JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

arnett, sir louis edward
at Djerabis (vol. 3 (with Sir L. Woolley, 1952)); Catalogue of the
Nimrod Ivories in the British Museum (1957); Assyrian Palace
Reliefs and Their Influence on the Sculptures of Babylonia and
Persia (1960); The Sculptures of Aššur-naṣir apli II… (1962);
and Illustrations of Old Testament History (1966). After his
death the Jewish Historical Society of England established an
annual lectureship in his honor.
Add. Bibliography: R. Loewe, “In Memoriam: R.D. Barnett
(1909–86),” in: JHSET, 29 (1982–86), xv–xvii; “Richard David
Barnett,” in: ODNB online.
[Penuel P. Kahane]
BARNETT, SIR LOUIS EDWARD (1865–1946), New Zealand
surgeon and professor. Barnett was born in Wellington,
New Zealand, and in 1895 received a permanent lectureship in
surgery at Otago University, where from 1905 to 1924 he was
professor. He served with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the
Royal Australian and New Zealand Medical Corps (1915–17)
and was knighted for his overseas war service. Barnett was
one of the founders of the Radium Insitute in Dunedin and
a pioneer in X-ray and radium research at Otago University.
Most of his work was in the fields of cancer and hydatids research,
and as a result of his efforts the incidence of hydatids
in New Zealand was considerably reduced.
[Maurice S. Pitt]
BARNETT, ZERAH (1843–1935), pioneer of the modern
Ereẓ Israel settlement and one of the founders of Petaḥ Tikvah.
Barnett, who was born in Tytuvênai, Lithuania, settled
in London in 1864 as a fur manufacturer and trader. There he
organized communal life for the East European immigrants
who remained outside the Anglo-Jewish community. After
acquiring British nationality in 1871, he went to Ereẓ Israel
for the first time and helped establish the Me’ah She’arim
quarter outside the walls of Old Jerusalem. Having spent all
his savings, Barnett returned to London to earn money and
then went back to Ereẓ Israel – a process which he repeated
15 times. Wherever he went, he advocated Jewish settlement
in Ereẓ Israel. In 1878 Barnett joined the group that established
Petaḥ Tikvah. As London Ḥovevei Zion delegate to the
*Katowice Conference (1884), he described the experiences
and hardships of the new settlers from first-hand knowledge.
Early in the 1890s Barnett settled in Jaffa, where, in order to
improve living conditions, he built the Neveh Shalom quarter,
and moved there with his family. He helped build the Sha’arei
Torah school, introducing Hebrew as the language of instruction.
He also founded the Or Zore’aḥ Yeshivah in Jaffa. Barnett
published his memoirs, Zikhronot, in 1929. He died in Jaffa and
was buried in Jerusalem.
Bibliography: H. Trager, Pioneers in Palestine (1923); A.
Yaari, Goodly Heritage (1958), 80, 89–93; Y. Churgin (ed.), Sifriyyat
Rishonim, 1 no. 9 (1943); G. Kressel, Em ha-Moshavot Petaḥ Tikvah
(1953), 56f.
[Getzel Kressel / Yehuda Slutsky]
BARNOWSKY, VIKTOR (1875–1952), German actor and
theater director. Born in Berlin, Barnowsky became director of
the Kleines Theater in 1905. From 1913 to 1924 he managed the
Lessingtheater, and from 1925 to 1930 the Theater in der Koeniggraetzerstrasse
and the Komoedienhaus, becoming one of
the most important figures in the privately owned German theaters.
He left Germany when Hitler came to power and went to
the U.S., where he wrote film scripts and taught theater history
at Fordham University and Hunter College, New York City.
BARNSTON, HENRY (1868–1949), U.S. Reform rabbi and
scholar. Barnston was born Henry Barnstein in Dover, England,
and ordained at Jews College, London. He attended University
College in London and earned his Ph.D. in ancient
Semitic languages at the University of Heidelberg, where he
published The Targum of Onkelos, According to the Yemenite
Manuscripts and collaborated on Aramaic and Chaldean dictionaries.
In 1900, seeking an atmosphere more conducive to
the practice of liberal Judaism, he immigrated to the United
States to serve as the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in
Houston, Texas. Beth Israel, the oldest and wealthiest synagogue
in the city, had suffered a split when more traditional
members left in protest against the congregation’s move to
Reform. Barnston, who changed his name after World War I
in order to sound less German, took maximum advantage of
his congregants’ financial resources to build a temple widely
considered to be the finest in the Southwest. At the same time,
under Barnston’s leadership, the congregation’s membership
increased tenfold to become the city’s largest synagogue.
Barnston’s influence extended far beyond his congregation:
he founded the Jewish Welfare Service, served as president
of the local B’nai B’rith, and lectured on behalf of the Jewish
Chautauqua Society and the Houston Conference of Christians
and Jews. Statewide, he co-founded the Texas Kallah of
Rabbis (comprising Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform
members) and was elected president of the Texas Association
of Rabbis. Over the course of his half-century in Houston –
he became rabbi emeritus in 1943 and held that position until
his death – Barnston emerged as a civic leader as well: he
founded the Community Chest and is credited with forming
the Houston Symphony Society and nurturing it into the renowned
Houston Symphony Orchestra. He was also active in
Houston’s Ministerial Alliance and Rotary Club. While Barnston
would not take any public stand on civil rights, he did
join together with the First Methodist Church in an unprecedented
gesture of ecumenical defiance of the Ku Klux Klan.
Although he was a member and supporter of the anti-Zionist
American Council for Judaism, he resisted his congregation’s
pressure for him to become a more outspoken activist in the
organization. By the time Barnston was promoted to rabbi
emeritus, he was the dean of Houston clergymen.
Bibliography: D. Lefkowitz, Central Conference of American
Rabbis 61st Convention Publication (1950); H.A. Weiner, The Jewish
Stars of Texas: Rabbis and Their Work (1999).
[Bezalel Gordon (2nd ed.)]
170 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3