JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

tragedy of the narration with the ongoing suffering of Jewry.
Beer-Hoffmann’s work reveals the special message Judaism
seems to offer the world when Nietzschean philosophy considers
it lost to man.
If Beer-Hofmann’s early works can be interpreted as seeing
the rebirth of modernity out of the spirit of Judaism, his
subsequent work may be viewed as seeing the rebirth of Judaism
out of the spirit of modernity. Impressed and inspired by
the Neo-Wagnerian theater concept of Max *Reinhardt, who
had already staged Der Graf von Charolais, Beer-Hofmann
tried to open to Jewry a space from which religious imperatives
had banned it: the theater. In pursuit of a “Jewish national
drama,” he continued work on his biblical cycle, Die Historie
von Koenig David, for decades. The prologue Jaákobs Traum,
premiering in 1918, focuses on Israel’s election by blending Jacob’s
dream of the ladder and his wrestling with the angel. In
contrast to the pagan rituals of sacrifice in which contemporary
dramatic theory identified the roots of tragedy, the play
makes the sacrifice of Isaac the primal scene of Jewish theater.
The transition play Ruth und Boas remained a fragment.
The third part of a planned pentalogy, Der junge David, was
completed in 1933 but never staged. The drama shows David
in conflict between his destiny as king and his wish to leave
royal dignity to God. Again, the action is linked to the sacrifice
of Isaac. Jewish theater, in Beer-Hoffmann’s conception, is
legitimate only if it eschews idols and has no symbols or icons
at its disposal, just as Abraham stood at Mount Moriah with
nothing to sacrifice but his own offspring. Further theoretical
reflection is provided by the prelude to a nonexistent fourth
part, the Vorspiel auf dem Theater zu Koenig David (1936),
where the stage is likened to an altar on which theater itself
must be sacrificed to avoid idolatry. The only one of Beer-Hofmanns
dramatical works to achieve sustained international attention
was Jaákobs Traum, which was staged in Palestine as
early as the early 1920s.
Beer-Hofmann emigrated from Austria to New York in
1939. Verse (1941) includes all the poems that he wished preserved.
A posthumous fragment in tribute to his wife, Paula
(1949), captures the autumnal mood of Austria as it influenced
his own life and shaped his personality.
Bibliography: S. Liptzin, Richard Beer-Hofmann (1936); E.
Kahler, Verantwortung des Geistes (1952), 131–42. Add. Bibliography:
R. Hank, Mortifikation und Beschwoerung. Zur Veraenderung
ästhetischer Wahrnehmung in der Moderne am Beispiel Richard Beer-
Hofmanns (1984); S. Scherer, Richard Beer-Hofmann und die Wiener
Moderne (1993); M. Bunzl, “The Poetics of Politics and Politics of
Poetics: Richard Beer-Hofmann and Theodor Herzl Reconsidered,”
in: The German Quarterly 69 (1996), 277–304, P. Theisohn, Die Urbarkeit
der Zeichen. Zionismus und Literatur – eine andere Poetik der
Moderne (2005), 129–80.
[Sol Liptzin / Philipp Theisohn (2nd ed.)]
BE’ERI (Heb. ירֵ ִאְ
ּב), kibbutz in S. Israel, in the N.W. Negev,
affiliated with Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me’uḥad. It was one of 11 settlements
in the Negev and the south founded during the night of
Beerman, Leonard
October 6, 1946. The founding settlers, members of Ha-No’ar
ha-Oved (Israel Working Youth Movement), were joined by
other settlers, mainly from Iraq. In the mid-1990s the population
was approximately 850, dropping to 753 in 2002. The
economy was based mainly on its printing press. The kibbutz
cultivated around 3,000 acres of farmland, which included
field crops and orchards, and raised dairy cattle and
ostriches. The name commemorates the labor leader Berl
(Be’eri) *Katznelson.
[Efraim Orni]
Website: www.beeri.org.il.
BEERI, TUVIA (1929– ), Israeli painter and printmaker.
Beeri was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to Israel
in 1948. In 1957 he entered the “Oranim” art school, where he
studied with Marcel *Janco and Jacob Wechsler, continuing
his studies in Paris. From 1961 to 1963 he studied the technique
of etching under Johnny *Friedlaender and attended
the studio of lithography at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
Returning to Israel, he taught at the Bezalel School of Arts
and Crafts. From 1957 he taught printmaking at the Avni Institute
of Art, Tel Aviv.
Beeri was one of Israel’s leading graphic artists. He used
etching-needle and drypoint, but was particularly in favor of
aquatint print technique, which, by the creation of color and
the variation of planes, makes it possible to introduce painting
quality into graphic work.
Beeri’s world is a dream world of color and form. His
paintings remind one of mysterious landscapes of the Pyramids
and of ancient times. Luminosity is achieved by printing
bright colors one above the other, thus achieving transparency,
depth, and plasticity of forms.
Beeri held many one-man shows and participated in
group exhibitions in the United States, Canada, South America,
Australia, Europe, and Israel. He also took part in some
important Biennales of the graphic arts – in Paris, Florence,
and Tokyo. His work is represented in the Museum of Modern
Art, New York, the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and in
many museums both in Israel and abroad.
Bibliography: G. Talpir, in: Gazit, 23, nos. 3–4 (1965), 17;
M. Tal, in: Ariel, 15 (Summer, 1966), 72–79.
[Judith Spitzer]
BEERMAN, LEONARD (1921– ), U.S. Reform rabbi. Beerman
was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, served in the U.S.
Marine Corps during World War II, and entered Hebrew
Union College in 1943. He interrupted his seminary education
to volunteer for the *Haganah in 1947–48, returning to
receive his rabbinic ordination in 1949. Beerman became the
founding rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles that year
and remained there until his retirement in 1986. His career was
marked by social activism on behalf of civil and human rights,
as well as world peace. He was on the faculty of Claremont
Men’s College and Immaculate Heart College and served as
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