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eder, montague david
teach regularly in China, Russia, and Poland, and in 1997 they
became directors of the International Duo Piano Seminary.
Well known for their artistry, virtuosity, and immaculate ensemble
playing, the duo made an important contribution to
the revival of works for two pianos and piano duet.
Among their recordings are the complete works for
two pianos and piano duet of Mozart, Schubert, and Rachmaninoff,
and works by Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Bartók,
and Poulenc. They gave the American première of Lutoslawski’s
Paganini Variations (1955) and, at the suggestion of
Stravinsky (1968), were the first to perform and record the
piano duet version of The Rite of Spring. Tamir has made several
transcriptions for piano duo and duet and has written a
few works for piano duo.
Add. Bibliography: Grove online.
[Uri Toepliz, Yohanan Boehm / Naama Ramot (2nd ed.)]
EDER, MONTAGUE DAVID (1865–1936), Zionist leader,
psychoanalyst, and physician. Born in London into an assimilated
family, Eder devoted himself to the medical care of the
poor in London’s slums and mining villages, becoming a member
of the Labour Party. One of the first British psychoanalysts
and protagonists of Sigmund Freud, together with Ernest Jones
he founded the Psychoanalytical Association in England in
1913. Eder also established a children’s clinic and founded and
edited the journal School Hygiene. His interest in Jewish affairs
was aroused by his cousin, Israel *Zangwill, and his brotherin-law,
Joseph *Cowen. Eder joined the Jewish Territorialist
Organization (JTO) and participated in a mission on its behalf
to Cyrenaica to evaluate the possibilities for Jewish settlement
there. In 1918 he was invited by Chaim *Weizmann to join the
*Zionist Commission for Palestine, as a representative of JTO
and as medical officer. He arrived there in 1918 and stayed for
over four years, becoming an enthusiastic Zionist. He played a
key role in the Commission, being its only member to extend
his stay after 1918. He conducted the negotiations with the military
and civil administration of Palestine and helped actively
in the absorption of the first groups of immigrants of the Third
*Aliyah, displaying great understanding for their pioneering
spirit. Eder was a member of the Zionist Executive 1921–23
and 1922–28, first in Jerusalem and later in London. His kinship
with the Soviet diplomat Maxim *Litvinov (to whom he
was related through his wife) enabled him to visit the Soviet
Union in 1921, where he tried, unsuccessfully, to achieve some
degree of legal status for the work of the Zionist Organization
there. Upon his return to Britain, Eder was active on behalf of
the Hebrew University, the Political Department of the Zionist
Executive, and the British Zionist Federation, which he headed
for a short time in 1930. An agricultural farm for the training
of Palestine pioneers, established in 1935 in Ringelstone, Kent,
was called the David Eder Farm.
Bibliography: David Eder, Memoirs of a Modern Pioneer
(ed. by J.B. Hobman, with foreword by S. Freud, 1945). Add. Bibliography:
ODNB online.
[Getzel Kressel]
EDESSA, a city in the upper Euphrates Valley (today Urfa in
Turkey). Archaeological remains are known in the area of the
city going back to the second millennium B.C.E., and Edessa
may very well have been a Hurrian city alternatively known
as Orrhoe, Orhai, or Osrhoene. Until 11 C.E. Edessa was part
of the border area that passed on various occasions from Parthian
to Roman hands. The city was conquered in August 116
by Lusius Quietus, and remained a Roman possession until
216, when it was officially incorporated into the Roman Empire.
The suppression of the Parthian resistance against the
Romans meant also the subjugation of the Jews of the city (see
Segal). By the end of the second century C.E. Edessa had become
the center of Christianity beyond the Euphrates, and this
development suggests a Jewish influence in the area during
that period. It is known, for instance, that the local king during
the early second century, Abgar VII, was a son of *Izates of
Adiabene, a monarchy already converted to Judaism. Eusebius,
a primary source regarding the establishment of Christianity
in Edessa, relates that Abgar V had corresponded with Jesus
himself, and as a result immediately accepted the teachings of
the first Christian disciple to arrive at Edessa, the preacher Addai.
The story is also given in the “Doctrine of Addai,” which
claims that the conversion involved, among others, Jewish silk
merchants. The story is a Christian invention. The Palestinian
Targum identifies the Erech of Genesis 10:10 with Edessa and
refers to it, together with Ctesiphon and Nisibis, as one of the
three Babylonian cities ruled by *Nimrod. In the Talmud the
name of the community is Hadass.
[Isaiah Gafni / Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)]
The Edessa chronicles mention an order issued by the
emperor in 411, to erect a convent on a spot occupied by a synagogue;
other reliable sources, however, describe the bishop
who was then in office, and was alleged to have built the convent,
as a friend of the Jews (see Overbeck, Opera Selecta, 195;
reports on Jews in Edessa are also available for the year 499:
REJ, 6 (1883), 137). The participation of Edessa Jews in the wars
between Heraclius I, the Byzantine emperor, and the Persians
(610–42), on the side of the latter, gives reason to believe that
their number was quite substantial.
For a considerable period after its capture by the Arabs
(who renamed it al-Ruha), the town remained predominantly
Christian. Islam, of course, spread in the town, at the expense
of Christianity and Judaism. There is a source about a false
Messiah in c. 735, who was a native of Edessa. According to
Bar-Hebraeus, Muḥammad b. Ţāhir built a mosque in 825 on a
site previously occupied by a synagogue. In the 9th century the
physician Yizhaq Ben Ali Al-Rohawi (Odessa man) was born
in Edessa. In 1098 the town was conquered by the Crusaders
and the Jews were expelled. There is a document from December
1101 in Ruzafa (150 km. south of Edessa) which notes
the Jews of the castle of Ruzafa (one of the names of Edessa);
probably these Jews were the refugees from Edessa who had
fled to Ruzapa. When ʿImād al-Dīn Zengi captured the town
in 1144, he settled 300 Jewish families there; and in 1191 when
146 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6