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aumgarten, sándor
darim (1895), the memoirs of Abraham Broda Leipniker on
the expulsion of the Jews from Usov (Maehrisch-Aussee) in
1722; Yeshu’at Yisrael (1898), the memoirs of Benjamin Israel
Fraenkel from the 18th century; and Maria Theresia’s Ernennungsdekret
für den Maehrischen Landesrabbiner Gerson
Chajes (1899).
Bibliography: A. Frankl-Gruen, Geschichte der Juden in
Kremsier, vol. II (1898), 153–56; Unserem theuern Vater, Emanuel
Baumgarten. Zur Erinnerung an seinen 70. Geburtstag, 15. Jänner 1898
(1899); Neue Freie Presse (Jan. 1898 and 1908); Allgemeine Zeitung
des Judentums (May 29, 1908), Der Gemeindebote, Supplement, 3–4;
J.S. Bloch, Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben, vol. I (1922), 207–211; R.
Heuer (ed.), Archiv Bibliographia Judaica, vol. I (1992), 419–420; H.
Schmuck (ed.), Jewish Biographical Archive (1995), F. 122, 209–28; Series
II (2003), F. II/45, 348–51; S. Blumesberger et al. (eds.), Handbuch
oesterreichischer Autorinnen und Autoren juedischer Herkunft, vol. I,
no. 613 (2002), 80.
[Johannes Valentin Schwarz (2nd ed.)]
BAUMGARTEN, SÁNDOR (1864–1928), Hungarian architect.
Baumgarten, together with Ö. Lechner, designed the
building of the Postal Bank in Budapest (1900). Using Hungarian
folkloristic motifs he built the Institute for the Blind
and the Erzébet high school for girls.
[Eva Kondor]
°BAUMGARTNER, WALTER (1887–1970), Swiss Bible
scholar and Orientalist. Baumgartner studied classical and
Oriental philology and theology, and taught at the University
of Marburg from 1916 (professor, 1928). From 1947, he was
professor of Semitic languages at Basle. Baumgartner’s position
among biblical scholars and Orientalists is assured by the
results of his work in the field of Bible and Semitic philology.
His important studies on the Aramaic sections of the Bible include
Das Buch Daniel (1926) and the Aramaic sections of L.
Koehler and W. Baumgartner’s Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti
Libros (1953, 1958, 1967 ff.). In his doctoral dissertation, Die
Klagegedichte des Jeremia… (1916), he employed critical methodology
to prove that the monologues of Jeremiah were not
later additions but may be attributed to the prophet himself. In
his monographs Alttestamentliche Religion (1928) and Israelitische
und altorientalischeWeisheit (1933) he helped pioneer the
study of ancient Near Eastern religion and wisdom literature.
His book Zum Alten Testament und seiner Umwelt, a collection
of previously published essays on the Bible and Oriental
studies, was published in 1959 in honor of Baumgartner’s 70th
birthday (includes complete bibliography, pp. 1–26) and the
jubilee volume Hebraeische Wortforschung was presented to
him on his 80th birthday.
Bibliography: Y. Kutscher, in: Haaretz (March 13, 1970).
[Zev Garber]
BAUMHORN, LIPÓT (1860–1932), Hungarian architect
who built 25 synagogues in Austria-Hungary. Born in Kisbér,
Baumhorn was educated at the Technische Hochschule
in Vienna and started practicing in Ödön Lechner’s office in
Budapest, where he adopted the characteristic combination
of plain plastered surfaces and red or yellow brick wavy decoration
(string-courses, lysens, gables). Nevertheless, Baumhorn’s
style was slightly more conventional, using Moorish,
Renaissance, or Gothic elements instead of the Hungarian
national style.
His first building was the Neo-Moorish synagogue in
Esztergom (1888), followed by synagogues at Rijeka (1895),
Szolnok (1898), and Szeged (1903). The last is the most grandiose,
expressing the aspirations of assimilated Hungarian
Jewry with elaborated details and very rich ornamentation. It
shows Baumhorn’s typical nearly central floor plan with eastern
bimah, emphasized central dome, and four subordinated
corner-turrets containing the staircases for ezrat nashim.
Artistically the most noted synagogues are in Novi Sad
(1906) and Budapest-Aréna-Út (1909) where affluent decoration
disappears and the clarity of Proto-Modern architecture
took over.
Bibliography: J. Gerle, K. Attila, M. Imre, A századforduló
epiteszete Magyarországon (1991), 33–35; A. Gazfa et al., Magyarországi
zsinagógák (1989); R. Klein, chapter on synagogue architecture in
Central and Eastern Europe, in G.S. Rajna, Z.A. Maisels, R. Klein,
R. Reich, D. Jarasse, L’art Juif (1995).
[Rudolf Klein (2nd ed.)]
BAUMOL, JOSHUA (1880–1948), rabbi. Son of Nahum, the
communal rabbi of Krachinka, who was his primary teacher,
Baumol received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Samuel
Engel of Radomysl and Rabbi Benjamin Weiss of Chernovtsy,
author of the Even Yikarah. Baumol taught Talmud in Vishnitz
in the Bet Israel yeshivah from 1908 to 1911. He fled to Bohemia
during World War I and became a pulpit rabbi in Brno
at Congregation Maḥzekei ha-Dor.
Baumol arrived in the United States in 1920 and became
the pulpit rabbi at Kehillath Adath Jeshurun in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, N.Y. As a member of the Agudat ha-Rabbonim, he
became vice president of its Kashruth Committee. He was best
known for handling issues confronting American Orthodox
Jewry with tact and diplomacy. He was one of the founders
and the first president of the *Agudat Israel of America, an
umbrella group for Orthodox organizations and an advocacy
organization. He was deeply involved in policymaking and
administration of the Agudah and remained involved with
the group until his death.
Baumol’s peers respected him as a halakhic authority
and often asked him for his opinions on contemporary matters.
Among many things, he was asked about post-mortems,
lie detector tests, and questions concerning survivors of the
Holocaust. His two-volume set of responsa, Emek Halakhah,
was published in 1934. In 1976, a revised edition, with addenda,
was issued.
Bibliography: B.-Z. Eisenstadt, Dorot ha-Aḥaronim (1937),
22; S. Elberg, Sefer ha-Yovel ha-Pardes (1951), 467–68; A. Rand (ed.),
Toeldot Anshei Shem (1950), 8; M. Sherman, Orthodox Judaism in
222 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3