BERR ISAAC BERR OF TURIQUE – French manufacturer; born at Nancy in 1744; died at Turique, near Nancy, Nov. 5, 1828. He came of a rich and estimable family; received an excellent education, especially in Hebrew and rabbinical literature—in the latter from...
BERR, MICHEL – An Author at Twenty. The first Jew to practise in France as a barrister; born at Nancy 1780; diedthere July 4, 1843. His father, Isaac Berr de Turique, who made himself known by his great ability as a writer and as a champion of...
BERRUYER, JOSEPH ISAAC – French Jesuit; born at Rouen Nov. 7, 1681; died at Paris Feb. 1758. He was the author of a work entitled "Histoire du Peuple de Dieu," Paris, 1728, a history of the Jews from the earliest times to the birth of Jesus, according...
BERSHAD – Town in the district of Olgopol, province of Podolia, Russia, on the road between Olgopol and Balta, at the rivers Dakhna and Bershadka. In 1900 the Jewish population was 4,500, out of a total population of 7,000. The Jewish...
BERSHADSKI, SERGEI ALEKSANDROVICH – Russian historian and jurist; born at Berdyansk March 30, 1850; died in St. Petersburg 1896. He graduated from the Gymnasium of Kerch in 1868, and from the University of Odessa in 1872; lectured at the University of St....
BERSHADSKY, ISAIAH – Russian novelist; born in Saimoscha, near Slonim, government of Grodno, 1874; now a teacher in Yekaterinoslav. Bershadsky is one of the youngest Neo-Hebraic writers of fiction in Russia, and one of whom much may be expected. His...
BERSOHN, MATHIAS – Polish bibliographer, archeologist, and writer on fine arts; born at Warsaw 1826. He is the owner of a choice library which contains a valuable collection of rare books and manuscripts. Among other works he wrote: (1) "W....
BERTENSOHN, BERNARD – Russian teacher and translator; born at Odessa at the end of the eighteenth century; died there 1859. He received a careful education in the school of Basilius Stern, and for many years was a teacher of languages in Odessa....
BERTENSOHN, JOSEPH VASILIEVICH – Russian court-physician; born at Nikolaiev, government of Kherson, in 1835. He received his early education at the gymnasium of Odessa, whence he was graduated in 1849; studied at the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa, at the...
BERTENSOHN, LEV BERNARDOVICH – Russian physician; born at Odessa Aug. 10, 1850; son of Bernard and nephew of Joseph Bertensohn. He graduated in 1867 from the Larin Gymnasium, St. Petersburg, and in 1872 from the St. Petersburg Medical Academy. He was assigned...
BERTENSOHN, VASILI ALEKSEYEVICH – Russian agriculturist; born in Odessa Sept. 12, 1860. He belongs to the hereditary nobility, his father, Dr. Aleksei Vasilievich Bertensohn, having been a state councilor and knight of the Order of St. Vladimir. Vasili graduated...
BERTHEAU, ERNEST – Biblical and Oriental scholar; born Nov. 23, 1812, in Hamburg; died May 17, 1888, in Göttingen. In 1843 he was appointed ordinary professor in the University of Göttingen, where he lectured on Oriental languages, Biblical...
BERTHOLD OF REGENSBURG – Monk and itinerant preacher; born about 1220; died in Regensburg (Ratisbon) Dec. 14, 1272. This most celebrated popular preacher of the Middle Ages, known to the people as "Rusticanus," traveled through Bavaria, the Rhine...
BERTINORO, OBADIAH (YAREH) B. ABRAHAM – Celebrated rabbi and commentator on the Mishnah; lived in the second half of the fifteenth century in Italy; died in Jerusalem about 1500. He was a pupil of Joseph b. Solomon Colon (see the latter's Responsa, No. 70, ed. Venice,...
BERTOLIO, ABBÉ – French cleric; member of the Commune of Paris in 1790. The National Assembly conferred citizenship upon the Jews of Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Avignon Jan. 28, 1790; but deferred granting it to those of Alsace and Lorraine. Hence,...
BERTRAM, CORNEILLE BONAVENTURE – Protestant clergyman and Hebraist; born at Thouars, France, in 1531; died at Lausanne, Switzerland, 1594. He studied at Poitiers, Paris, Toulouse, and Cahors. Learning, in the last-mentioned city, that the authorities had...
BERURIAH – Daughter of the martyr R. Hananiah ben Teradion, and wife of R. Meïr; born in the first quarter of the second century, she lived at Tiberias after the Hadrianic persecutions. Her traits of character, gleaned from Talmudic...
BERUSH – See Baer of Meseritz.
BERYL – A stone, ranging in color from blue to pale yellow and found all over the world; three kinds are to be distinguished—beryl, aquamarine, and emerald. According to Ex. xxviii. 20 and xxxix. 13, the beryl was the first on the...
BERYTUS – See Beirut.
BESALU – City in Catalonia, Spain. Its small Jewish community had the same privileges as that of the neighboring Gerona, and was taxed together with it. A number of documents dealing with taxes of the Jews of this place are preserved in...
BESANÇON – City and county of France, in the department of Doubs. Although no mention is made of this city in Jewish sources, it is known that it had a prominent part in the history of the Jews and was also of some importance even from a...
BESANT, SIR WALTER – English writer; novelist; born at Porṭsmouth Aug. 14, 1836; educated at King's College, London, and at Christ's College, Caṃbridge; died in London June 11, 1901. Besant was among those persons who helped the Russian and Polish...
BESCHAU – See Marriage Customs.
BESCHREIEN – A Judæo-German word for lauding a person or thing to such an extent as to cause him or it to be harmed by malevolent spirits. This superstitious belief is of old German or Teutonic origin. Grimm ("Deutsche Mythologie," ii. 864)...