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avli, hillel
BAVLI (Rashgolski), HILLEL (1893–1961), Hebrew poet and
educator. Bavli, who was born in Pilvishki, Lithuania, attended
yeshivot in Kovno and Vilna. In 1912 he immigrated to the
United States and studied at Canisius College and Columbia
University. From 1918 he taught modern Hebrew literature at
the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, after 1937 with
the rank of professor. Bavli’s first poems appeared in a children’s
periodical, Ha-Peraḥim, in 1908. His first book of poetry,
Neginot Areẓ (“Melodies of the Land”), was published in
1929. Subsequent collections of his poetry, Shirim (“Poems,”
1938), Shirim le-Raḥelah (“Poems for Raḥelah,” 1950), and Adderet
ha-Shanim (“The Mantle of Years,” 1955), also appeared
in Israel. Conservative in style and structure, Bavli covers a
broad range of themes in his work: personal love; love of his
people; love of Ereẓ Israel. He was one of the first Hebrew
poets to deal with the American milieu. “Mrs. Woods” is an
idyll about an American woman of simple tastes and honest
demeanor. Bavli’s critical essays Ruḥot Nifgashot (“Winds
Meet,” 1958) deal mainly with Hebrew and American writers.
Bavli translated Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1924) and Shakespeare’s
Antony and Cleopatra into Hebrew (1952). He also translated
works by the black writers James D. Corrothers, W. Burghardt
du Bois, and Claude McKay into Hebrew. He edited a miscellany,
Nimim (1923); a yearbook, Massad (2 vols, 1933–36); the
Ẓevi Scharfstein Jubilee Volume (1955); and several modern
Hebrew classics for school use. He published a number of articles
in English on modern Hebrew literature, including “The
Growth of Modern Hebrew Literature” (1939) and “Some Aspects
of Modern Hebrew Literature” (1958).
Bibliography: A. Epstein, Soferim Ivrim be-Amerika, 1
(1952), 104–24; E.R. Malachi, Zekher le-Hillel (1962); J. Kabakoff, in:
JBA, 20 (1962/63), 76–83; Waxman, Literature, 5 (19602), 190–2.
[Eliezer Schweid]
BAVLI, MENAHEM BEN MOSES (fl. 16th century), rabbi
and kabbalist of the Safed school. There is little information
about his descent. The title “Bavli” (Babylonian) probably
stands for “Roman,” and it is possible that he came from Italy.
In 1522 and in 1525 he signed himself as dayyan in Trikkala,
Greece. Later he immigrated to Ereẓ Israel and in 1531 he was
in Safed together with his father and brother Reuben (responsa
R. Moses b. Joseph di Trani, 1 (1641), no. 43). They made their
living in the wool-dyeing trade. Menahem was considered one
of the great scholars of the town. One of his responsa was published
in the responsa collection Maran le-Even ha-Ezer (no.
14) and in it he quotes a ruling of R. Jacob *Berab, whom he
calls “our teacher the Great Rabbi,” which suggests that Bavli
may have been a student at Berab’s yeshivah in Safed. After
1553 he traveled to Egypt. From Safed Bavli went to Hebron
probably in connection with the expansion of the Jewish settlement
there, in which the scholars of Safed took part. In the
introduction to his Peri Ḥevron (Ta’amei ha-Mitzvot) (Lublin,
1571), he wrote that he dedicated the income of this book to
“Hebron, as a contribution for its reconstruction.”
Bibliography: Benayahu, in: KS, 29 (1954), 173f.; A.N.Z.
Roth, ibid., 31 (1956), 399; Benayahu, ibid., 399–400; Dmitrovsky, in:
Sefunot, 7 (1963), 67.
°BAYAZID II (c. 1447–1512), sultan of the Ottoman Empire
(1481–1512), son and successor of Sultan Mehmet II, conqueror
of Constantinople. Following the expulsion from Spain, great
numbers of Jews streamed into the Ottoman Empire and settled
in various towns of the Balkans and Anatolia. According
to R. Elijah *Capsali, Sultan Bayazid issued an order to
the governors of the provinces not to refuse those Jews entry
or cause them difficulties but to receive them cordially and
provide them with the help they needed to settle themselves.
Nevertheless, according to the same source, Bayazid was a devout
Muslim and was responsible for certain cases of forced
conversion of Jews to Islam. He was also the only sultan to
enforce the prohibition against building new synagogues. Immanuel
*Aboab attributes to Bayazid the famous remark that
the Catholic monarchs (Ferdinand and Isabella) were considered
wise, but wrongly so, since they impoverished Spain
(by the expulsion of the Jews) and enriched the Ottoman Empire.
During the reign of Bayazid the position of rabbi in the
capital was held by R. Moses *Capsali, who was succeeded by
R. Elijah *Mizraḥi. Joseph *Hamon was the sultan’s physician
and influential at court. European sources accuse Hamon of
complicity in the sudden death of Bayazid after his forced abdication
in favor of his son Selim I.
Bibliography: M. Franco, Essai sur l’histoire des Israélites
de l’Empire Ottoman … (1897) 35–40; J.R. Hacker, “Ha-Rabbanut ha-
Rashit ba-Imperiah ha-Ottomanit ba-Me’ah ha-15 ve-ha-16,” in: Zion,
49, 3 (1984), 225–63; A. Shmuelevitz, “Capsali as a Source for Ottoman
History 1450–1523,” in: IJMES, 9 (1978) 339–44.
[Aryeh Shmuelevitz (2nd ed.)]
BAYEFSKY, ABA (1923–2001), Canadian artist and teacher.
Bayefsky was born in Toronto, where he was first encouraged
to paint by Canadian Group of Seven artist Arthur Lismer. In
1942 Bayefsky joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and became
an official war artist in 1944. In May 1945 he was among
the first to enter the newly liberated *Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp. “For the first time,” wrote Bayefsky,” I had become
aware of man’s monstrous capacity for evil. It was the
determining factor in everything I have done since.” His camp
images are part of the art collection of the Canadian War Museum.
After the war Bayefsky returned to Europe to study at
the Académie Julian in Paris and continued to paint and draw
images based on the lives of Jewish displaced persons.
Back in Toronto, Bayefsky’s drawings, paintings, watercolors,
murals, and publications celebrated people and their
everyday lives. Well traveled, he created works reflecting the
diversity of human experience from the marketplaces of India
to the traditional tattoo artists of Japan. Yet it was his Jewish
heritage, his anger at what he witnessed during the Holocaust
and at the resurgence of antisemitism during his later years
that engendered Bayefsky’s most vibrant work. “Tales from
230 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3