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633 end should come. And I reflected on the providence of my God, my height. He left [however] their traces [of the temporal and finite]; and I rejoiced. I

am waiting,"

etc.

Abetter translation would be the following: "By the decree of the Ruler, blessed be He through the will of the Eternal; while all justice [to the Jews] has ceased, and the image fails [as represented on the reverse], I behold Thy light [expressed by the rays on the top] at the time when redemption shall !

take place. And I consider as the effect of the providence of my God that the Romans left their traces [of the Jews], and I rejoiced," etc.

Bibliography inJttd. Zeit. 87-97

Beer, Benjamin Beer, Berthold

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

633





Geiger, in Z. D. M. G. xii. 680 et seq.; idem, 171-174; Zunz, Oesammelte Schriften, Hi. 1857, xix. 173 et seq.

iv.

Loewe, in Numismatic Chronicle,

G.

BB.

I.

with great difficulty. Up to this time there had been no Jewish teachers of handicrafts and Christians had been forbidden to take Jewish apprentices. Beer fought also as a journalist for the emancipation of his coreligionists in Saxony. An essay of his, published in "Die Biene," 1820, No. xxxvi., attracted public attention. In 1833 he drafted thepetition which the Jewish congregation of Dresden

addressed to the Saxon Parliament, protesting against a law which excluded the Jews from the rights of full citizenship. The result was favorable to the Jews. After this, Beer went back to his favorite studies. history, philosophy, and Bible exegesis. His. knowledge of the Jewish religion, and especially of the religious philosophy of the Middle Ages, was remarkable and he collected a very valuable library. In 1834 Beer received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Leipsic and in the same year he married Bertha Bondi, who, by her great intelligenceand pleasing manners, made his house one of the spiritual centers of Dresden; among others, Karl Gutzkow, Berthold Auerbach, and Julius Hammer frequently resorting thither. In 1842, after a serious, illness, he made a tour through Italy and Switzerland. Ho also visited most of the important libraries of western Europe enriching his library, when, possible, with manuscripts and incunabula. Beer was by nature a theologian. He endeavored to systematize Jewish theology, and presented his. ideas on the subject in various magazines and special publications, such as Flirst's "Orient"; Frankel's. "Zeitschrift flirdie Religiosen Interessen des Juden" Jahrbuch thums " Frankel's " Monatsschrift "

—



BEER, July,

BERNHAED

1801,

at



German author

Dresden; died there July

His

father,

Beer,

and



1,

born 1861.

Hirsch

his mother,

Clara, belonged to the

Bondi family,

which

migrated about the middle of the eighteenth century into Saxony,

and

which

was

intimately connected with the Jewish congregation of Dresden from its beginning. Bernhard was an only son. While a youth he was much influenced by his relative, Dr. M. Bondi, author of the lexicographical work Bernhard Beer. "Or Esther." As the narrow spirit then reigning in Saxony made attendance at public schools disagreeable to Jews, Beer was never a pupil at one of them but, by the aid of

private teachers and by self -study, he acquainted himself early and thoroughly with the ancient and modern classics. Herder, Mendelssohn, and Hart-

wig Wessely were his favorites. In 1824 he formed a society of young men for the discussion of the Bible and other Hebrew literature, and, above all, the works of the exegetes and philosophers of the Middle Ages. Beer was the

introduce sermons into the of the chief rabbi of Dresden, A. Lowy (died April 28, 1835), Beer, although a layman, preached at the high first to

German language. With the permission

festivals.

Beer was not only a volunteer preacher he was also a volunteer educator of his poor coreligionists, who were unable to pay the fees of private teachers (access to public schools being very difficult and not without humiliation to Jewish children). In 1829, on the one-hundredth anniversary of Mendelssohn's birth, Beer, with the cooperation of E. Collin, a Dresden physician, founded the Mendelssohn-Verein

for the advancement of trade, art, and science among Jews; and several members of the congregation at once declared themselves willing that their boys should learn a trade. This was accomplished only









t Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaf " "Kerem Jahrbilcher"; He"Wiener Wertheimer's med"; " Jcschurun," etc. His principal works are:. (1) "Die Freie Christliche Kirche und das Judenthum," 1848 (open letter to Ronge); (2) A translation of Solomon Munk's "La Philosophie chez les Juif s " into German, under the title " Philosophie

der

und Philosophische (3)

Schrif tsteller der Juden, " 1852



published

" Jiidische Literaturbrief e, " originally

in Frankel's "Monatsschrift," 1853, 1854; later, in book-form, Leipsic, 1857; (4) "Abel," in "Literatur" Aaron, " in Wertheimer's (5) blatt des Orients, " iv.

" (a (7) "Leben Mosis fragment in manuscript found at his death). In memory of Beer, the congregation in Dresden founded a scholarship in art and science and two others were instituted by the committee of the Breslau Jewish Theological Seminary, which received the greater part of Beer's library, the remainder

"Wiener Jahrblicher," 1855;



being bequeathed to the University of Leipsic. Z. Frankel, B. Beer, in Monat sschrift, xi. 41-56r81-lCi; 181-143, 174-191, 245-266, 287-312, 325-344 365Bduslichen 391 405-430; K. Gutzkow, Unterhaltungen Herd, 1861 ; Deutschcs Museum, Aug., 1861. b.

Bibliography:

am

BERTHOLD

Austrian medical writer BEER, born at Brunn, Moravia, April 24, 1859. Educated at the high schools of his native city, first at the realschule, then at the gymnasium, he left for Vienna, where he attended the university and graduated in 1885. For several years he was physician " at the " Allgemeines Krankenhaus (General HospiHis sciental), making neuropathy a specialty.