JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Over the years the university expanded its academic outreach
to offer a number of degree programs. In 1971 the university
opened its graduate school, which in 1975 was named
the Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone School of Graduate Studies. In
addition to the B.A. degree in Jewish Studies which is offered
by the University’s Bernard Manekin School of Undergraduate
Studies, the graduate achool offers programs leading to
the Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Jewish Studies. The graduate
school also developed degree programs to train Jewish educators
and communal professionals. These programs lead to the
Master of Arts in Jewish Education or the Master of Arts in
Jewish Communal Service. Graduates of these programs have
become teachers, principals, and other educational specialists
in the field of Jewish education and others have become executives
in federations, Jewish Community Centers, community
relations councils and in the field of Jewish family service. The
university also maintains cooperative relations with Baltimore
area colleges through the Baltimore Collegetown Network,
which enables area colleges to share resources and jointly enhance
the academic and social life of students.
While remaining committed to academic Jewish Studies
and to the training of Jewish educators and communal
professionals, the university also provides opportunities for
Jewish learning to non-degree students through its program
of Lifelong Learning. The program has featured weekend retreats
with scholars, artists, and public figures; classes in Jewish
Studies; a Distinguished Lecture series with major scholars,
authors, playwrights, and filmmakers; and the Meah Program,
a two-year 100-hour course of study covering the Jewish experience
from biblical times to the present.
The University maintains the Joseph Meyerhoff Library,
which contains over 70,000 books and periodicals in English,
Hebrew, Yiddish, German, French, Russian, and other
languages and includes a number of rare books going back to
the 16th century. The library also houses the Baltimore Jewish
Community Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies and
a collection of books that survived the Holocaust acquired
through the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Organization.
Among the distinguished scholars who have served on
the faculty of the university are Moshe Aberbach, Joseph M.
Baumgarten, Adele Berlin, Avram Biran, Cyrus *Gordon,
Samuel Iwry, and Harry M. *Orlinsky.
The presidents who have served Baltimore Hebrew University
are Israel Efros (1919–28), Louis L. Kaplan (1930–70), Leivy
Smolar (1970–92), Norma Fields Furst (1992–95), Robert O.
Freedman (1995–2001), and Rela Mintz Geffen (from 2001).
[George L. Berlin (2nd ed.)]
BAMBERG, city in Bavaria, Germany. There were Jews living
in Bamberg before the First Crusade (1096), when they were
forcibly baptized but later allowed to return to Judaism. Establishments
in the medieval “Jewish Lane” (today Pfahlplaetzchen)
included a dance hall for weddings, a hostel (hekdesh)
for the needy sick and transients, a mikveh, and a synagogue.
bamberg, samuel ben baruch
In 1298 during *Rindfleisch massacres 135 Jews were martyred
in Bamberg. During the persecution following the outbreak of
the *Black Death in 1348 the Jews there set fire to their homes
and perished in flames. Between the 14th and 17th centuries
Jews repeatedly attempted to settle in Bamberg, paying high
“protection” taxes, only to be later attacked and expelled. In
1633 they numbered ten families, whose right of residence was
recognized in 1644. An annual “plum fast” (Zwetschgen Taanit)
was observed by the Bamberg community, to commemorate
the preservation of the Jews there during the riots of 1699 by
one of their number who averted greater damage by pouring
plums over the mob. The community increased from 287
in 1810 to 1,270 in 1880 (4.3% of the total population), subsequently
declining to 812 in 1933 (1.6%) and 418 in May 1939.
Prominent members of the community included the
talmudist and paytan Samuel b. Baruch *Bamberg (13th century).
Notable rabbis were Moses *Mintz who served there
from c. 1469 to 1474; Samuel Meseritz (c. 1661–65), author
of Naḥalat Shivah; and Joseph Kobak (1862–82), editor of Jeschurun.
A. Eckstein, rabbi of Bamberg (1888–1935), wrote a
number of studies on the history of the Jewish communities
in Bavaria.
During the Nazi regime, the synagogue was burned down
on Nov. 10, 1938, and 30 to 40 Torah scrolls were destroyed.
In 1933–41, 443 Bamberg Jews left Germany and another 66
fled to other German cities. The 300 who remained at the end
of 1941 were deported to Riga, Izbica/Lublin, Theresienstadt,
and Auschwitz. After the war many displaced persons assembled
in Bamberg (14,000 in 1947), but only 17 of the former
Jewish residents were among them. In 1965 the cemetery was
desecrated. The community then numbered 70. In 1989, there
were 106 community members; their number rose to 893 in
2003 as a result of the immigration of Jews from the former
Soviet Union.
Bibliography: PK; Germ Jud, S.V.; H.F. Brettinger, Juden
in Bamberg (1963); A. Eckstein, Geschichte der Juden im ehemaligen
Fuerstbistum Bamberg (1898); idem, in: Festschrift zur Einweihung
der neuen Synagoge in Bamberg (1910); idem, Die israelitische Kultusgemeinde
Bamberg, 1803–53 (1910); Bilder aus der Vergangenheit
der israelitischen Gemeinde Bamberg (1933); R.M. Kloos, in: Bericht
des historischen Vereins Bamberg, 103 (1967), 341–86. Add. Bibliography:
N. Haas, Juden in Bamberg 1868–1906; H. Loebl, Juden
in Bamberg. Die Jahrzehnte vor dem Holocaust (1999).
[Ze’ev Wilhem Falk]
BAMBERG, SAMUEL BEN BARUCH (first half of the 13th
century), rabbi and paytan. Samuel was born in Metz, but lived
in Bamberg, after which he was called. He studied under his
father, *Baruch b. Samuel of Mainz, and *Eliezer b. Samuel of
Metz. He corresponded on halakhic problems with *Eliezer
b. Joel ha-Levi, *Simḥah b. Samuel of Speyer, and *Isaac b.
Moses of Vienna, and was highly esteemed by leading contemporary
scholars. Like his father, he was a talented poet,
and fragments of his prayer book have survived. The name
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 101