JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

EYDOUX, EMMANUEL
(1939–40), 320–38; idem, in: Zion, 6 (1940–1), 96–100; idem, Leket
Margaliyyot (1941); R. Margulies, Sibbat Hitnahaguto shel Rabbenu
Ya’akov me-Emden le-Rabbenu Yehonatan Eybeschuetz (1941); A. Ha-
Shiloni (I. Raphael), La-Pulmus ha-Meḥuddash al Shabbeta’uto shel
R. Yehonatan Eybeschuetz (1942); M.A. Perlmutter, R. Yehonatan Eybeschuetz
ve-Yaḥaso la-Shabbeta’ut (1947); Mifal ha-Bibliografyah
ha-Ivrit, Ḥoveret le-Dugmah (1964), 13–24.
[Gershom Scholem]
EYDOUX, EMMANUEL, pen name of Roger Eisinger
(1913– ), French author. Descended from Alsatian Jews, he
was born in Marseilles, where he engaged in business until
1965. He then abandoned commerce and taught Jewish history
and thought in an ORT school. He was active in the cultural life
of the Marseilles Jewish community. Eydoux began publishing
poems in 1945, under the pen name of “Catapulte.” He then
wrote plays and books on the history of Judaism. The main
poetic works of Eydoux were Le Chant de l’Exil (1945–47),
Abraham l’Hébreu et Samuelle Voyant (1946), L’Evangile selon
les Hébreux (1954), and Elégies inachevées (1959). He wrote a
play, Ghetto à Varsovie (1960), and a tetralogy including Pogrom
(1963) and Eliezer ben Yehouda (1966). Eydoux was also
the author of Le dernier Pourimspiel des orphelins du docteur
Janusz Korczak (1967), which has its setting in the Warsaw
ghetto under the Nazis. His didactic works include La Science
de l’Être (1949) and Introduction à l’histoire de la civilisation
d’Israël (1961).
[Moshe Catane]
EYLENBURG, ISSACHAR BAER BEN ISRAEL LEISER
PARNAS (1550–1623), talmudist. Eylenburg was born in Posen
and studied under Mordecai *Jaffe, *Judah Loew b. Bezalel
(the “Maharal”) of Prague, and Joshua *Falk. He served as
rabbi and av bet din of Gorizia, Italy. In his Be’er Sheva (Frankfurt,
1709), he attempts to provide tosafot for those tractates
which do not possess them. His halakhic method is original.
Taking the actual talmudic halakhah as the basis of his discussion,
he adopts a critical attitude to the commentaries of
such rishonim as Isaac *Alfasi, *Rashi, and *Maimonides, not
hesitating to disagree with them or even to reject them. He is
opposed to philosophy, condemning Maimonides and others
who “arrogated to themselves the right to read the works
of sectarians.” The work follows to a considerable extent the
method of Judah Loew b. Bezalel in halakhah. Eylenburg
also wrote Ẓeidah la-Derekh (Prague, 1623), a supercommentary
to Rashi’s commentary on the Pentateuch, with glosses
to other supercommentaries on Rashi, including that of Elijah
*Mizraḥi. His halakhic work was highly regarded by the
scholars of Safed, who invited him in 1621 to serve as rabbi of
the Ashkenazi community of that city, in place of Moses Da
*Castellazzo whom they wished to dismiss. Eylenburg declined
the invitation, only to be invited again upon Castellazzo’s
death, when he accepted. He died in Austerlitz on his
way to Safed.
Bibliography: Azulai, 1 (1852), 115, no. 427; Perles, in: MGWJ,
14 (1865), 123; S.M. Chones, Toledot ha-Posekim (1910), 59, 93–95; Got-
tesdiener, in: Azkarah… Kook, 4 (1937), 344; M.A. Shulvas, Roma vi-
Yrushalayim (1944), 96; Benayahu, in: Tarbiz, 29 (1959/60), 73.
[Isaac Ze’ev Kahane]
EYNIKEYT (“Unity”), official organ of the Jewish *Anti-Fascist
Committee in the Soviet Union. Eynikeyt began to appear
in Kuibyshev in June 1942 once every ten days under the
editorship of Shakhne Epstein. The editorial board consisted
of: D. *Bergelson, Y. *Dobrushin, S. *Halkin, S. *Mikhoels, L.
Strongin, I. *Fefer, L. *Kvitko, and A. *Kushnirov. After Epstein
died, G. Shitz was named chief editor. In July 1943 Eynikeyt
moved to Moscow and became a weekly magazine. By February
1945 it began to come out three times a week, but publication
was stopped on Nov. 20, 1948, with the liquidation of all
Jewish cultural institutions in the U.S.S.R. Altogether, about
700 issues of Eynikeyt were published, and its contributors
included all the Yiddish writers of the Soviet Union. Some of
their contributions were first published there, like Fefer’s famous
poem “Ich bin a Yid” (“I Am a Jew”). The newspaper
was devoted entirely to the war effort, carrying stories on the
atrocities perpetrated against Jews in the countries occupied
by the Germans and emphasizing the contribution and the
bravery of Jews in the war against the Nazis. There was a column
called “Jewish Life Abroad,” with reports on Jewish events
outside the U.S.S.R., Jews in the anti-Nazi underground, and
also events in the yishuv of Palestine. The paper reported the
visit of Mikhoels and Fefer to the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and
Great Britain, and also the visit of the Americans Goldberg
and Novik. These visits later served the KGB in drawing up its
accusations of espionage for the West in the case of the Jewish
Anti-Fascist Committee. After the war Eynikeyt continued
to appear under the guidance and supervision of the Soviet
authorities. This control was especially noticeable in the
paper’s editorial policy toward the struggle of the yishuv in
Palestine. In the first half of 1948, in conformity with official
Soviet policy, the paper supported Israel’s *War of Independence
and the establishment of the State of Israel. But from
September 1948 until its dissolution, it published attacks on
Zionism. The employees of Eynikeyt shared the fate of other
Jewish cultural activists.
Bibliography: Ben-Yosef, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 4 (1960),
135–61; Litvak, in: Gesher (1966), 218–32.
[Yehuda Slutsky / Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
EYTAN, RACHEL (1931–1987), Hebrew author. Eytan spent
part of her childhood in children’s homes and later lived in a
kibbutz. She was trained as a teacher and worked with children
of new immigrants. Her first novel, Ha-Raki’a ha-Ḥamishi
(1962; The Fifth Heaven, 1985) depicts in realistic style the life
of abandoned children living in an orphanage in Ereẓ Israel
during World War II. The novel, which was awarded the prestigious
Brenner Prize, was one of the early attempts of Israeli
literature to deal with the underprivileged “inferior” groups
of the new Jewish society. In 1967 Eytan moved to New York
and was appointed professor of Hebrew and Yiddish at Hofstra
634 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6