Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 6.djvu/81

51 the newly colonized district; but this agrees less with the Biblical data. ISo Egyptian etymology for the name "Goshen" (Kosem) has been found, which seems to be of Semitic origin; this would indicate Semitic settlers already c. 2000 or earlier. In Judith i. 9 ("the land of Gesem [R. V. "Goshen"] until thou comest above Tanls and Memphis ") the name seems to be used without precise knowledge as to the location of the place.

Bibliography: The luTlest discussion of the Egyptian data will tie found In Navllle, The Shrine of Saft el-Henneh and the Land of Ooshen, in the 5th Memoir of the Egypt Ex- phtr. Pund, 188.5, p. 74 ; comp. also his Pithom 1 1st Memoir) . Ebers, Diirch Onsen zum Sinai, 1S72, is antiquated, like the theories pionounced repeatedly by Brugsoh CWExodc et lee Jtfonnments, etc.). E. G. H. W. M. M.

GOSLAB. : Town in the province of Hanover, Germany ; on an affluent of the Ocker at the north- east foot of the Harz. According to the chronicle of Erdwin von der Hardt, " Plebis Tribunus et An- tiquitatum Goslariensium Mirator," Frederick I. in U.'iS collected from the Jews of Goslar a third of their possessions as " allegiance money " ("Huldig- ungsabgabe ") ; such a tax, however, was unknown . until the fifteenth century; and the original docu- ment which the chronicle cites as authority for its statement has not been found. On April 3, 1353, King William of H(jlland promised not to molest the Jews nor to imprison them unjustly, but to protect them as his " servi cameras. " Rudolph I., in confirming the privileges of the citizens of Goslar, expressly reserved his rights over the Jews of that town. In 1385 Emperor Rudolph directed the latter to pay more promptly the yearly tax of 6 marks for the maintenance of the royal palace at Goslar.

The Jews of Goslar escaped the massacres at the time of the Black Death, but suffered so much from the plague in 1350 that their cemetery, situated on Mount St. George, no longer sufficed, and another, near the forts, had to be acquired. Like all the other Jews of the province of Hanover, those of Goslar were expelled in 1591.

At present (1903) there exists in Goslar a small Jewish community numbering about 100 persons in a total population of 13,311. Bibliography: Wiener, la Ja7irh«cft/«r(Jesc7i. 1.107; id-em..

In Monat^sehrift. x. 121 ; Aronius, Reaesten, p. 249 ; Adolph

Kohut, Oesch. der Juden in Deut.ichland, pnssim ; Henr.

Bitil. xii. 9 ; stobbe. Die Juden in Deutsehland, p. 18 ; Zeit-

schrift des Harzvereins, v. 457.

G. I. Bit.

GOSPELS, THE FOTJB. See New Testa- ment.

GOTENDORF, JAMES (JAMES NATHAN) : German-American merchant and litterateur; born Feb. 9, 1811, at Eutin, Holstein, Germany ; died at Hamburg Oct. 5, 1888. He went to the United States in 1830, and for the next twenty years was engaged in the commission business in New York. About 1843 ho became friendly with Horace Greeley (upon whose advice he changed his name from "James Nathan" to " Gotendorf "), and through him with Margaret Fuller, afterward Count- ess Ossoli, in whom he aroused feelings of passionate friendship. In 1845 he left New York, but returned in 1850, and for two years engaged in a banking busi- ness in Wall street. He then retired to Hamburg, where he spent the remainder of his life. Fifty of

Margaret Fuller's letters to him were published un- der the title "Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller" (New York, 1903).

Bibliography: Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, p. 190. Letters from Gotendorf appeared In the Tribune (New York), Sept. 10, 12, 16, 1845. 8. J.

GOTHA : Capital of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg- Gotlia, Germany. A Jew named Jacob who lived at Cologne in the middle of the thirteenth century is designated as a native of Gotha (Honiger, "Das Judenschreinsbuch der Laurenzpfarie in Koln," p. 7, Nos. 39, 40). In 1803 the Jews of Gotha were persecuted in consequence of an accusation, wliich originated in the province, of having murdered the son of a miner for ritual purposes. The Nuremberg " Memorbuch " gives the names of the victims of this persecution. The community was annihilated at the time of the Black Death, and a new com- munity must have sprung iip, which appears to have disappeared again in 1459-60, a period of renewed persecution. The exegete Solomon is designated a? a native of Gotha.

In the nineteenth century, prior to 1848, no Jews were permitted to live in the duchy of Gotha, al- though they could trade there under restrictions; after 1848 they were free to enter. They began to settle there in the sixth and seventh decades, and founded a community in the capital which at first numbered only from ten to twelve families. The first communal officials were appointed in the eighth decade. There is no rabbi, affaii-s being managed by three teachers. The community has a literary society and a B'nai B'rith lodge. The synagogue was built in 1903. The first cemetery was situated on the Erfurter Landstrasse ; when this was closed by the local authorities, in the eighth decade, a new cemetery was acquired on the Eisenacher Land- strasse. In 1903 Gotha had a population of 39,134, of whom about 350 were Jews. Bibliography: Salfeld, MartyroZofliMm, p. 217 ; Gratz, Gesch.

vii. 34:3 ; Adolph Kohut, Oesch. der Juden in, Deutsehland,

passim ; Aronius, Regesten, No. 608 ; Monatsschrift, xliv.

t D. K.

GOTTHEIL, GUSTAV: American rabbi ; born at Pinne in Prussian Posen May 38, 1827; died in New York city April 15, 1903. He was educated in Posen under. Rabbi Solomon Plessner, and Ititc^r continued his studies at the universities of Berlin and Halle (Ph.D.), receiving in the meanwhile his "hattarat hora'ah" in the former city from Samuel HoLDHEiM, whose assistant he became (1855). He also studied under Zunz and Steinschneider. In 1860 he set out from' the Berliner Reform Gemeinde to labor for progressive Judaism in new fields.

In 1860 he received a call from the Reform Jews of Manchester, England, and he went thither as rabbi to the Manchester Congregation of British Jews, remaining as incumbent for thirteen years. During this time he was connected with the faculty of Owens College as teacher of German. Two of his most noteworthy sermons preached in Manches- ter were on the slavery question, attacking those who had declared the institution to be sanctione>l by Mosaic law. Dr. Gottheil was a member of the Synod of Leipsic in 1871, which took a de- cided stand on the question of Reform. He left