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663 BELLETTE

(Hebrew D^U, D^3)



Daughter

of Menahem, and sister of Isaac ben Menahem called " the Great lived at Orleans in the middle of " the eleventh century. She is cited by Rashi, in a responsum, as an authority on a ritual question (Pardes, 4J; Assufot, MS. Halberstamin, 48J).

Ozatr Ifchmad, ii. 10 Zunz, Zur GescMchie Literatur, p. 172; 'Gratz, Oesch. der Juden, 3d ed., vl. note 3 Gross, Gallia Judaka, P- 33.

Bibliography





und 50,



L. g.

BELLS

I.

Br.

of Bells for summoning seems to have arisen in the Far East, and was not customary in countries bordering the Mediterranean until

The use

Roman

times (Si ttl, "Archaologie der Kunst," Small disks, however, were generally atp. 246). tached to pet animals, which, being struck together, emitted a sound supposed to frighten away the evil spirits (L. Mortillet, "Etude sur l'Emploi des Clocliettes chez les Anciens," Dijon, 1888). The only use known to the ancient Hebrews similar to this was the attachment of Bells and pomegranates to the lower hem of the high priest's ephod (Ex. xxviii. 33), the object of which was that he might be heard on entering the high place, or, according to Sirach xlv. 9, " for a memorial to the children of nis people. " It is probable that the sound was caused by the Bells striking against the adjacent pomegranates, and not by a clapper. The two together form an ornamental design resembling that of the lotus and bud border, used in Egyptian decorative art. According to the Rabbis there were seventy-two Bells. In Talmudic days Bells were used to summon people. (See Naz. vi. 1, where a distinction is made between the outer shell of the In Shab. 54S is a reference bell and the clapper.) to a bell stuffed with wool so that it could make no

late

Bella

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

663

sound. Mention is also made of cattle-bells and doorbells (Tosef Kelim, B. M. i., at end). Small Bells in the form of a ball with a split in it have been found in the excavations at Tell el-Hesy. The word " bells " was also used in the A. V. to

Belmont

who was

buried in Sobernheim. The son of Isaac Simon mentioned above was Simon Belmont, who died March 16, 1805. Of his four children, the eldest, Aaron Isaac (m. Gertrude Lorch of Frankfort), was the great-grandfather of August Belmont. Johanna, a sister of Aaron Isaac, married a Mr. Reinach of Mayence and Joseph Florian, the younger brother of Simon, had a daughter who married Ludwig Bamberger. August Belmont had

a second cousin, Charles Frederick, who remained in Alzey. Of the issue of the latter, some live in Alzejr some in Frankfort-on-the-Main, and others in Philadelphia. Simon had a daughter, Babette, who married Stephan Feist of Frankfort, from whom the Feist-Belmonts are descended. The family was probably the most important Jewish family in Alzey. Isaac Simon Belmont left that city 30,000 florins, 20,000 of which were converted (1790) by his four children into a fund, called the "Belmont Stiftung," for defraying certain congregational expenses and providing dowries for poor girls. similar " Belmont Stiftung " exists in the ,

A

Mayence. Simon Belmont (1789-1859) was a prominent member of the Jewish congregation in Alzey, the minutes of the board of trustees for a number of years being signed by him. There is little doubt that the Belmont family of Alzey is descended from the Belmontes of Amsterdam. Probably some member of the latter family wandered either from Amsterdam or from Hamburg down the Rhine, ultimately settling in Alzey and when the Jews were forced by the government to take family names, his descendants revived the name which by tradition they knew to have belonged

city of



The accompanying

to their family.

gree shows the relationship of the chief this family Simhah ben Ephraim Joseph Jessel

ni^VD in Zech. xiv. 20, where the correct translation is probably " bridles " as in the margin. Since they were necessarily inscribed with the words "Holiness to the Lord," there were probably flat pieces of brass attached for ornament to horses, as in the East at the present day (Rosenmilller,

translate

" Morgenlandische Forschungen," iv. 411), and corresponding to D'OiriK' (Isa. iii. 18; Judges viii. 21V

Bibliography:

Winer, Bibl. Lexicons-

Neuhebrilisches WOrterbuch, Archilnlogie, §96.

s.v.

Jit;

v.

ScfteBere



Levy,

BELLS OF THE LAW.

See

I

I

Ephraim Simon

Isaac (d. 1712)

(d. 1742) I

Ellas

Simon

(d. 1795)

I

Aaron Isaac B. (m. Gertrude Lorch)

III

Simon B. m. Rosa (d. 1786)

Isaac

(d. 1805)

Lob Isaac

Simon

Johanna (m.

—

Reinach in Mayence)

Isaac B.

-

Crown "bF the

Jewish family in Alzey, Rheinat It traces its origin to Isaac Simon, who Hessen. family the end of the eighteenth century took the name of Belmont. His father, Ephraim Simon (d. " Vorsteher der 1742) was the son of Joseph Jessel, Juden in Ampt Alzey" (d. 1738), who is probably dated 1700 the person mentioned in a document This (Lowenstein, " Judeninder Kurpfalz," p. 146). Ephraim (d. 1685), Jessel was the son of Simhah ben

(1791-1870)

(d. 1821)

Elizabeth (m. Ludwig Bamberger)

I

BELLSOM. See Moses of Narbonne. BELLUCIA, ASCARELLI. See Ascarelli.

Joseph Florian B.

Simon B. 1789-1859) m. Frederika Elsass

Law.

BELMONT

(d. 1685)

(d. 1738)

Jahn, BiMische

J

A.

sketch-pedimembers of

August B. (d. 1890)

Babette (m. Stephan Feist)

G.



BELMONT, AUGUST



American

financier;

born in Alzey, Germany, in 1816; died in New He was educated at York city, Nov. 24, 1890. Frankfort-on-the-Main, and, after serving several years in the Rothschild banking offices in that city and at Naples, settled in New York (1837) as the American representative of his former employers.