JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

erman, johann peter adolf
Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, where he spent the next dozen
years training in general surgical techniques. In 1948 he was
asked by Israel’s Ministry of Health to put together the surgical
department at the abandoned British Mandatory Hospital
in Haifa, by then renamed Rambam Hospital. As its chief
of surgery for over 30 years, Erlik was instrumental in making
Rambam the major medical center in northern Israel, including
the successful association between the Haifa Technion
and Rambam’s medical school, which opened its doors in
1969.
Erlik was a pioneer and innovator of surgical procedures
involving the blood vessels in the abdomen and kidneys. In
1966 he carried out the first kidney transplant in Israel, and
under his stewardship Rambam became the leading transplant
center in the country. Erlik created a surgical standard
of excellence with which he imbued the next generations of
surgeons in Israel.
Erlik was awarded the Israel Prize in life sciences in
1992.
Bibliography: M. Hashmonai, “David Erlik (1909–1995) –
A Founder of Surgery in Modern Israel,” in: Digestive Surgery, 21
(2004), 447–51.
[Ruth Rossing (2nd ed.)]
ERMAN, JOHANN PETER ADOLF (1854–1937), German
Egyptologist, usually cited as Adolf Erman, or A. Erman. Erman
studied at Leipzig and Berlin under Georg *Ebers, and
then became director of the Egyptian Section of the Berlin
Museum and professor of Egyptology (1884–1923). Primarily
a philologist, his work established a solid foundation for all
subsequent philological study in ancient Egyptian. At the turn
of the 20th century, under the auspices of the Prussian Academy
of Science, he began work on the great dictionary of the
Egyptian language, the Woerterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache
(vol. 1, 1926). The second revised edition of his Neuaegyptische
Grammatik (19332), dictated from memory when he was virtually
blind, still remains the standard grammar of Late Egyptian.
In addition to numerous philological, technical works, he
wrote popular books on Egyptian literature, culture, and art.
In an article “Eine aegyptische Quelle der Sprueche Salomos”
(in Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen (Preussischen) Akademie
der Wissenschaften, 15 (1924), 86–93), Erman maintained the
direct relationship of Proverbs 22:17–24:22 to the Instruction
of Amen-em-opet. This had considerable repercussions in
biblical studies, for scholars began to see the close, sometimes
direct, relationship of biblical wisdom literature to ancient
Near Eastern wisdom literature. Erman, himself a Protestant,
was of Jewish descent, and although not actively persecuted,
suffered indignity and humiliation under the Nazis until his
death in Berlin. His autobiography Mein Werden und mein
Wirken appeared in 1929.
Bibliography: Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 23 (1937),
81; 24 (1938), 231.
[Alan Richard Schulman and Michael Fox]
ERNAKULAM (formerly Angicaymal), town in Kerala, India,
about 5 mi. (8 km.) from *Cochin. A community of “black
Jews” is known to have existed there since the 15th century.
Moses *Pereira de Paiva (1687) lists it as the second largest
Jewish settlement on the Malabar Coast after Cochin, with
150 families. In 1970 “Jew Street” contained two large synagogues,
Theckoobagam (said to have been built in 1625) and
Kadvoobhagam (1150), formerly containing valuable liturgical
objects; services were held in them alternately on the Sabbath
and festivals. Two old cemeteries lie some distance from
this street. In 1922, the elders of the synagogues wrote to the
British Zionist Federation expressing their desire to settle in
Palestine. In recent years the community has declined, mainly
because of emigration to Israel. None of the Ernakulam synagogues
function any more.
Bibliography: Bar-Giora, in: Sefunot, 2 (1958), 214–45;
Fischel, in: Herzl Yearbook, 4 (1961/62), 324–8. Add. Bibliography:
J.B. Segal, A History of the Jews of Cochin (1993).
[Walter Joseph Fischel]
°ERPENIUS (van Erpe), THOMAS (1584–1624), Dutch Orientalist.
Erpenius traveled (1608–12) extensively through the
libraries of Europe, availing himself while at Venice of Jewish
instruction. In Leiden, where in 1613 he was appointed professor
of Oriental languages (initially excluding but from 1619 on
including Hebrew), he ran an Oriental press. Erpenius’ own
work covers various Oriental languages, such as his Orationes
tres de Linguarum Ebreae et Arabicae Dignitate (Leiden,
1621). His works include grammars of Hebrew (Leiden, 1621;
Geneva, 1627; Leiden, 1659); of Aramaic and Syriac (Amsterdam,
1628); the books of Samuel and Kings edited and
translated into Hebrew and Latin; the Pentateuch in Arabic
(Leiden, 1621); Psalms in Syriac (1628); and a treatise on the
punctuation of the divine name (Rostock, 1626). After Erpenius’
death his Oriental manuscripts were purchased and donated
to Cambridge University (a.o. Hebrew Mss. Ee. 5.8–10,
Mm. 6.26.1–2).
Bibliography: Nouvelle Biographie Universelle, 13 (1815),
372–6, includes bibliography.
[Raphael Loewe]
ERRERA, CARLO (1867–1936), Italian geographer and
historian of exploration. Errera, who was born in Trieste,
and originally trained as a geographer, became interested in
the Italian explorers and cartographers of the 15th and 16th
centuries, and produced numerous monographs on their
activities. These detailed analyses were synthesized in L’Epoca
delle grandi scoperte geografiche (1902, 19263). An “Irredentist”
with a particular interest in the Adriatic region, Errera
wrote a number of books and pamphlets on this subject.
He was vice president of the Italian National Research Council.
[Frank D. Grande]
482 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6