JewishEncyclopedia.com

BISCHOFSHEIM-ON-THE-TAUBER – City in the district of Mosbach, Baden. At Landa and the neighboring Tauber-Bischofsheim seven prominent Jews were tortured and burned, Jan. 1 and 2, 1235, on the accusation of having murdered a Christian. Nearly the whole...
BISENZ – Town in Moravia, Austria. About the earliest history of its Jews nothing is known. Pesina, whose "Mars Moravicus" was published in 1677, calls it "nidus Judæorum."In the time of the margraves (up to the fifteenth century) the...
BISHKA, NAḤMAN BEN BENJAMIN COHEN ẒEDEḲ – Russian Talmudist; lived in the second half of the eighteenth century. Together with his brother, Shabbetai Bishka, he wrote the "Shebet Aḥim" (The Brothers' Sitting), essays on different passages of the Talmud, with an appendix...
BISHOP OF THE JEWS – Title given to an official of the Jews in the Rhine country and in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. At Cologne it appears to have been used as an equivalent to "parnas," or warden of the synagogue. In England the...
BISLICHES – Editor of some valuable Hebrew works of medieval authors; born at Brody, Austria, at the end of the eighteenth century; died about 1851. He was married at the age of thirteen (a fact of which he bitterly complains), ultimately...
BISMARCK, PRINCE OTTO EDUARD LEOPOLD – Prussian statesman; born at Schönhausen April 1, 1815; died at Friedrichsruh July 30, 1898; member of the Prussian Diet (Vereinigter Landtag), 1847-51; representative of Prussia at the Bundestag at Frankfort-on-the-Main,...
BISNA, BISINAH, BISNI (BIZNA) – Palestinian scholar of the fourth amoraic generation (fourth century); contemporary of Berechiah II., with whom he appears in a halakic discussion (Yer. Ma'as. v. 52a—"Bisinah"; Yer. Ned. iii. 37d; Yer. Shebu. iii. 34d, where...
BISTRITZ, ḲALMAN KOHN – Hungarian Neo-Hebraic poet; lived at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was the author of the Purim drama "Goral ha-Ẓaddiḳim" (The Lot of the Righteous), which appeared in Vienna, 1821. He belonged to the same family as...
BISTRITZ, MEÏR KOHN – Hungarian Neo-Hebraic poet and author; born in Vag-Bistritz, Hungary, 1820; died in Vienna Sept. 7, 1892. He lived the greater part of his life in Vienna, where he published most of his works. The first of these was his notes...
BITHIAH – Biblical Data: Daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered of the tribe of Judah married (I Chron. iv. 18). In the Midrash (Lev. R. § 1) she is called the foster-mother of Moses.J. Jr. G. B. L.—In Rabbinical Literature: Daughter of Pharaoh;...
BITHYNIA – A province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus, and the Euxine. A Jewish colony existed there as early as the first century of the common era. In his address to Caius, the Judean...
BITTER HERBS – See Passover.
BITTERN – From an examination of the passages in which "ḳippod" occurs it would seem that a bird is meant by the word. In Isa. xxxiv. 11, "But the cormorant and the ḳippod shall possess it; the owl also, and the raven shall dwell in it,"...
BITTOON, ISAAC – English pugilist, fencing master, and teacher of "the noble art of self-defense"; born in 1778; died in Feb., 1838. His first encounter was with Tom Jones of Paddington, whom he met and defeated at Wimbledon, Surrey, July 31,...
BITUMEN – A substance said (in Gen. xi. 3) to have been used for mortar. It belongs to the class of hydrocarbons, and is a resultant from petroleum, after having gradually undergone evaporation and oxidation. The continuation of this...
BIURISTS – Translation of the Pentateuch. A class of exegetes of the school of Mendelssohn. Not content with giving a simple meaning, most of the Biblical commentators immediately preceding Mendelssohn had interpreted the Biblical passages...
BIZTHA – One of the seven eunuchs of Ahasuerus, who was commanded to bring Vashti to the king (Esther i. 10).J. Jr. G. B. L.
BLACK DEATH – Myth of Well-Poisoning. A violent pestilence which ravaged Europe between March, 1348, and the spring of 1351, and is said to have carried off nearly half the population. It was brought by sailors to Genoa from south Russia,...
BLANC, PIOTR – Polish financier of the eighteenth century; court banker under King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (1764-95); date and place of birth unknown; died at Warsaw in 1797. Together with the bankers Dekert and Raffalowitsh he formed...
BLAND, MARIA THERESA – English actress and singer; born in 1769 of Italian-Jewish parents; died at London Jan. 15, 1838. When only four years old she took a part in a performance at Hughes' Riding School, London. After studying for some years she made...
BLASER, ISAAC B. SOLOMON – Russian rabbi and educator; born in Wilna about 1840. Educated to be a rabbi, he is recognized as the foremost pupil of Israel Lipkin and the best exponent of his moral teachings and methods of study. Blaser became the rabbi of...
BLASOM, VIDAL – See Moses Narbonne.
BLASPHEMY – Evil or profane speaking of God. The essence of the crime consists in the impious purpose in using the words, and does not necessarily include the performance of any desecrating act.The Jewish law is based on the case of the...
BLAU, FRITZ – Austrian chemist; born at Vienna April 5, 1865. He received his education at the gymnasium and university of his native city, and was graduated as doctor of philosophy in 1886, becoming a member of the university of the Austrian...
BLAU, HEINRICH – German journalist and playwright; born in Neu-Stettin, Pomerania, Sept. 21, 1858. He received his education at the Jewish school and the Sophien Realschule in Berlin, whither his parents had removed when he was a small child....

BISCHOFSHEIM-ON-THE-TAUBER – City in the district of Mosbach, Baden. At Landa and the neighboring Tauber-Bischofsheim seven prominent Jews were tortured and burned, Jan. 1 and 2, 1235, on the accusation of having murdered a Christian. Nearly the whole...

BISENZ – Town in Moravia, Austria. About the earliest history of its Jews nothing is known. Pesina, whose "Mars Moravicus" was published in 1677, calls it "nidus Judæorum."In the time of the margraves (up to the fifteenth century) the...

BISHKA, NAḤMAN BEN BENJAMIN COHEN ẒEDEḲ – Russian Talmudist; lived in the second half of the eighteenth century. Together with his brother, Shabbetai Bishka, he wrote the "Shebet Aḥim" (The Brothers' Sitting), essays on different passages of the Talmud, with an appendix...

BISHOP OF THE JEWS – Title given to an official of the Jews in the Rhine country and in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. At Cologne it appears to have been used as an equivalent to "parnas," or warden of the synagogue. In England the...

BISLICHES – Editor of some valuable Hebrew works of medieval authors; born at Brody, Austria, at the end of the eighteenth century; died about 1851. He was married at the age of thirteen (a fact of which he bitterly complains), ultimately...

BISMARCK, PRINCE OTTO EDUARD LEOPOLD – Prussian statesman; born at Schönhausen April 1, 1815; died at Friedrichsruh July 30, 1898; member of the Prussian Diet (Vereinigter Landtag), 1847-51; representative of Prussia at the Bundestag at Frankfort-on-the-Main,...

BISNA, BISINAH, BISNI (BIZNA) – Palestinian scholar of the fourth amoraic generation (fourth century); contemporary of Berechiah II., with whom he appears in a halakic discussion (Yer. Ma'as. v. 52a—"Bisinah"; Yer. Ned. iii. 37d; Yer. Shebu. iii. 34d, where...

BISTRITZ, ḲALMAN KOHN – Hungarian Neo-Hebraic poet; lived at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was the author of the Purim drama "Goral ha-Ẓaddiḳim" (The Lot of the Righteous), which appeared in Vienna, 1821. He belonged to the same family as...

BISTRITZ, MEÏR KOHN – Hungarian Neo-Hebraic poet and author; born in Vag-Bistritz, Hungary, 1820; died in Vienna Sept. 7, 1892. He lived the greater part of his life in Vienna, where he published most of his works. The first of these was his notes...

BITHIAH – Biblical Data: Daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered of the tribe of Judah married (I Chron. iv. 18). In the Midrash (Lev. R. § 1) she is called the foster-mother of Moses.J. Jr. G. B. L.—In Rabbinical Literature: Daughter of Pharaoh;...

BITHYNIA – A province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus, and the Euxine. A Jewish colony existed there as early as the first century of the common era. In his address to Caius, the Judean...

BITTER HERBS – See Passover.

BITTERN – From an examination of the passages in which "ḳippod" occurs it would seem that a bird is meant by the word. In Isa. xxxiv. 11, "But the cormorant and the ḳippod shall possess it; the owl also, and the raven shall dwell in it,"...

BITTOON, ISAAC – English pugilist, fencing master, and teacher of "the noble art of self-defense"; born in 1778; died in Feb., 1838. His first encounter was with Tom Jones of Paddington, whom he met and defeated at Wimbledon, Surrey, July 31,...

BITUMEN – A substance said (in Gen. xi. 3) to have been used for mortar. It belongs to the class of hydrocarbons, and is a resultant from petroleum, after having gradually undergone evaporation and oxidation. The continuation of this...

BIURISTS – Translation of the Pentateuch. A class of exegetes of the school of Mendelssohn. Not content with giving a simple meaning, most of the Biblical commentators immediately preceding Mendelssohn had interpreted the Biblical passages...

BIZTHA – One of the seven eunuchs of Ahasuerus, who was commanded to bring Vashti to the king (Esther i. 10).J. Jr. G. B. L.

BLACK DEATH – Myth of Well-Poisoning. A violent pestilence which ravaged Europe between March, 1348, and the spring of 1351, and is said to have carried off nearly half the population. It was brought by sailors to Genoa from south Russia,...

BLANC, PIOTR – Polish financier of the eighteenth century; court banker under King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (1764-95); date and place of birth unknown; died at Warsaw in 1797. Together with the bankers Dekert and Raffalowitsh he formed...

BLAND, MARIA THERESA – English actress and singer; born in 1769 of Italian-Jewish parents; died at London Jan. 15, 1838. When only four years old she took a part in a performance at Hughes' Riding School, London. After studying for some years she made...

BLASER, ISAAC B. SOLOMON – Russian rabbi and educator; born in Wilna about 1840. Educated to be a rabbi, he is recognized as the foremost pupil of Israel Lipkin and the best exponent of his moral teachings and methods of study. Blaser became the rabbi of...

BLASOM, VIDAL – See Moses Narbonne.

BLASPHEMY – Evil or profane speaking of God. The essence of the crime consists in the impious purpose in using the words, and does not necessarily include the performance of any desecrating act.The Jewish law is based on the case of the...

BLAU, FRITZ – Austrian chemist; born at Vienna April 5, 1865. He received his education at the gymnasium and university of his native city, and was graduated as doctor of philosophy in 1886, becoming a member of the university of the Austrian...

BLAU, HEINRICH – German journalist and playwright; born in Neu-Stettin, Pomerania, Sept. 21, 1858. He received his education at the Jewish school and the Sophien Realschule in Berlin, whither his parents had removed when he was a small child....