JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Bat-Dor
In 1967, Rothschild established the Bat-Dor Dance Company
for Jeannette Ordman, a classical ballet dancer from South Africa
who captured the heart of the Baroness. Ordman was the
artistic director, principal dancer, and headmaster of its dance
school. From the beginning, Bat-Dor’s style was a combination
of modern dance with a strong emphasis on the technique of
classical ballet. The Baroness gave her generous financial support
to Bat-Dor, making it possible for the ensemble to purchase
works of important artists all over the world.
Among the Israeli choreographers who worked with
the ensemble were Domi Reiter-Sofer, Mirale Sharon, Gene
Hill-Sagan, Yehuda Maor, Igal Perry, and, in the past decade,
Tamir Gintz. The importance of Bat-Dor lies, essentially, in
its school of dance in Tel Aviv and the branch in Beersheba,
which have produced generations of young dancers who have
permeated the dance companies in Israel. Rothschild’s death
(1999) brought an end to the stream of cash flowing into the
company, and its ongoing work was soon in crisis. Requests for
government subsidies were made subject to reorganization of
the ensemble’s management practices and, today, it only operates
the school, which receives government support.
[Ruth Eshel (2nd ed.)]
BATTAT, REUBEN (1882–1962), Iraqi jurist. Battat studied
law in Baghdad and in Constantinople and served as judge
in various courts of Iraq. In 1923 as judge in Basra, he handed
down a decision in favor of transferring the property of the
Jewish philanthropist Gourji Shemtov to the Keren Hayesod.
That decision was used against him in 1949, when he was tried
by a military tribunal on charges of being a Zionist and sentenced
to three years imprisonment. He was, however, released
after four months. From 1924 Battat represented the Jews of
Iraq for several terms in parliament; he was also one of the
supporters of the Zionist organization in Baghdad. Before 1936
he published an important work about the constitution of the
kingdom of Iraq (in Arabic). He died in Switzerland.
Bibliography: Hed ha-Mizraḥ (Oct. 5, 1945).
[Haim J. Cohen]
BATTLE OF CABLE STREET, name popularly given to a
major altercation in the East End of London, England, when
Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, attempted
to march with his supporters through this heavily
Jewish area of London. On October 4, 1936, Mosley attempted
to lead a march of 3,000 black-shirted British Fascists from the
City of London through Whitechapel, where about 100,000
Jews lived. At Cable Street, at the edge of the East End, Mosley’s
men were forcibly prevented from advancing further by a
large throng of left-wing protesters, comprised of local Jewish
and Irish inhabitants as well as “cockney” dockers and other
workers, organized in part by the British Communist Party,
and they were forced to turn back. The term “Battle” is something
of a misnomer, since the only violence occurred between
bat yam
anti-Mosley protesters and the police, on whom the anti-Fascists
turned, and not between the Fascists and anti-Fascists.
Nevertheless, the “Battle of Cable Street” has become legendary
as one of the few times during the 1930s when the left and
far right apparently clashed, and the far right was defeated.
Since most of the anti-Mosley protesters were probably gentiles,
“Cable Street” was also seen by many as a prime example
of what a “popular front” could achieve to stop the seemingly
irresistible spread of Fascism in Europe. It also probably enhanced
the prestige of the British Communist Party, which
attracted a significant level of support in the Jewish East End
during the latter 1930s (but probably not earlier). Presumably
in retaliation, the following week many windows of Jewish
shops in Whitechapel were smashed by vandals.
Bibliography: T. Kushner and N. Valman (eds.), Remembering
Cable Street: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Society (2000); R.
Skidelsky, Oswald Mosley (1990 ed.); J. Jacobs, Out of the Ghetto: My
Youth in the East End – Communism and Fascism (1978); W. D Rubinstein,
Jews in the English-Speaking World: Great Britain, 244, 315–16.
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
BATUMI (until 1936 Batum), port on the eastern shore of the
Black Sea; capital of the Autonomous Adzhar Republic, within
*Georgia. A Jewish community was established there in 1878
after the town was incorporated into Russia. In 1889 many of
the Jews living there without official authorization (see *Pale
of Settlement) were expelled. According to official statistics
there remained 31 Jewish families, and according to unofficial
sources about 100 Jewish families. The number, however,
again increased rapidly. By 1897 there were 1,179 Jews living
in Batum. One of the oil refineries was owned jointly by the
Rothschild family and Jewish investors in Russia. The Jewish
population numbered 3,700 in 1923 (6.1% of the total population)
and 1,778 in 1939 (2,54% of the total population). Subsequent
data are unascertainable.
[Abraham J. Brawer / Abba Ahimeir]
BAT YAM (Heb. םָי תַ ּב; “Daughter of the Sea”), city in central
Israel, on the seashore south of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, founded in 1926
by 24 religious families who called themselves and the quarter
they established “Bayit va-Gan” (“House and Garden”). In the
1929 Arab riots, this isolated group found refuge in Tel Aviv,
returning to their homes in 1931. From 1933 the population
increased as immigrants from Germany built their homes
there. In 1937 the quarter received the status of a local council
and changed its name to Bat Yam. In the War of Independence
(1948), the town, then numbering approximately 1,000
inhabitants, had to defend itself against strong Arab attacks.
With the mass immigration following the founding of Israel,
the population grew rapidly. Receiving city status in 1958, it
formed part of the Tel Aviv conurbation, bordering on the city
of Tel Aviv-Jaffa in the north, Holon in the east, and Rishon
le-Zion in the south. Manufacturing and recreation facilities
were the mainstays of its economy. The food industry (light
beverages, beer, ice cream) was a leading employer and the
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 215