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eismann, moses
father of Gerhart *Eisler, the Communist leader, and Hanns
*Eisler, the composer.
Bibliography: Oesterreichisches Biographisches Lexikon
1815–1950, 1 (1957), 238–39. Add. Bibliography: NDB, 4 (1959),
421f.
[Samuel Hugo Bergman]
EISMANN, MOSES (1847–1893), Hebrew journalist. Born
in Tivrov, he began his literary activity in 1870 with an article
in Ha-Meliẓ, concerning government-appointed rabbis. In Bi-
Fero’a Pera’ot be-Yisrael (1882), he argued that there was only
one solution to the “Jewish Question” – the Jewish settlement
of Palestine, which in the course of time would become the
home of all the scattered Jews. This was also the subject of his
pamphlet Inyanei ha-Yehudim: She’elat ha-Yeẓi’ah (“Concerning
Jewish Affairs: the Emigration Question,” Jerusalem, 1887).
In 1890 he participated in the founding convention of Ḥovevei
Zion in Odessa. He wrote Yiddish articles in Der Veker, edited
by *Lilienblum, as well as in other publications. He also wrote
articles in Russian under a pseudonym.
His brother, DAVID EISMANN (1869–1922), wrote stories
in Russian, published in seven volumes in 1911, dealing mainly
with the Jewish intelligentsia, exposed to the cultural environment
of Russian society.
Bibliography: Z. Scharfstein, in: Moznayim, 43 (1964/65),
184–7; Waxman, Literature, 4 (19602), 403–4.
[Baruch Shohetman]
EISNER, KURT (1867–1919), German socialist leader, who
was founder and first prime minister of the Bavarian Republic.
Born in Berlin, Eisner became a journalist. He was a contributor
to the Frankfurter Zeitung from 1891 to 1893, and from
1893 to 1897 to the Hessische Landeszeitung. In 1897 he was imprisoned
for nine months for lese majesty. In 1898 he joined
the social-democratic journal Vorwaerts as political editor.
In 1905 he had to leave because of disagreements with the orthodox
left (Kautsky, Luxemburg, Mehring). Two years later,
he became editor of the Fraenkische Tagespost (Nuernberg),
and from 1910 he reported on the Bavarian Landtag as official
correspondent for the Muenchner Post. A gifted writer, he
had an intellectual and moral approach to political problems.
At the beginning of World War I, Eisner favored the granting
of war credits to the German government. However, he objected
to the imperial policy of conquest and became a bitter
opponent of the government’s war policies. He was arrested
and imprisoned in January 1918 for participating as one of the
leaders in the Munich metal workers’ peace strike but was released
in October, in order to stand as Independent Social-
Democratic candidate for the Reichstag. On November 7, 1918,
Eisner headed the revolutionary uprising in Munich and next
day became prime minister of the new republic of Bavaria. To
affix the blame for the war on the German government, he revealed
the contents of Bavarian government reports and as a
result his enemies falsely accused him of taking huge bribes
from the Allies to start the revolution. In the Bavarian elec-
tions that followed the uprising, Eisner’s Independent Socialist
Party received only a small number of votes. On February
21, 1919, on his way to the Landtag (parliament), to announce
the resignation of his government, he was shot dead by the
young Count Arco-Valley. Eisner’s Gesammelte Schriften appeared
in 1919 in two volumes.
Bibliography: A. Mitchell, Revolution in Bavaria 1918–1919:
The Eisner Regime and the Soviet Republic (1965), incl. bibl.; F. Fechenbach,
Der Revolutionaer Kurt Eisner (1929); F. Schade, Kurt Eisner
und die bayerische Sozial-Demokratie (1961), incl. bibl.; F. Wiesemann,
in: K. Bosl (ed.), Bayern im Umbruch (1969), 387–426; F. Eisner, Kurt
Eisner (Ger., 1979); A.E. Gurganus, Kurt Eisner (1984); B. Grau, Kurt
Eisner 1867–1919 (Ger., 2001).
[Bernhard Grau (2nd ed.)]
EISNER, MARK (1886–1953), U.S. lawyer and public official.
Eisner was born in New York City. After serving in the New
York State Assembly (1913–15), Eisner was appointed delegate
to the state’s Constitutional Convention (1915). An authority
on taxation law, Eisner was collector of internal revenue for
the New York district from 1915 to 1919, and lectured on his
specialty at New York University and New York Law School.
He formed a law partnership in 1924. When the New York
City Board of Higher Education was established in 1926, Eisner
was appointed a member by Mayor James J. Walker, later
serving as chairman (1932–38). Eisner was active in other civic,
professional, and communal organizations, including service
as president of the *American Association for Jewish Education
(1939–47). He wrote Lay View of Some of the Problems of
Higher Education (1936), and was an editor of How Government
Regulates Business (1939).
Bibliography: New York Times (March 30, 1953), 21.
[Morton Rosenstock]
EISNER, MICHAEL DAMMANN (1942– ), U.S. business
executive. Born in Mount Kisco, N.Y., to Lester, a lawyer and
administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and Margaret (née Dammann), co-founder of
the American Safety Razor Company, Eisner grew up in the
family’s apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City and
graduated from Denison University in 1964. Following summer
jobs as a page and a first job as a Federal Communications
Commission logging clerk at NBC, Eisner landed a job in the
CBS programming department. Unhappy, Eisner sent his resume
out to hundreds of companies. ABC head Barry Diller
convinced the board to bring Eisner on as assistant to the national
programming director, a position he held from 1966
to 1968. From there Eisner rose to senior vice president for
prime-time production and development, creating such programs
as Happy Days, Barney Miller, and Starsky and Hutch.
When Diller took over as chair of Paramount Pictures in 1976,
he offered Eisner the position of studio president. Under Eisner,
the studio released such hits as Raiders of the Lost Ark,
Grease, Ordinary People, Terms of Endearment, Flashdance,
Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Airplane. Eisner left
276 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6