BERG – An independent duchy until 1815; at present part of the Prussian Rhine province. Jews settled here at an early period. In 1298 Count Wilhelm of Berg protected them against the hordes led by Rindfleisch. At the time of the Black...
BERGAMO – City in northern Italy. Here, as in other cities subject to the government of the Venetian republic, the right of residence was granted to Jews, who were chiefly engaged in money-lending. Documents relating to the Jews, and...
BERGEL, JOSEPH – Neo-Hebraic writer of the first part of the nineteenth century. He was a private teacher at Prossnitz, Moravia. In 1826 and 1827, he published some articles and poems in the annual "Bikkure ha-'Ittim" (vi. 40, 50; vii. 3, 123,...
BERGEL, JOSEPH – Judæo-German writer, probably of the seventeenth century. He was the author of "Ein Schön Göttlich Lied," a religious poem. It seems to have been printed at Prague in the seventeenth century as an addition to the poem "Jüdischer...
BERGEL (BERGL), JOSEPH – Hungarian physician and author; born Sept. 2, 1802, at Prossnitz, died 1885 at Kaposvar. He was well versed in rabbinical and modern Hebrew literature, and attempted to introduce a new meter into Hebrew poetry in a work he...
BERGEL, YOM-ṬOB – Merchant and communal worker of Gibraltar; born in 1812; died at Gibraltar Oct. 14, 1894. He was one of the wealthiest and most respected merchants of the Gibraltar Jewish community, and for thirty years held the position of...
BERGER, EMILE DE – Austrian oculist and medical author; born at Vienna Aug. 1, 1855. He received his education at the University of Vienna.From 1882 to 1887 he was lecturer at the University of Gratz, and from 1890 to 1896 professor of...
BERGER, ERNST – Austrian painter; brother of the oculist Baron Emile Berger; born at Vienna Jan. 3, 1857; educated at the gymnasium, the commercial high school, and in 1874 at the Academy of Arts of his native town. Though intended by his...
BERGER, OSCAR – German electrotherapist and medical author; born at Münsterberg, Silesia, Nov. 24, 1844; died at Ober-Salzbrunn, Silesia, July 19, 1885. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native town and at the universities of Berlin,...
BERGÈR, PHILIPPE – Christian professor of Hebrew; member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres; born at Beaucourt, Haut-Rhin, September, 1846; brother of Samuel Bergér. Graduating at the University of Strasburg, he settled in Paris,...
BERGÈR, SAMUEL – French professor of Protestant theology; secretary and librarian of the Faculté de Théologie Protestante, Paris; born at Beaucourt, Haut-Rhin, May 2, 1843; brother of Philippe Bergèr. He attended the lectures on literature at...
BERGSON, MICHAEL – Musician; born in Warsaw 1818; died at London March 9, 1898. He was a member of an eminent Jewish family of Warsaw, with which city he always preserved connection. Early in life he became a pupil of Chopin, and afterward settled...
BERGTHEIL, JONAS – Pioneer of Natal, South Africa; born in England about 1815; died 1902; emigrated to South Africa about 1844, at a time when the resources of the country were scarcely known, and the mode of living extremely primitive. Settling...
BERIAH – 1. A son of Asher, representing, however, not an individual, but a clan (Gen. xlvi. 17; Num. xxvi. 44, 46). A member of the clan was called a Beriite (Num. xxvi. 44). The name is also found in the genealogical list, I Chron....
BERIAH – Cabalistic expression for the second of the four celestial worlds of the Cabala, intermediate between the World of Emanation (Aẓilut) and the World of Formation (Yeẓirah), the third world, that of the angels. It is, accordingly,...
BERIT MILAH – See Circumcision.
BERḲAMANI – Physician and author; lived probably in the first half of the thirteenth century, and wrote for an emir (Manṣur?) a treatise on hygiene in ten chapters, called in the preface: . There is a copy of this medical work in manuscript...
BERKO, JOSSELEWICZ – See Berek, Joselovich
BERKOVITS, LAJOS – Hungarian violinist; born at Budapest in 1874. Here he passed through the schools and finished his musical education. He was graduated from the National Academy of Music, where his teachers were Jeno Hubay and David Popper. In...
BERKOWICZ, JOSEF – Officer in the Polish army; son of Colonel Berek (Berko). He took part in the battle of Kock, in 1809, in which his father was killed. When he quitted the military service in 1815, he was appointed forester of the government...
BERKOWITZ, BENZION JUDAH BEN ELIAHU – Russian Hebrew scholar; born July 23, 1803; died at Wilna May 11, 1879. He is the author of the following works devoted to the study of the Targum Onkelos: (1) '"Oteh Or," Wilna, 1843; (2) "Leḥem we-Simlah," 2 vols., ib....
BERKOWITZ, HENRY – Russian-English educator; born at Warsaw in 1816; died in Gravesend April 5, 1891. He came to London in 1841, and attracting the notice of Chief Rabbi Adler, he was made a member of the latter's household. He afterward opened a...
BERKOWITZ, HENRY – American rabbi; born at Pittsburg, Pa., March 18, 1857. He was educated at the Central High School of his native city, at Cornell University, and at the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, O. Berkowitz has held the position of...
BERLIJN, ANTON (ARON WOLF) – Conductor and composer; born at Amsterdam May 21, 1817; died there Jan. 16, 1870. He wrote nine operas, seven ballets, an oratorio ("Moses auf Nebo"), a symphony, a cantata, a mass, several overtures, chamber-music, etc. Of...
BERLIN – Capital of Prussia and of the German empire. Though mentioned as early as the year 1225, it was an unimportant place during the whole of the Middle Ages. Not much is known of the Jews there during that period, yet there is...