the communities of
*Braslav, *Druya, *Kraslava, *Utena, and Anyksciai, and its
spiritual leaders were the rabbis of the Ginsburg family. Samogitia continued to maintain administrative links with BrestLitovsk, and the rabbi of Brest-Litovsk attended the Samogitia
district meetings and affixed his signature to their minutes.
Samogitia was one of the 11 central districts which came under the jurisdiction of the Lithuanian Council, and its name
is frequently mentioned in the protocols of the early meetings
of the Council which listed the communities paying the poll
tax. (The Council was abolished in 1764, but the communal
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
organizations that had been established in Samogitia continued to function for another two decades.) The first census
of Lithuanian Jewry, conducted in 1764 and the beginning
of 1765, showed a total of 157,250 taxpayers, Samogitia accounting for 15,759, or 10 of the total. In the Third Partition
of Poland (1795), Samogitia became a part of the Russian Empire and remained so until 1915, when Lithuania was occupied by German troops. After World War I it became a part of
independent Lithuania. At first the main center of the district
was Raseiniai and later, Telsiai. During the Nazi occupation
(194144), Samogitia was a part of Generalbezirk Litauen,
and its Jews shared the tragic fate of the rest of Lithuanian
Jewry.
As a center of Lithuanian Jewry, Samogitia was also famous as a center of Jewish religious life and learning. There
were a number of world-renowned yeshivot in the area, and
some of the communities were headed by great rabbis, whose
authority extended far beyond their constituencies. When the
*Haskalah movement spread in Lithuania, it also found adherents in Samogitia; the influence of German Haskalah was
especially strong, due to the geographic proximity of the region to its sources.
Bibliography: S.A. Bershadski, Litovskye vevrei (1883);
D.M. Lipman, Le-Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Lita-Zamut (1934); Lite, 1
(1951), 2 (1965); Yahadut Lita, 1 (1959), 3 (1967); E.E. Friedman, Sefer
ha-Zikhronot (1926), 890.
[Joseph Gar]
747
samokov
at age 17 and within two years won his first titles, including the
1990 U.S. Open, where he defeated Andre Agassi to become
the youngest player ever to win that tournament. Ironically,
Sampras final match before retirement would be another defeat of Agassi for the U.S. Open title, this time making Sampras the oldest player ever to win the Open. As a professional
from 1988 to 2002, he won 762 of 984 matches, capturing 64
singles titles, including a record 14 Grand Slam victories, with
eight of them won in straight sets. Throughout his career, Sampras was known for his intense concentration, and especially
for his highly accurate 130 mph (209 kph) serve in 1993, he
became the first player to serve over 1,000 aces in a season.
Amongst Sampras other records are his six consecutive years
finishing as the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP)
No. 1 ranked player in the world (199398), 286 consecutive
weeks at No. 1 in the ATP, and seven Wimbledon titles (tied
with Willie Renshaw).
[Robert Klein (2nd ed.)]
SAMOKOVLIJA, ISAK (18891955), Yugoslav author. Samokovlija, who was born in Gorade, Bosnia, was a practicing physician. He published his first story in 1927 and wrote
nine volumes of short stories, beginning with Od proljea do
proljea (From Spring to Spring, 1929) and including postWorld War II books such as Nosa Samuel (Samuel the Porter, 1946), Solomunovo slovo (Solomons Letter, 1949), and
Djerdan (The Necklace, 1952). Three volumes of Samokovlijas collected tales appeared in 195156.
Samokovlija wrote entirely about Jewish life in Bosnia.
Although many of his stories deal with the isolated Jewish
existence of the Bosnian Sephardim during the 19t century,
a few relate the tragic events of the Holocaust era. Samokovlija generally presents the picture of a Sephardi community in
some small town, where the Jews live in self-imposed isolation,
having much in common with their non-Jewish fellows, but
refusing to assimilate. Between the world wars, Samokovlija
also wrote plays: Hanka (1931), Plava Jevrejka (The Blonde
Jewess, 1932), On je lud (He is Crazy, 1935), and Fuzija (Fusion, 1939).
748
samson
749
samson
In the Aggadah
Samsons birth is a striking example of the shortsightedness
of humans. The judge Ibzan (identified as Boaz) had not invited Samsons parents to any of the 120 feasts in honor of the
marriages of his 60 children because he thought that the
sterile she-mule would never be able to repay his courtesy.
However, Samsons parents were blessed with an extraordinary son, while Ibzans 60 children died during his lifetime
(BB 91a).
Samsons strength was superhuman and the dimensions
of his body were gigantic. He measured 60 ells between his
shoulders, but was maimed in both legs (Sot. 10a). He uprooted two great mountains and rubbed them against each
other as though they were pebbles. Whenever the Holy Spirit
rested on him he emitted a bell-like sound which could be
heard from afar. While the spirit remained with him he could
cover the distance between Zorah and Eshtaol in one stride
(Lev. R. 8:2; Sot. 9b10a). Samsons supernatural strength
made Jacob think that he would be the Messiah (Gen. R.
In the Arts
Samson, as one of the classic heroes of the Jewish people, has
inspired innumerable writers, artists, and musicians. In the
early literature of the Church he was generally seen as a prefiguration of Jesus and this interpretation was particularly
evident in Christian works of the Middle Ages, although he
was sometimes also equated with Hercules in classical legend. However, Samson was not given special prominence in
the medieval mystery plays and only began to figure prominently in the works of Renaissance writers. Among these were
Alessandro Rosellis Italian miracle play, La Rappresentatione
di Sansone (Florence, 1551); the German Meistersinger Hans
Sachss tragedy, Simson (1556); a Hungarian verse play by Pter Kkonyi (155060); and Samson (1599), a Danish play by
H.J. Ranch of Vibourg. The theme became increasingly popular in the 17t century, particularly among Protestant writers
who tended to regard Samson as a symbol of the Reformations
struggle with the tyranny of Rome. In England, Sam(p)son, a
biblical drama by the writers Rowley and Jewby, was staged
in 1602 and in one scene Samson appeared carrying the town
gates on his neck, to the delight of the Elizabethan audience.
In Germany the baroque writer Philipp von Zesen turned to
a new literary genre with his novel, Simson (1679). Interest
in the subject was not, however, confined to Protestants. The
English Catholic Stonyhurst Pageants (c. 1625) include one
about Samson, and in Holland Joost van den Vondel, a Protestant convert to Catholicism, published the five-act tragedy
750
[Myra J. Siff]
samson
751
752
[Bathja Bayer]
Bibliography: G.F. Moore, Judges (ICC, 1895), 31265; P.
Haupt, in: JBL, 33 (1914), 2968; C.F. Burney, Judges (1930), 335408;
Pedersen, Israel, 12 (1926), 72, 102, 2224, 3802; 34 (1940), 3537,
2056, 2645, 4878, 493; A. van Selms, in: JNES, 9 (1950), 6575; Albright, Arch Rel, 1112; Albright, Stone, 2834. IN THE AGGADAH:
Ginzberg, Legends, index. IN THE ARTS: K. Gerlach, Der Simsonstoff im Drama (1929); W. Kirkconnell, Invincible Samson (1964),
deals with the theme in world literature; M. Roston, Biblical Drama
in England (1968), index. Add. Bibliography: N.H. Tur-Sinai,
Ha-Lashon ve-ha-Sefer, 2 (1959), 5893; E. Greenstein, in: Prooftexts,
1(1981), 23760; J. Sasson, in: Prooftexts, 8 (1988), 33346; J. Crenshaw,
in: ABD, 5:95054; A. Bellis, Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes, Womens
Stories in the Hebrew Bible (1994), 11239 (incl. bibl.); Y. Amit, Judges
(1999), 21856.
SAMSON, BENJAMIN ABRAHAM (1916 ), Indian naval officer. Samson, a member of the *Bene Israel community,
was born in Poona. He received a direct commission as lieutenant to the Royal Indian Navy in 1939. After serving in the
Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Bay of
Bengal, his was the last vessel out of Rangoon, the capital of
Burma, when it fell to Japanese forces. He was commissioned
in the Indian Navy when India gained its independence and,
in 1948, was appointed naval adviser on the staff of the High
Commissioner for India in the United Kingdom. In 1951 he
was promoted to rear-admiral, the youngest to hold this rank
in the Indian Navy. He served as commandant of the Indian
National Defence College and was appointed flag officer of
the fleet in 1965. In the following year he received the Vishisht Seva (Distinguished Service) Medal, Class I, for distinguished service of a most exceptional order. On his retirement
in 1968 he became superintendent of the Magazon Naval Dock
Yards in Bombay, and in 1972 was promoted to the honorary
rank of vice admiral by the president of India, for loyal and
dedicated service.
Urbach gives the date of his death as before 1216, but others
date it c. 1230.
753
SAMSON BEN SAMSON OF COUCY (called ha-sar miCoucy; 13t century), French tosafist. Samson, a descendant of
Joseph *Bonfils, belonged to a distinguished family of French
scholars. Judah of Corbeil was his uncle and *Moses of Coucy
his brother-in-law. He was one of the younger pupils of *Isaac
b. Samuel of Dampierre, but his main teacher was *Judah b.
Isaac, Judah Sir Leon of Paris. His words are quoted frequently
in the standard tosafot on several tractates, and many citations
from his rulings and responsa, as well as remnants of his tosafot, have been preserved in the works of rishonim. Samson
was a teacher of *Isaac b. Moses Or Zarua, and also, apparently, of *Hezekiah b. Jacob of Magdeburg.
Bibliography: Gross, Gal Jud, 5546; Urbach, Tosafot, index.
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]
SAMSON HANAKDAN (13t century), Hebrew grammarian and vocalizer, who lived in Germany. It may be conjectured that Samson lived in Xanten, and he was apparently the
grandfather and teacher of *Joseph b. Kalonymus ha-Nakdan
of Xanten. He was the author of Mafteah ha-Dikduk (Cat. deRossi No. 3891) which Steinschneider believed to be identical
with the Sefer Kelalei ha-Dikduk (Cat. Berlin no. 29; Vatican
No. 296). He also wrote the H ibbur ha-Konim, which is also
called Sefer ha-Shimshoni, on the *masorah. In his book he
quotes the main medieval grammarians.
Bibliography: Zunz, Gesch, 1134; Freimann, in: Festschrift Simon Dubnow (1930), 169; Germ Jud, 1 (1963), 499500.
Add. Bibliography: I. Eldan, Mi-Kitvei Askolat ha-Dikduk
ha-Ashkenazitha-Shimshoni, in: Leshonenu, 43 (1979), 100111;
201210; D. Ben-Menahem, H ibbur ha-Konim le-Rabbi Shimshon
ha-Nakdan (1987)
754
SAMUDA, JOSEPH DAGUILAR (18131885), British shipbuilder and railway pioneer. Born in London to Sephardi parents his father was a broker and overseas merchant Samuda
became an engineer in partnership with his brother JACOB
(18111844). From 1832 to 1848 Samuda Brothers, their firm,
were leading builders of marine engines and, from the early
1840s, leading iron shipbuilders, especially for the Royal Navy,
responsible for many engineering innovations. Samuda was
vice president of the Institution of Naval Architects and, from
1865 to 1880, served as a Liberal member of Parliament. He is
best remembered, however, as a pioneer with his brother of
atmospheric railways, engineless trains propelled by creating a vacuum in front of the train in a pneumatic tube adjacent to the track. The Samuda brothers patented this invention
in 1839. Although some examples of atmospheric railways
were built by the Samudas and others, especially a route they
constructed in south Devon in the early 1840s, the technology
simply did not exist at the time for these to work on a regular basis, and steam-driven trains remained unchallenged for
many decades.
Bibliography: ODNB online.
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
samuel
Critical Evaluation
Scholars (e.g., A. Weiser) have moved somewhat away from
seeing completely mutually exclusive (pro-monarchical and
anti-monarchical) accounts in I Samuel 116. The alternative is
a series of varying concepts that developed in different circles,
and existed side by side. Such traditions were finally strung
together somewhat loosely without an attempt at reconciling them. Moreover I. Mendelsohn showed that the Israelites would have been quite aware of the dangers of oppressive
In the Aggadah
Even before his birth, a heavenly voice went forth and proclaimed the imminent delivery of a righteous man. When
people observed his deeds, they were certain that he was this
righteous individual (Mid. Sam. 3:4). Shortly before Samuels
novitiate in the sanctuary, Eli succeeded to the three highest offices in the land, those of high priest, president of the
Sanhedrin, and ruler over Israel (Tanh . Shemini, 2). However, Elis sons were not worthy to succeed him, but Before
the sun of Eli set, the sun of Samuel rose (Gen. R. 58:2). The
greatness bestowed on Samuel was not granted to any other
king or prophet. No one ever challenged his authority and
five terms of praise were applied to him: faithful, honored,
prophet, seer, and man of God (Mishnat R. Eliezer, p. 151). He
rebuked the people shortly before his death, refraining from
doing so earlier lest people be embarrassed upon meeting their
censurer (Sif. Deut. 2). Samuel was an incorruptible judge,
who refused compensation even when he was legitimately
entitled to it (Ned. 38a). He went on circuit to judge the people in order to spare them the trouble of coming to him. Accordingly, God spoke directly to Samuel, unlike Moses who
first had to go into the tabernacle to receive the divine message (Ex. R. 16:4). He refused to enjoy hospitality at public
expense, taking his personal requirements with him on his
journeys (Ber. 10b). Despite the fact that his sons did not follow in his way, Samuel did have the satisfaction of seeing one
of them mend his ways and become the prophet Joel (Mid.
Sam. 1:6).
Samuel did not object to the appointment of a king in
principle, since it was commanded in the Bible (Deut. 17:15).
His objection was to the fact that the people demanded a king
that we may be like other nations (Sanh. 20b). Samuels failure to recognize David until he was revealed to him was a
punishment for his arrogance in saying to Saul I am the seer
755
samuel
(I Sam. 9:19; Sif. Deut. 17). Although Saul should have died
immediately after his sin during the Amalekite war, Samuel
interceded for him. He prayed that his life be spared at least
for the duration of his own life, pleading that his action in
anointing Saul be not destroyed before his eyes. God was hesitant to grant this request since the time of Davids succession
was rapidly approaching. In order to fulfill Samuels request
and to prevent the people from ascribing Samuels death to
his sins, Samuel was made to age rapidly, and though he was
only 52 when he died, the people were under the impression
that he died as an old man (Mid. Sam. 25:2; Taan. 5b). Samuel
wrote only part of the book which bears his name. It was completed by Gad the seer and Nathan. He also wrote the books
of Judges and Ruth (BB 15a).
[Aaron Rothkoff]
In Islam
In Sura 2:2479 it is related that the people of Israel requested
that the prophet appoint a king to rule them. However, when
the prophet informed them that Allah had chosen T lt (Saul),
they refused to crown him as their king. In post-Koranic literature it is said that this reference is to the prophet Samuel
(Shamwl); details are also related about his life and deeds,
which are interwoven in the tales of Saul and David. It is noteworthy that the name Shamwl is no longer used in the Arabic
language and only the name of al-Samawal is to be found.
[H.Z. Hirschberg]
In the Arts
Treatment of the prophet Samuel in the arts generally involves
the two kings of Israel whom he anointed, Saul and David,
although Samuel himself does figure independently in some
works, particularly in art. Literary interest in the subject has
been somewhat restricted. In the English verse epic Davideis
(1656) by Abraham Cowley, Samuel expresses the writers
own antagonism toward the concept of monarchy during Oliver Cromwells republican Commonwealth. The theme later
inspired Pieter tHoens Dutch novella, Samul de Profeet; of
De Joodsche regeering hoe langer hoe erger (1796), but interest
thereafter lapsed until the 20t century. Samuel then makes
a dramatic appearance in D.H. Lawrences play David (1926),
and is denigrated in Samuel the Kingmaker (1944), one of the
English writer Laurence Housmans fiercely anti-biblical Old
Testament Plays (1950), which makes the prophet a spiteful,
jealous impostor. This treatment finds a contrast in the respectful approach of Abraham lhbreu et Samuel le voyant
(1946), a biblical verse epic by the French Jewish writer Emmanuel *Eydoux. A related subject is treated in two 20t-century plays about Eli, Samuels priestly guardian and mentor:
Beit Eli; o Aron ha-Elohim Nilkeh ah (1902), a Hebrew drama
by Meir Foner, and Silo is krank (1956), a drama in Afrikaans
by the South African writer Daniel Franois Malherbe.
In Christian art, Samuels attributes are the lamb he offered in sacrifice (I Sam. 7:9) and his horn of unction. Figures
of Samuel with the lamb are found on the Gothic cathedrals of
Chartres and Rheims; at Chartres he is placed between Moses
Tomb of Samuel
Traditionally sited on al-Nab-Samwl, the highest mountain overlooking Jerusalem. Theodorus Lector records that
the Byzantine emperor, Arcadius, in 406 removed the bones
of Samuel to Constantinople where he built a church next
to the Hebdomon (Eccles. Hist., 2:63). The 10t-century geographer, al-Muqadasi, mentions a monastery at al-NabSamwl. Ramah of the Bible was later identified with *Ramleh and consequently Samuels grave was located there (cf.
I Sam. 25:1; 28:3). The Karaites had a synagogue at Ramleh
in 1013. Benjamin of Tudela records in 1173 that the crusaders had removed Samuels remains from there to al-Nab-
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samuel
SAMUEL (Mar or Samuel Yarhinaah; end of second century to mid-third century), Babylonian amora. Samuel was
born at Nehardea and studied with his father, *Abba b. Abba
ha-Kohen (Zev. 26a) and also with Levi b. Sisi (Shab. 108b),
who had emigrated to Babylonia from Erez Israel. His principal teachers, however, are unknown. From the story that
Samuel cured Judah ha-Nasi of an eye ailment (BM 85b) some
scholars infer that he attended the latters bet midrash in Erez
Israel, and that Judah ha-Nasi was his main teacher. This is
not conclusive evidence; Samuel could have sent the medicine to Judah ha-Nasi by a messenger. In any event, Samuel
quotes no halakhot which, it may be asserted, he would have
heard from Judah ha-Nasi, nor does he report any custom he
saw in the latters home, although this was a practice of the
scholars of both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. D.
Hoffmann contends that Samuel studied in Erez Israel under
H anina b. H ama, inasmuch as both used the drawing of a palm
branch as their signatures (TJ, Git. 9:9, 50d) and prescribed
identical cures. However, there is no conclusive evidence for
this assertion, as the same was true of different people living
in widely separated areas.
Samuels sons died in their youth (Shab. 108a; MK 18a),
two of his daughters were taken captive and later ransomed
in Erez Israel (Ket. 23a), and another daughter married a nonJew (who was subsequently converted to Judaism: see Rashi,
Ber. 16a). His economic circumstances were extremely good,
his father having left him fields (H ul. 105a) and plantations
which were cultivated by tenant-farmers and laborers (BK
92a), and the household chores were attended to by maidservants (Nid. 47a).
Samuel was the head of an important bet midrash-bet
din at Nehardea in the middle of the third century (Git. 36b).
He was the outstanding authority of his day in civil law (Bek.
49b), in which sphere later generations accepted his pronouncements as decisive (ibid.). Samuel was the author of the
momentous principle that in civil matters the law of the state
is the law [for its Jews] (BK 113b), which has influenced the
entire Diaspora. Other principles of his are: The obligation
of producing proof rests on the claimant (ibid. 46a) and In
pecuniary cases we do not follow the majority (ibid. 46b). His
concern for orphans led him to rule that their money may be
lent out on interest (contrary to the rule that money was not
to be lent to Jews on interest; BM 70a). As a dayyan he was on
his guard against even the slightest taint of bribery. Thus, he
refused to act as a judge in the case of a man who had put out
his hand to assist him in fording a river on a board (Ket. 105b).
His integrity is revealed in other instances. He refused to take
advantage of a seasonal scarcity to obtain higher prices for his
products (BB 90b), and he vigorously opposed those who arbitrarily raised prices. When after Passover the merchants, reacting to an increased demand, raised the prices of pots (the
Babylonian Jews not using those in which leaven had been
cooked before the festival), Samuel warned that, unless they
took fair prices, he would permit the use of the old pots (Pes.
30a). Similarly, when those who sold myrtle branches (for the
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Four Species in the Festival of Tabernacles) charged exorbitant prices, Samuel warned that, unless they asked a reasonable
price, he would declare permissible even such myrtle branches
whose tips were broken off (Suk. 34b). The great authority enjoyed by his bet din was entirely owing to his prestige; only his
bet din and that of Rav at Sura were allowed to write a prosbul
(a declaration, made in a bet din, that the limitation of the Sabbatical Year shall not apply to the loan about to be made; Git.
36b). He held that in certain cases dayyanim were entitled to
use their discretion in judging (BB 35a, and Tos. to ibid.), and
he would order lashes (Er. 44b), as well as arrest and detention
in prison (Nid. 25b), indicating his great authority.
Samuel had many contacts with his distinguished colleague, Rav, who appreciated his erudition (H ul. 59a), showed
him every respect (Meg. 22a), and, when on a visit to Nehardea, observed the customs instituted by Samuel (Er. 94a).
After Ravs death in 247 C.E., Samuel became the preeminent
authority and was recognized as such by all the Babylonian
sages (Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon, ed. by B.M. Lewin (1921), 81),
whereas during Ravs lifetime the Jews of Sura and its neighborhood had adopted the usages laid down by Rav, while
the Jews of Nehardea and its neighborhood adopted those of
Samuel (Ket. 54a).
Samuel was close to the exilarch and his officials (TJ, Taan.
4:2, 68a) and would sit in front of Mar Ukva, the exilarch, when
the latter judged a case (MK 16b). He was also personally acquainted with Sapor, the king. Samuels extensive knowledge
of medicine and astronomy assisted him in the establishment
of various halakhot. He discovered a salve, known as killurin
de-Mar Shemuel, for curing eye ailments (Shab. 108b), and asserted that he could cure all maladies except three (BM 113b).
He was known as Samuel Yarh inaah (Samuel the Astronomer: BM 85b), and such was his knowledge of *astronomy that
he declared: The paths of heaven are as familiar to me as the
streets of Nehardea (Ber. 58b). Though his knowledge of this
science enabled him to fix and draw up a calendar (RH 20b),
according to his own testimony he did not devote much time
to its study (Deut. R. 8:6). It may have been his knowledge of
astronomy which brought him into contact with non-Jewish
Babylonian scholars, with one of whom, Avlet, he dined (Av.
Zar. 30a) and discussed nature (Shab. 129a, 156b). Samuel also
met non-Jewish scholars in the Bei-Avidan (ibid. 116a, and
Rashi ibid.). But because his chief activity centered on his industrious acquisition and dissemination of the knowledge of
the Torah, he was called shoked (TJ, Ket. 4:2, 28b) or shakud
(TB, ibid. 43b), that is, the industrious Torah scholar.
He ruled that it was forbidden to deceive non-Jews as
well as Jews (H ul. 94a), and that whoever puts a slave to shame
must compensate him accordingly (Nid. 47a). Samuel made
some interesting observations on the past and future of the
Jewish people. He traced the ascendancy of Rome and the subsequent destruction of the Temple to Solomons marriage with
Pharaohs daughter, who introduced idolatry into Jerusalem
(Shab. 56b). In his view the Messiah will come only after the
Jewish people will have suffered cruel persecutions (Ket. 112b),
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samuel, book of
two of the 30. An inaccurate total of mighty men for the present form of the text is given as 37 (II Sam. 23:39).
MISCELLANEOUS. Other types of basic literary units may be
noted. A prayer by David occurs at a climactic point in II Samuel 7:1829. On two occasions, accounts of alleged crimes
requiring adjudication by the king are presented to David
in order to serve as quasi-parables by which the king is tricked
into condemning himself (II Sam. 12:16; 14:417). Popular proverbs or rulings are frequent on the lips of figures in
the narratives (I Sam. 10:12; 18:7; 19:24; 21:11; 24:13; 29:5;
30:2425; II Sam. 11:21; 20:18). Occasional explanatory remarks provide background information for understanding
terms, situations, or practices which might otherwise be obscure to the reader (I Sam. 2:1314; 9:9; 13:1922; 28:3b; II Sam.
13:18; 18:18).
Pre-Deuteronomic Sources
It is widely agreed that the Book of Samuel received its finished
form at the hands of the Deuteronomist, who constructed the
great sequence of tradition down to Kings. However, the scope
and details of the final composition and its relation to the preceding development of the contents are much disputed.
The question is whether the Deuteronomist simply compiled the separate units described above, supplying the necessary arrangement and links, or whether he made use of
definite preexistent sub-blocs, or sources, so that his major
contribution consisted in the articulation of the sources. Given
that such sources existed, the question remains whether they
can be delineated and whether they are at all related to the narrative sources which have been identified in Genesis through
Numbers and perhaps also in Joshua and Judges (i.e., J and E
sources). Another question is whether there was a pre-Deuteronomic edition of Samuel which the D compiler employed,
expanding and deleting it in accordance with his purposes. In
short, the problem is that of clarifying the process by which
the distinguishable units of Samuel were linked up, either in
stages or all at once, to form the extant edition.
At one extreme is the claim that the final compiler simply
gathered totally separate narratives, poems, oracles, and other
units and constructed his book. At the other extreme is the
contention that the final compiler used a number of sources,
each covering different parts of the story he wanted to tell. By
arranging the sources consecutively or interweaving them, the
impression of a continuous account was created.
The evidence for sizable pre-existent sources is cumulatively impressive. To be sure, the criteria for distinguishing these sources by their literary, historical, and ideological
features cannot be applied with equally convincing results in
all cases. Yet it is evident that Samuel is not simply a single
compilation of random fragments. The materials cluster together in groupings and the constant features which link the
units in the various clusters are not demonstrably Deuteronomic in origin.
Among the pre-Deuteronomic clusters which can be discerned in Samuel are the following:
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samuel, book of
with lists and annals, some unattached poems and oracles, and
a number of single (or paired) narratives concerning David
which had not been drawn into any of the larger blocs.
There is no firm evidence that these preexistent materials
had been arranged in parallel sources analogous to or a continuation of the pentateuchal sources. There is also no need
to posit a pre-Deuteronomic linkage of the separate blocs in
a larger composition. All the signs of editorial linkage can be
explained either as the work of those who shaped each of the
original blocs or as the work of the Deuteronomic compiler.
Similarly, there is no basis for the claim that II Samuel 2124
was added by a post-Deuteronomic editor.
The essential method of composition of the compiler was
to arrange the blocs in approximate chronological order and
then to make adjustments where necessary by transferring
units from one place to another in order to produce a better
chronology or to associate themes, or by interweaving two accounts of the same chain of events. Thus the conclusion of the
ark story in II Samuel 6 (and perhaps the original II Sam. 7)
was moved to the proper chronological spot at the beginning
of Davids reign in Jerusalem. The section of the Mizpah story
of the rise of the monarchy that told of Samuels military exploits (I Sam. 7:312) was separated from the rest of the source
by a summary of the work of Samuel (I Sam. 7:1317), and the
Mizpah version of the rejection of Saul (I Sam. 15) was placed
after a summary of the work of Saul (I Sam. 14:4752). The
two stories of the rise of the monarchy were joined by splicing the Gilgal version into the Mizpah version in an effort to
make them continuous. Portions of the Gilgal story were put
at later points in the account since they told of the latter days
of Saul (I Sam. 28:125; 31:113).
Into the resulting basic framework composed of the
joined, interwoven, and readjusted blocs, the compiler introduced lists, annals, poems, and single or paired narratives at
appropriate points. I Samuel 11:1215 supplied yet a third version of the enthronement of Saul. Several duplicate accounts
concerning the early fortunes of David (including some from
the probable beginning of the court history) were introduced
into an account of Davids rise to power, from I Samuel 16 on.
Lists of Davids officials and sons and annalistic accounts of
his wars were inserted into the materials that told of his early
reign at Hebron and Jerusalem (II Sam. 28).
An impression of unity was given to the resulting account
by inserting annalistic summaries of the external and internal
accomplishments of the chief leaders at crucial junctures in the
overall story: of Samuel, in I Samuel 7:1317; of Saul, in I Samuel 14:4752; of David, in II Samuel 8 and again in II Samuel
20:2326; 21:1522; 23:839. It is noteworthy that in each instance the summary comes long before the leader described
actually disappears from the story. These summaries are in fact
alerting devices which indicate to the reader that a new phase
of the story has been reached in which a different balance in
the relationships among the principals is to be expected. After
Samuels summary, he is important only as the one who prepares for Saul and David. After Sauls summary, he is impor-
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samuel, book of
tant only as the one who decreases as David increases in importance. After Davids initial summary, he is secure on his
throne in Jerusalem, and the interest shifts to which of his sons
will gain the succession; after Davids final summary, the stage
is set for the entrance of Solomon as the new monarch.
Apart from these annalistic summaries, there are a few
framework-like notes (in the manner of Judges and Kings) and
a few harmonizing additions. By and large, the D compiler refrains from rewriting or inserting extensive interpretations of
his own. I Samuel 12 and II Samuel 7 display the fullest rewriting or expansion on the part of D, and even there the extent of
the D work is debated. The compiler was largely content to let
the edited story speak for itself once it was placed within the
comprehensive framework of Deuteronomy through Kings.
The materials in II Samuel 2124 which separate the end of the
succession story (I Kings 12) from the main body (II Sam.
920) are arranged in a chiastic structure as follows:
A. Narrative of the expiation of Sauls murder of Gibeonites.
B. Annalistic report of the battles of Davids heroes with
Philistines.
C. Song of David.
C1. Last words of David.
B1. Annalistic report of battles with Philistines and lists
of Davids heroes.
A1. Narrative of the expiation of Davids census-taking.
The appendix should be read with the three pairs arranged in the order: CC1; BB1; AA1. The center of the supplement is the innermost pair of poems which extol the virtues of the king as military and judicial leader and which are
grouped on formal analogy with the Song of Moses (Deut.
32) and the Blessing of Moses (Deut. 33). From this center the
lines radiate outward, both forward and backward, through
two paired layers of tradition: exploits of Davids heroes, which
portrays the king as military leader; and successful expiations
of guilt, in one of which David satisfies God by delivering up
members of the guilty family and in the other he himself submits humbly to the judgment of God. The resulting thematically radiating chiasm is an impressive dramatic summation
which brings the story of David to its effective climax.
Historical and Religious Value
Samuel is a source of incalculable importance for the understanding of the circumstances of the rise and establishment
of the monarchy in Israel and for a grasp of the various ethical-religious valuations placed upon that institution by ancient Israel. Clearly there is no simple homogeneous historical
account in Samuel nor is there a single undifferentiated religious perspective. Yet there is ample evidence of a firsthand
nature to reconstruct the main stages in the evolution from
the tribal league to the monarchy and to discern the domestic and foreign policies through which Saul and David established and consolidated power. There is also ample indication
of the struggle to understand the monarchy in terms of the
religious ideology of Israel. The Mizpah and Gilgal stories of
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
the rise of the monarchy and the oracle of II Samuel 7 are classical texts for this inquiry. The former assumption of scholars
that all the pro-monarchical materials in Samuel are early and
all the anti-monarchical materials are late (i.e., at least postSolomonic) is now generally discarded. It is recognized that
divergent attitudes toward the monarchy were present from
earliest times and that, if anything, the anti-monarchical religious sentiments were more persuasive in the time of Saul
than were the pro-monarchical religious sentiments.
Likewise, the D compiler is seen to entertain a highly
ambivalent stance toward the monarchy. In fact he reads the
whole history of Israel from Saul to the Exile in terms of the
paradoxical reality that the God-given monarchs again and
again violated the will of God but, thanks to the divine grace,
the line of David was continued. Ds reading of Israels history in terms of the divine curse and the divine blessing incorporates the disparate blocs of material in Samuel in such a
way that even the apparently profane court history of David
appears as an instance of the conflict between disobedience
and obedience and their active consequences in curse and
blessing. The D compiler was able to give this effect largely
by periodizing the separate blocs within the total framework
of his ethical-theological interpretation of history (notably
expressed in the programmatic prospectus of Deuteronomy
and in the framework of Judges and Kings). While the developed schematic form of his evaluation can be distinguished
from the earlier more naive or one-sided interpretations in
his sources, it is evident that the early sources and the circles
they stemmed from were already shaped by a troubling mixture of gratitude and praise for the kingship, on the one hand,
and of misgiving and tormented conscience toward that same
institution, on the other hand. To one degree or another, the
historical and religious origins of the monarchy as preserved
in Samuel attest the compilers judgment: Israels king is both
the anointed of God and a man of bloodguilt.
Bibliography: COMMENTARIES: K. Budde (Ger., 1890,
Eng., 1894); H.P. Smith (Eng., 1899, ICC); A.R.S. Kennedy (Eng.,
1904); H. Gressmann (Ger., 19212); G.B. Caird et al. (Eng., 1953);
H.W. Hertzberg (Ger., 19602, Eng., 1964). GENERAL STUDIES: S.R.
Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel (19132); O.
Eissfeldt, Die Komposition der Samuelsbuecher (1931); L. Rost, Die
Ueberlieferung von der Thronnachfolge Davids (1926); I. Hylander,
Der literarische Samuel-Saul-Komplex (1932); M. Noth, Ueberlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien (1957); R.R.A. Carlson, David the Chosen
King. A Traditio-Historical Approach to the Second Book of Samuel
(1964); M.H. Segal, The Pentateuch, Its Composition and Its Authorship (1967), 173220. Add. Bibliography: S. Gevirtz, Patterns
in the Early Poetry of Israel (1973); P.K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB; 1980);
idem, II Samuel (AB; 1984); R. Klein, I Samuel (Word; 1983); idem, in:
DBI, 2:43135; A. Anderson, 2 Samuel (Word; 1989); J. Fokkelmann,
Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel, 4 vols. (198183); A.
Brenner (ed.), A Feminist Companion to Samuel and Kings; S. BarEfrat, I Samuel (1996); idem, II Samuel (1996); G. Keys, The Wages
of Sin: A Reappraisal of the Succession Narrative (1996). MEDIEVAL
JEWISH COMMENTARIES: M. Cohen, (ed.), Mikraot Gedolot Haketer Sefer Shemuel (1993).
[Norman K. Gottwald]
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764
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samuel, howard
SAMUEL, HOWARD (19141961), British property developer and Labour publisher. Born in London, the son of a
prominent jeweler, Howard Samuel was the cousin of the
property developer Harold *Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych
Cross. Howard Samuel was educated at St. Pauls School and
founded his own estate agency with his brother Basil. After
1945 Samuels firm, Land Securities, emerged as Britains largest property developer and estate agent. The holding company
Samuel formed, Great Portland Estates Ltd., also became nationally known. Although one of the richest men in the country, Samuel was a strong supporter of the Labour Party and
was actively involved in financing the left-wing periodicals
Tribune and the New Statesman. He was also a close friend
of the radical Labour leader Aneurin Bevan. Samuel died in
Greece of a heart attack at the age of only 48, leaving a fortune of 3.8 million, making him probably one of the twenty
richest men in Britain at the time.
Bibliography: ODNB online; O. Marriott, The Property
Boom (1967).
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
lom Aleichem (1943); Prince of the Ghetto (1948), on I.L. *Peretz; Certain People of the Book (1955), studies of biblical figures
and biblical morality; Little Did I Know (1963), recollections
and reflections on the worthwhileness of being a Jew; Blood
Accusation (1966), a reexamination of the notorious *Beilis
trial; Light on Israel (1968); and In Praise of Yiddish. Samuel
translated novels by Sholem *Asch and Isaac Bashevis *Singer;
*Bialiks Selected Poems (1926); the Passover Haggadah (1942);
and works by Peretz and Shemaryahu *Levin. In The Professor
and the Fossil (1956) he wittily and effectively answered Arnold J. Toynbees treatment of the Jews in his Study of History
(193454). A brilliant orator and conversationalist, he reached
a wide audience through his broadcast discussions on biblical
topics with the poet and critic Mark van Doren.
Bibliography: S. Liptzin, Generation of Decision (1958),
24954; idem, Jew in American Literature (1966), 1769, 2212; S.J.
Kunitz, Twentieth Century Authors First Supplement (1955), index;
A. Lelyveld, in: JBA, 22 (1964), 10914; R. Alter, in: Commentary, 37
(1964), 5054.
[Sol Liptzin]
SAMUEL, MAURICE (18951972), U.S. author and translator. Born in Macin, *Romania, Samuel spent his boyhood in
Manchester, England, migrating to the U.S. in 1914. At home in
both Jewish and Anglo-American culture, he tried to maintain
an equilibrium between them, but before long saw dangers in
this bicultural experience. In provocative volumes beginning
with You Gentiles (1924) and I, the Jew (1927), and continuing with Jews on Approval (1931), The Great Hatred (1941), and
The Gentleman and the Jew (1950), he came to the conclusion
that Jewish and gentile approaches to ultimate questions were
antithetical. Antisemitism was not a Jewish problem, but an
affliction of the gentiles to which Jews had to accustom themselves. It was the great hatred in the amoral pagan soul in
Western man for the Jewish-Christian jailer who had bound
it with fetters of moral law. Samuel also contrasted the Jewish
with the gentile ideal of man. During the years between the
Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948, Samuel was a most influential and popular
exponent of Zionist ideology. Having spent ten years in Erez
Israel, he believed that the Jews would succeed in building a
moral commonwealth and gave expression to his faith in Harvest in the Desert (1944), calling upon American Jews to assist this venture on their ancient soil. In Level Sunlight (1953)
Samuel reiterated his faith in the messianic aspects of Zionism,
maintaining that the objective of classical Zionism went beyond the mere building of a state. It included the regeneration
of the Jewish people in all lands with the help of the Jewish
center in Israel, and in this process American Jewry had a vital
part to play. Samuel also wrote fiction, including the novels,
Beyond Woman (1934); Web of Lucifer (1947); The Devil That
Failed (1952); and The Second Crucifixion (1960), the story of
a Jewish girl in Hadrians Rome. Among other works of Jewish
interest are On the Rim of the Wilderness (1931), a study of the
Palestine Arabs and the Zionist movement; The World of Sha-
766
[Joachim O. Ronall]
SAMUEL, SYDNEY MONTAGU (18481884), British journalist. Born in London and educated at London University,
a nephew of the first Baron Swaythling, Samuel was active in
Jewish social welfare work. A prolific writer, he ranged from
poetry to finance and wrote an annual financial survey for the
Times. In 1878 he acquired part ownership of the Jewish Chronicle and wrote for that paper on many subjects. His series of
travel articles was published as a book, Jewish Life in the East
(1881). He was also active in the theater and wrote a comedy, A
Quiet Pipe (1880). Samuel was a merchant banker in the City
of London, dying, it is said, of overwork, at the age of 36.
SAMUEL, WILFRED SAMPSON (18861958), British businessman and historian. Born in London, the son of a steel pen
manufacturer who died soon after his birth, Samuel was educated in Belgium and Germany. In 1904, with several of his
cousins who had been piano manufacturers, he founded the
Decca gramophone and record company in London. Samuel
served as an officer in World War I. He and his cousins developed Decca into one of the largest recording companies in the
world. He then engaged in research on the history of the Sephardi community in London, which resulted in his The First
767
Bibliography: S. Poznaski, Babylonische Geonim in nachgeonaeischem Zeitalter (1914), 15ff., and index; V. Aptowitzer, in: ZHB,
19 (1916), 36f.; J. Mann, in: Hh Y, 6 (1922), 10622; idem, in: HUCA,
3 (1926), 294f.; Mann, Texts, index; S. Assaf, in: Tarbiz, 1 (1930), no.
1, 10230, no. 2, 4384, no. 3, 1580; idem, Tekufat ha-Geonim ve-Sifrutah (1955), 1279; A.H. Freimann, in: Sefer ha-Yovel B.M. Lewin
(1940), 2741; D.H. Baneth (ed.), Iggerot ha-Rambam (1946), 3190;
Dinur, Golah, 2 vol. 3 (1968), 11526, 3324.
768
SAMUEL BEN AZARIAH (13t century), *exilarch in *Baghdad. Samuel b. Azariah was the grandson of *Samuel, the exilarch of Baghdad, and the last exilarch under the *Abbasid dynasty. During the period of his office the *Mongols conquered
Baghdad (1258). He retained his position under their rule and
was even appointed as adviser to l-Khan Hulagu, the Mongolian ruler who conquered Baghdad. It is not known until
when Samuel remained in office.
Bibliography: Kobak, in: Jeschurun, 6 (1868), 2934; Mann,
in: Sefer Zikkaron S.A. Poznaski (1927), 2425; Goode, in: JQR,
31 (1940/41), 1678.
[Abraham David]
769
SAMUEL BEN ELIEZER OF KALWARIA (mid-18t century), preacher and kabbalist. His only extant book is a homiletical work, Darkhei Noam, printed in Koenigsberg in 1764
and probably written before 1760. Among the haskamot (recommendations) in the foreword to the work is one by the Gaon
of Vilna. It is a homiletical exposition of Lurianic Kabbalah, in
the form of an interpretation of the aggadot of Rabbah b. Bar
H ana in the Talmud, which he explains by the four methods of
*pardes. The book contains some calculations as to the time of
the redemption, and it appears that Samuel expected it to begin in the year 1781. Some of his moralistic admonitions seem
to be directed against the early groups of the H asidim, which
proves that such h asidic groups existed in Lithuania before the
death of *Israel b. Eliezer Baal Shem Tov in 1760.
Bibliography: I. Tishby, in: Zion, 32 (1967), 1624.
770
SAMUEL BEN HANANIAH (12t century), *nagid of Egyptian Jewry. Samuel, who was known by the Arabs as Abu
Mans r, was descended from a family of scholars. He himself was well versed in Jewish learning. Like his father, he was
a physician and was one of the physicians in the court of the
*Fatimid caliphs. In 1134, when Caliph al-H fiz requested that
he prepare a poison for his son H asan, he refused; a Christian
physician agreed to do so. Later, the caliph regretted his action, the Christian physician was put to death, and Samuel was
appointed chief court physician. The documents found in the
Cairo *Genizah which mention Samuel as nagid are dated between 1142 and 1159. When the poet *Judah Halevi arrived in
*Alexandria, Samuel invited him to *Cairo. Judah Halevi then
became friendly with him and praised him in several poems.
Samuel was supplanted for a short time by *Zuta.
Bibliography: Mann, Egypt, index; Mann, Texts, index;
Abramson, in: KS, 29 (1953/54), 13344; M. Margalioth, Hilkhot haNagid (1962), 6873; Scheiber, in: Tarbiz, 36 (1966/67), 1567.
[Eliyahu Ashtor]
SAMUEL BEN MEIR (Rashbam; c. 108085c. 1174), commentator on Bible and Talmud. Born in Ramerupt in northern France, Samuel was the son of Meir, one of the first tosafists and a prominent disciple of *Rashi, whose daughter,
Jochebed, Meir married. Samuel was the elder brother of Jacob
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772
As Tosafist
In addition to his importance as a biblical commentator, Samuel b. Meir is also one of the first, and the most important, of
the *tosafists. Only part of his halakhic writings have come
down to us. The most significant and important are his supplements to Rashis commentary on the Talmud where Rashi did
not manage to complete his final version. Two of these were
published instead of Rashis missing commentary one on
chapter 10 of Pesah im, and the other on most of Bava Batra,
from folio 29a. The commentary on Bava Batra was written
after Rashis death. Two versions of the commentary which
differ considerably exist: that of the Bomberg edition (Venice, 1521), and that of the Pesaro edition (1510). Some scholars ascribe to him the anonymous commentaries on a few of
the small tractates of the Talmud, but there is no evidence
for this. The commentary to Bava Batra was in the hands of
Abraham b. Isaac of *Narbonne during Samuel b. Meirs lifetime. His commentaries are characterized by their excessive
prolixity, so that at times one of his comments is as long as a
whole passage of tosafot. In addition to explaining the text, he
propounds and answers difficulties, proposes alternative explanations, weighing one against the other, and all within the
framework of a running commentary on the Talmud. He also
wrote tosafot to various tractates; only a number of quotations
and a greater number of references have been preserved in the
standard tosafot and in the works of other rishonim. A larger
number of fragments occur in the tosafot to the third chapter
of Makkot, from folio 20 onward, which are introduced with
the words perush ha-kunteres. The commentary to *Alfasis
compendium there ascribed to Rashi is also his. Large sections
of his commentary to Avodah Zarah have come down in the
works of other rishonim, when they discuss the themes of this
tractate. Many quotations from his commentary to Avot are
preserved in the anonymous commentary to this tractate in
the Mah zor *Vitry and in that of Isaac b. Solomon of Toledo.
Samuel b. Meir was also the first scholar of northern France
to make frequent use of Alfasis compendium, to which he
even wrote a kind of tosafot. Various manuscripts refer to his
commentary on piyyutim.
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]
Bibliography: D. Rosin, R. Samuel ben Meir (Rabam) als
Schrifterklaerer (1880); S. Poznaski (ed.), Perush al Yeh ezkel ve-Terei-
SAMUEL BEN NAH MAN (Nah amani; late third and early
fourth centuries C.E.), Palestinian amora. He was one of the
most renowned aggadists of his time (TJ, Ber. 9:1, 12d). A native of Lydda in Erez Israel (Lev. R. 35:12), Samuel apparently
paid a short visit to Babylon in his youth. On his return, he
studied under *Joshua b. Levi (TJ, RH 4:4, 59b) and *Jonathan b. Eleazar (Pes. 24a), in whose name he quotes several
sayings (Yoma 9b). Samuel, who may have come into contact with *Judah ha-Nasi in his youth, was on intimate terms
with *Judah II. The two went to Tiberias on Diocletians order
(c. 286), and bathed in the hot springs there (TJ, Ter. 8, 110,
46b; Gen. R. 63:8). Among his other colleagues were *Simeon
b. Jehoz adak, *Ammi, H anina b. Papa, and *H elbo. Samuel is
known to have made two official visits to Babylon. The first
was to determine the intercalation of the calendar, a function
which, for political reasons, he could not perform in Erez
Israel (TJ, Ber. 2:1, 2d). The second was in his old age, when
he petitioned the empress *Zenobia (26773) to pardon an
orphaned youth who had committed a grave political crime
(TJ, Ter. 8:10, 46b). His halakhic decisions are recorded in the
Babylonian (e.g., Meg. 2a) and Jerusalem Talmuds, and his authority is illustrated by his refusal to allow Ammi to lift a ban
on a certain colleague (MK, 17a).
Samuel was considered an authority on the aggadah (Pes.
15b). Among his sayings was, Whoever associates the name
of Heaven with his suffering [by blessing God for the evil, or
by prayer], his sustenance shall fly to him like a bird, as it says,
in Job 22:25, And silver shall fly to thee (Bet. 63a, JPS And
precious silver unto thee). His vivid description of the grief
of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Rachel over the destruction of
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774
samuel ha-katan
Samuel himself intended to establish a bakelite factory in Poland to employ thousands of Jewish workers, but the government disapproved when he requested that Jewish workers be
allowed to work on Sunday instead of Saturday. His book,
Mission to Poland, was published in 1920.
Bibliography: H.M. Rabinowicz, Legacy of Polish Jewry
(1965), 4144. Add. Bibliography: S. Samuel, Report on a Mission to Poland, in: Bulletin du Comit des Dlgation Juives, No. 16
(Aug. 18, 1920).
[Moshe Landau]
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samuel ha-nagid
As Poet
Samuels poems have come down in three works: Ben Tehillim,
Ben Mishlei, and Ben Kohelet. The poems are refined and reflect profound worldly wisdom, as well as the many facets of
his life as Jew, father, intellectual, nagid, vizier, and military
commander. Samuels poetry is more developed and diversified than that of his contemporaries, the first generation of
Hebrew poets in Spain. His war poems, which evince great
skill in creating epics, are unique in Hebrew poetry. The pleasures and vanities of life, which he knew well, stimulated his
poetic inspiration. Besides poems devoted to love and wine,
776
he composed poems of praise and glory, friendship and polemic, mourning and holiness, wisdom, morality, and meditation. Just as he wrote of wine and victory, he wrote of the
illnesses of his children, and of the death of his brother Isaac.
A literary artist of high order, his sure command of language
is demonstrated by the great variety of subjects he chose for
poetic expression. Despite the success he attained through
his poetry, worldly wisdom, and pleasant manners, he was
never content: the canker of melancholy continually gnawed
at him. Even in his poems of love and wine a note of pessimism is sounded. He saw in the suffering of the Jews in exile
his own personal suffering, and the poems reveal his yearning for Zion. At the royal court many secretly envied him and
others were openly hostile. In their quest for royal favor these
courtiers often acted treacherously, shifting or betraying loyalties without hesitation.
Just as he influenced the poets of his day so too they
influenced him. He translated poems from Arabic and also
composed in that language. The boasting and self-exaltation
traditional to medieval Arabic and Hebrew poetry are recognizable in Samuels poems, but to a more limited degree than
in the work of other poets, such as Solomon ibn Gabirol. As
was usual in those times, Samuels poems were read at gatherings of poets, some of whom found them faulty in grammar
and style, while others praised their novelty and inventiveness.
Samuel bestowed gifts on his favorite poets, who then praised
him in their poems; those from whom he withheld his generosity deprecated his poetry.
In 11t-century Granada no one was considered educated
unless he could compose poetry. Children copying the poems
of their father also characterized Arabic culture at that time.
For these and other reasons Samuel educated his children to
value and study poetry. He charged his sons with the copying and arranging of his poems and paid them for each completed work. When they performed their task well he praised
them. Samuel had three sons and one daughter. Of the daughter and the son, Judah, nothing is known, but both probably
died during their fathers lifetime. The most beloved of his
children was the first born, Jehoseph, regarded by Samuel as
his successor. Jehoseph began to copy his fathers poems (Ben
Tehillim) at the age of eight and a half. Another son, Eliasaf,
also copied his fathers poems (Ben Kohelet), beginning when
he was only slightly more than six years old. The children
added captions descriptive of the poetrys contents and origins. Ben-Mishlei, a book of poems, was dedicated by Samuel
to Jehoseph and Eliasaf.
The poems were copied many times during the Middle
Ages, and it appears that Samuel himself took pains to ensure that they were circulated among knowledgeable people.
The first author to refer to his poems was Moses *Ibn Ezra in
Shirat Yisrael (66). Samuels non-sacred poetry, however,
came to be known only in the 19t century. The first to
publish a substantial number of the poems was A.E. Harkavy (St. Petersburg, 1879). The three volumes of his poetry
were published by David S. Sassoon (Oxford, 1934). Only
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 17
777
SAMUEL IBN DIY (al-Samawal b. Ghrid Ablaq; midsixth century), poet in *Tayma, Hejaz, N. Arabia. Samuel b.
diys Arabic poetry ranks with the finest heroic traditional
Arabic battle poetry of the pre-Islamic period and shows little
trace of Jewish origins and themes. For a time he resided in the
citadel of Ablaq near Tayma and was called King of Tayma
by the local Arabs. His mother was an Arab of the Ghassan
tribe. He was Jewish, although Shaikho, the Jesuit who published his diwan, attempted to prove that he was a Christian,
or at least belonged to a Judaeo-Christian sect. He lived to be
an old man and was known for his loyalty and fulfillment of
pledges. When the noble Imrual-Qays deposited his arms in
Samuels home, and the castle was besieged by his enemies after he left for Byzantium, Samuel allowed his own son to be
killed rather than surrender Imrus arms to the invader. This
act earned him lasting fame among Arabs, and he is the subject of several poems by later authors. A popular proverb on
the extent of ones loyalty was coined, more loyal than Samuel (Ar. Awf min al-Samawal). His descendants were landowners in the region of Taima during the Umayyad dynasty
and later converted to Islam. Moses Ibn Ezra in his book Shirat
Israel (Helper edition, 49) notes Samuel as a Jewish poet. One
of his sons and a grandson are said to have been poets, too.
Poetry
Nine poems and fragments attributed to Samuel were collected by the philologist Niftawayh (d. 935). Most scholars
agree that these poems were composed by a Jew but doubt
that all were written by Samuel. The first poem is considered
an example of classical Arabic poetry. Called Lmiyyat alSamawal, it expounds the virtues of purity of blood, generosity, honor, and strength. The battles of his people and their
deaths on the battlefield are extolled, indicating the extent of
the cultural assimilation of the Jews to Arab society. The second poem, however, expresses his belief in resurrection and
glorifies the kings and prophets of Israel, also mentioning the
splitting of the Red Sea. Its philological importance lies in the
rhyming of certain stanzas as an aid to exegesis of the *Koran
and in the traces of the Arabic dialect of the Jewish tribes.
Poem number 6 exalts the fortress of Samuels father and his
loyalty to Imrual-Qays. A 26-line poem attributed to Samuel
appears in the collection edited by Sheikho, who interpreted
the phrase our prophet came and brought peace to all men as
evidence of the poets Christian origin. His opinion has been
contested, as the poem possesses a koranic style and hence indicates its later composition by a Jew refuting Muslim claims.
A fragment from the Cairo *Genizah, signed Samuel of the
*Qurayz a (al-Quraz i) tribe, had previously been attributed to
Samuel ibn diy. H.Z. Hirschberg, however, presumes that
the author wrote this poem during the period of struggle between the Jews and *Muhammad, and therefore is not Samuel
ibn diy. Hirschberg sees the influence of the Jewish aggadah
and Midrash in Samuels poetry, rather than their Koranic adaptations. Schwartzbaum perceives these verses as poetic examples of the Israiliyyt and Qis as al-Anbiy literature. The
778
SAMUELSON, SIR BERNHARD (18201905), British ironmaster and promoter of technical education. Samuelson was
born in Hamburg and taken by his father, a merchant, to Hull
in Englands northeast soon afterwards. By the 1840s he had
become a merchant engaged in selling British locomotives and
engines in Europe and had acquired considerable engineering
knowledge. From 1848 Samuelson was an agricultural implements manufacturer and, after 1853, an ironmaster at Middlesbrough, also in Englands northeast. By the end of the 19t century he was one of the largest ironmasters in Britain, and one of
the few Jewish entrepreneurs in Britain directly engaged in running a successful heavy industry. Samuelson served as a Liberal
member of Parliament in 1859 and from 1865 to 1895. In Parliament he served on many committees and commissions concerned with technical education and did much to advance it in
Britain. He was made a baronet (a hereditary knight) in 1884.
Bibliography: ODNB online; DBB, 5, 4651.
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
SAMUELSON, PAUL ANTHONY (1915 ), U.S. economist. Born in Gary, Indiana, Samuelson received his B.A. from
Chicago University in 1935 and his M.A. (1936) and Ph.D.
(1941) from Harvard University. He first taught at Harvard
(1937) and from 1940 at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
779
Tashlikha ceremony held near a sea or a running stream on the first day
of Rosh Ha-Shannahthe name deriving from You wilt cast [tashlikh] all their sins into
the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). Photo: Yaacov Saar, Israel Government Press Office.
The Jewish holy days and festivals fall into two categories: those commanded by
the Pentateuch, such as Sabbath, Rosh Ha-Shanah, Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur),
and the Pilgrim Festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot), and those
added later, such as Purim (1st2nd century c.e.) and Hanukkah
(2nd century).
.
All these are observed in various ways by Jews around the world.
The halakahfirst
haircut for a three-year-old boy on the
.
Lag Ba-Omer festival at Meron near Zefat. Photo: Hanan Isachar.
Bonfire on the Lag Ba-Omer festival in Jerusalem. Photo: Moshe Milner, Israel Government Press Office.
A Yemenite Jew blowing a shofar at the Western Wall. Photo: Werner Braun, Jerusalem.
Priestly blessing during the Sukkot festival. In the days when the Temple stood in Jerusalem,
it was a pilgrimage site, where people used to come to receive the blessings of the priests (kohanim).
Today the ceremony is held at the Western Wall. The men with the white prayer shawls, tallitot,
are the kohanim blessing the assembled. Photo: Z. Radovan, Jerusalem.
A young girl pours water into Miriams cup as her mother and another woman look on during a
womens seder in New York City, 2001. Traditional seders place a cup of wine on the table for the prophet Elijah,
but womens seders also add a cup of water in honor of Miriam, who was associated with a well of water
that miraculously followed the Jews as they wandered in the desert. AP Images.
Moroccan Jewish women in traditional dress bless the Sabbath candles, Jerusalem.
Photo: Z. Radovan, Jerusalem.
Lighting the Hanukkah candles in a Jerusalem synagogue. Photo: Z. Radovan, Jerusalem.
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