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drachman, bernard
Paris as an expert in Hebrew and took part in the publication
of the Venice Bible (27 vols., 1827–33). From 1832 to 1842 he
served as librarian of the Congregation for the Propagation
of the Faith in Rome, and published Hebrew poems in honor
of the pope and the cardinals. Returning to Paris, Drach collaborated
with the Abbé J.P. Migne in the publication of his
Patrologia. He also edited the fragments of Origen’s Hexapla
(1857–60), and translated into French the anonymous work
*Sefer ha-Yashar (1858), wrongly attributed to Jacob *Tam
who wrote another work similarly entitled. He also wrote a
number of books and pamphlets to justify his apostasy and to
prove to his former coreligionists the truth of Christianity. He
succeeded in winning over his brother-in-law Hyacinthe (Simon)
Deutz, the man who denounced the Duchess of Berry
to the police; and his children, too, grew up as Christians and
took Holy Orders.
Bibliography: P. Klein [= M. Catane], in: Revue de la Pensée
Juive, 7 (1951), 87–103.
[Moshe Catane]
DRACHMAN, BERNARD (1861–1945), U.S. Orthodox rabbi,
first of the modern English-speaking Orthodox American rabbinate.
Drachman was born in New York and reared in Jersey
City. His early Jewish education was at a Reform institution,
the Hebrew Preparatory School, sponsored by Temple Emanu-
El Theological Seminary. He graduated from Columbia College,
and was sent to study at Breslau and Heidelberg by New
York’s Temple Emanu-El (Reform). In Europe, much to the
chagrin of his patrons, for the first time he came into personal
contact with the deep piety of East European Jewry, and was
so influenced by it that he became entirely committed to Orthodoxy,
of which he later became one of the leading spokesmen
in the United States. Drachman served as rabbi of Oheb
Shalom in Newark until it introduced mixed seating, and in
several New York City pulpits, including Zichron Ephraim
(1889–1909) and Oheb Zedek (1909–22). His background was
unusual. American-born, he shared none of the East European
experiences of his Orthodox colleagues; Reform-trained,
he shared none of the enthusiasm for Reform of those who
first taught him. He was the first ordained Orthodox rabbi to
preach in the vernacular in the U.S. and was one of the founders
of the *Jewish Theological Seminary, where he taught Bible,
Hebrew, and Jewish philosophy from 1887 to 1902. After Solomon
Schechter’s arrival, he continued as assistant reader in
Codes from 1902 to 1908. There are two versions of his decision
to sever his service at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Some believe that Drachman was not sufficiently scholarly
for the institution that Schechter was rebuilding and others
believe that he left the Seminary when it gradually started to
diverge from Orthodoxy; he later taught at Yeshiva College.
He served as president of the *Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations during 1908–20. He was a candidate for the
Chief Rabbinate of England in 1912 but withdrew when one
of his first pupils, J.H. *Hertz, a graduate of the Jewish Theological
Seminary, put forward his candidacy. Drachman was
a founder of the Jewish Endeavor Society and Jewish Sabbath
Alliance, which sought to repeal the Blue Laws that prohibited
businesses from being open on Sunday and thus imposed
a great economic hardship on Sabbath-observing Jews. In the
1920s, together with the labor movement they advocated a
five-day work week. He translated Samson Raphael Hirsch’s
Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel into English (1899). His autobiography,
Unfailing Light (1948), is a vivid portrait of American
Jewry during his lifetime.
Bibliography: M. Davis, Emergence of Conservative Judaism
(1963), 335–6. Add. Bibliography: J. Gurrock, “Bernard
Drachman and the Evolution of Jewish Religious Life in America,”
in: American Jewish History, 76:4 (June 1967).
[Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
DRACHSLER, JULIUS (1889–1927), U.S. sociologist. Drachsler
was born in Austro-Hungary, taught at Smith College and
at the City College of New York. He served in the Bureau of
War Risk Insurance (1918–19), was assistant secretary of the
Jewish Big Brother Association (1913–15), assistant executive
director of the Bureau for Jewish Social Research (1919–20),
secretary of the faculty of the School for Jewish Communal
Work (1915–18), president of the Conference on Immigration
Policy (1921–22), and consultant of the Bureau of Jewish
Social Research (1921–22). In addition, he served as director
of the training courses for community center workers of the
National Jewish Welfare Board. In his organizational as well
as in his scholarly work, Drachsler’s interest was centered
on topics relevant to the sociology of Jews, then in its infancy.
His major published works are Democracy and Assimilation
(1920) and Intermarriage in New York City (1921). The latter
is considered a classic in the demography of the Jews, and
has been frequently quoted in subsequent studies on intermarriage.
[Werner J. Cahnman]
DRAGUIGNAN (Heb. א״ניגרד), capital of Var department,
S.E. France. Toward the end of the 13th century, when the poet
*Isaac b. Abraham Ha-Gorni visited Draguignan, there was
already an important community of wealthy Jews, who gave
an unfriendly welcome to the poet, mistrusting his licentious
behavior. The ancient synagogue, no longer standing, a beautiful
building with a 23-m.(75.4-ft.)-long facade and a single
spacious hall without the support of columns, was built during
the same period. During the middle of the 14th century
the community of 200 to 250 persons was governed by an administrative
council and two bailiffs. In the 15th century, the
number of Jews in Draguignan had increased so much that
the accommodation in the Rue Juiverie had become inadequate.
There were numerous Jewish physicians, one of whom
received a salary from the municipality. In 1489 the Jews in
Draguignan were among the first victims of the edict of expulsion
from Provence. Five accepted baptism to avoid being
expelled. During World War II, there were about 12 Jewish
families living in Draguignan. A new community of Jews of
6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6