Wilhelm Bacher

Wilhelm Bacher (Hungarian: Bacher Vilmos; Yiddish: בִּנְיָמִין־זְאֵב בּאַככֿר‎, Hebrew: בִּנְיָמִין־זְאֵב בכר‎‎ Benjamin Ze'ev Bacher; 12 January 1850 – 25 December 1913)[1] was a Jewish Hungarian scholar, rabbi, Orientalist and linguist, born in Liptó-Szent-Miklós, Hungary to the Hebrew writer Simon Bacher. Wilhelm was himself a prolific writer, authoring or co-authoring approximately 750 works. He was a contributor to many encyclopedias, and was a major contributor to the landmark Jewish Encyclopedia throughout all its 12 volumes (Dotan 1977). Although almost all of Bacher's works were written in German or Hungarian, at the urging of Hayyim Nahman Bialik many were subsequently translated into Hebrew by Alexander Siskind Rabinovitz.

Education

Wilhelm attended the Hebrew schools in Szucsány and in his native town, and passed through the higher classes of the Evangelical Lyceum at Presburg from 1863 to 1867, at the same time diligently prosecuting Talmudic studies.

In 1867 he began the study of philosophy and of Oriental languages—the latter under Ármin Vámbéry—at the University of Budapest, and also attended the lectures on the Talmud given by Samuel Löb Brill. In 1868, he went to Breslau, where he continued the study of philosophy and philology at the University, and that of theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau. He graduated at the University of Leipsic in 1870. His graduation thesis, Nizâmî's Leben und Werke, und der Zweite Theil des Nizâmî'schen Alexanderbuches, appeared in 1871, and was translated into English in 1873 by S. Robinson. This was afterward incorporated in the collection entitled Persian Poetry for English Readers. In 1876, Bacher graduated as rabbi, and shortly afterward was appointed to the rabbinate in Szeged, which had become vacant in consequence of the death of Leopold Löw.

Official positions

On 1 July 1877, together with Moses Bloch and David Kaufmann, he was appointed by the Hungarian government to the professorship of the newly created Budapest University of Jewish Studies. Bacher delivered the inaugural address in the name of the faculty at the opening of the institution on 4 October 1877 and remained as teacher of the Biblical sciences, of Jewish history, and of various other branches at that institution. Bacher was for a time in 1878 field-chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian army, being delegated to the headquarters of the army of occupation in Bosnia.

The congregation of Pest, Hungary appointed Bacher director of the Talmud-Torah School in 1885. In 1884 Bacher and Joseph Bánóczi founded the Judæo-Hungarian review, the Magyar Zsidó Szemle, which they conjointly edited during the first seven years. In 1894 he assisted in founding the Judæo-Hungarian Literary Society, Izraelita Magyar Irodami Társulat, of which he became vice-president in 1898. This society instituted a new translation of the Bible into Hungarian—the first complete translation due solely to Jewish initiative. The first five year-books of the society were edited by Bacher in conjunction with F. Mezey and afterward with D. Bánóczi.

Voluminous author

Bacher is the author of the following works:

Sefer Naḥalat Yehoshua', 2 vols., a redaction of the posthumous works of the Talmudist Kosman Wodianer (d. 1830), with a biographical introduction in Hebrew, in connection with which he prepared a list of the correspondents of Moses Sofer, Aus der Ersten Hālfte Unseres Jahrhunderts, 1893.

Bacher has also been the author of numerous criticisms and reviews in periodicals devoted, like his books, to Hebrew philology, history of Biblical exegesis, and of the Aggadah. The magazines, etc., in which his contributions have appeared are the following:

His criticisms and reviews

Further contributions of Bacher appeared in the festival publications to the seventieth birthday of H. Graetz, 1887, and the eightieth birthday of Steinschneider, 1896; in the festival publication in honor of Daniel Chwolsohn, 1899; and in the memorial book published on the anniversary of Samuel David Luzzatto's birthday, Berlin, 1900, and in that published in memory of Prof. David Kaufmann, 1900. Bacher has also contributed the article Levita to the Allgemeine Encyklopädie of Ersch and Gruber, and the articles Sanhedrin and Synagoge to the last volume of Hastings and Selbie's Dictionary of the Bible.

Notes

  1. ↑ Professor Dr. Wilhelm Bacher. In: Die Wahrheit, Nr. 1/1914, 2 January 1914, Vienna 1914, ZDB-ID 2176231-4, p. 7 ff.: "...Dr. Wilhelm Bacher im Budapest ... am 25. Dezember..."

References

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