Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/681

631 view of introducing systematic religious instruction in modern form among the Jews. The book is therefore of historic interest as being the result, on the one hand, of governmental initiative in the direction of improved religious education of the Jews, and, on the other, of conscientious labor on the part of the conservative rabbis of Bavaria, who were eager to harmonize modern culture with the ancient faith and practise. By placing the He"brew quotations from the Bible, Talmud, Maimonides, Moses of Coucy (Scmag), and Aaron ha-Levi (Hinnuk) alongside of the German text, the author •displayed pedagogical tact combined with loyalty The first part to the traditional method of the past. deals, in 32 paragraphs, with the Thirteen Articles of Faith; while the following part deals in 115 paragraphs with duties toward God, in 9 paragraphs with duties toward oneself, and in 49 paragraphs with duties toward one's fellow-men an appendix treating also of the marriage laws and of the AaronThere is a foot-note on p. 57 of special signifiites. cance by the rabbinate of Fiirth, stating that the

•omission of circumcision does not exclude the from the Jewish community or release him all other obligations devolving upon the Jew.

Jew from

On

conservative tendencies, the book was attacked by an anonymous writer in a pamphlet entitled "Die Reform der Juden und das Beer'sche Lehrbuch," 1827 (Jost, "Neuere Geschichte der IsBeer also published "Siddur TeTaeliten," i. 127).

account of

fillot"

Beer

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

631

its

(Prayer-book),

with

German

translation,

ant he became his essay, "

De

Beer, Benjamin In 1848 he won Axium Opticorum

later.

Situ

Biaxibus," and obtained the degree of Ph.D. Two years later he was appointed lecturer at the University of Bonn. At the same time he began publishing the results of his scientific labors, writing in 1854 "Einleitung in die Hohere Optik," which obtained a wide reputation. He followed this with a series of scientific articles in Poggendorff's "Annalen." In 1855 he was appointed professor of mathematics at Bonn. Beer also wrote "Einheit in der Electrostatik, " published two years after his death.

Bibliogeapht: dorfl

Ki'ihiischc Zcitung,

Biograpftisch-Literurixclics

Oemclnc Deutsche Bbiyrapliic,

ii.

May 1, 1804: PoggenHandwOrtcrbuch ; AU-

245, 246.

E. Ms.

s.

BEER, BENJAMIN BEN ELIJAH HAAn

an artist, who lived during the fifteenth century. On a bronze medal discovered at Lyons, France, in 1656, Beer's name appears in acrostic in The medal the Hebrew legend encircling the head. measures about six inches in diameter, and has on the obverse an artistically stamped head crowned with a laurel wreath. The legend is as follows

B.OFE



Italian, doubtless

in Italy, probably at Ferrara,

-nyn DStra hi nra vrs) pxna

nrwrri punsi

pn

lnrtr

prt>

."•V

K.

Outside the

BEER, AMALIE

(nee Amalie Wolf): Gerphilanthropist and communal worker died at She was the wife of the Berlin June 22 (24), 1854. tanker Jacob Herz Beer, daugher of Liebmann Meyer Wolf (known as " the Berlin Croesus "), and great-granddaughter of Lipmann Wolf Taussig. She was very charitable, and an active member of the

man



Women's Aid Society for Wounded Soldiers, which was conducted under the patronage of Princess William of Prussia. In consideration of her valuable from the king the Order of Louise, being the first Jewess to be so distinIn order, furthermore, not to offend the guished. pious Jewess, who was averse to wearing a cross, the king decreed that she should wear the ordinary decoration of the first class in the form of a medal-

services, she received

Queen

Her hospitable home in lion attached to a ribbon. the Thiergartenstrasse, Berlin, was one of the most brilliant salons of the time, and was honored occa-

by the king's presence. Amalie Beer was the mother of the poet Michael Beer, of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, and of two other sons, Heinrich and Wilhelm.

sionally

Bibliography: Kohut, Oesch. der Deutschen Juden, p. 775 xxiv. (portrait, ib. p. 780) Allgemeine Deutsche Biograph le,

633 (s.v. Meyerbeer). S.

BEEK, AUGUST:

A F

'

-

German mathematician; 1825; died at Bonn on the Beer was educated at the

born at Trier July 31, Rhine Nov. 18, 1863. technical school and gymnasium of his native town until 1845, when he went to Bonn to study mathematics and the sciences under Pliioker, whose assist-

'rv Jnij

mm

-piK ttnt rnivn

^x

he>, r ^rns "inns n^jwi DDien tncti van

Munich, 1827. s.

the prize for in Crystallis

curs

tro

circle,

on both

jri

ra

"i

rho)

n

sides of the head, oc-

p

in i>n Ntr yn rri <d and below, pn 1 ra Qpocstc," the latter a misspelling of The reverse of the medal represents a

p

"umilitas, Tajreivucic.

dark ground around which runs the legend, "Post tenebras spero lucem felicitatis judex dies ultimas D.III.M." " Menestrier the Jesuit, in his " Histoire de Lyon was the first to describe the medal and to endeavor to interpret the legend. In his opinion the figure represents Louis le Debonnaire, Erroneous and the legend expresses the gratitude Opinions of the Jews toward this king, who Concerning permitted them to build a synagogue. This opinion respecting the head was Medal.

(1696),

held by many,

De

Boissi

("

among whom were

Dissertation Critique

"),

S.

Lowisolm

Vorlesungen "), and Carmoly ("Memoire sur une Medaille en l'Honneur de Louis le Debonnaire ") they differ only in the interpretation of the legend. It was only in 1836 that Gerson Levi called attention to the fact that the figure could not be that of Louis, because there existed no medal with the effigy of any French king earlier than Charles VII. Zunz (" Israelitische Annalen," 1840, Nos. 17, wor ds from the be18) pointed out that the dotted ("

ginning to

nf>Dl contain in acrostic:

nm d rvrp=)

VTc'"

1~innOD3| D J2 ,

1

Nsnn itain^N.

(rvaim "Benjamin, son of my respected preceptor, the learned Rabbi Elijah Beer, the physician. May he Both father and son are live many happy years."

known

to

have lived

in Italy in the fifteenth cen-

tury and the " D. III. M. " on the reverse of the medal