JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ehrend, jacob friedrich
in order to seek an education, wandered to Koenigsberg and
reached Berlin in 1764. There he learned German, Latin, and
French, and studied mathematics, philosophy, and medicine.
Daniel *Itzig became his patron and introduced him to the
Berlin intellectuals. He soon wrote excellent German verse
and in 1772 published his Gedichte von einem polnischen Juden,
a pioneer achievement for an East European Jew. Goethe
reviewed this strange collection of lyrics in the Frankfurter
Gelehrten-Anzeiger. In 1773, Behr completed his medical
studies at the University of Halle and devoted himself to
medical practice in Courland; thereafter, he wrote no more
poetry.
Bibliography: M. Kayserling, Der Dichter Ephraim Kuh
(1864), 43–47.
[Sol Liptzin]
BEHREND, JACOB FRIEDRICH (1833–1907), German
jurist. Behrend became a law clerk in 1859, in 1864 he was
appointed lecturer at the University of Berlin, and in 1870,
associate professor of jurisprudence. From 1873 to 1887 he
was professor of law at the University of Greifswald, and in
1887 became a member of the Supreme Court, one of the few
Jews to achieve this distinction. He was an acknowledged expert
on German and Roman law and specialized in the early
sources of law. Behrend published many important works on
jurisprudence which were highly regarded by scholars. His
first published work was the Magdeburger Fragen (“Magdeburg
Problems,” 1863) which dealt with the jury system. Later
Behrend edited numerous works on jurisprudence, including
Zeitschrift fuer die deutsche Gesetzgebung und fuer einheitliches
deutsches Recht (“Journal for German Legislation
and for a Unitary German Law,” 1880). His major work, Lehrbuch
des Handelsrechts (“Textbook of Commercial Law”),
was regarded as the first comprehensive work on this subject.
Although he managed to complete only the first volume (in
two parts, 1886–96), this was for many years an invaluable
source of research.
Bibliography: Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung 12 (1907), 170.
[B. Mordechai Ansbacher]
BEHRENDS (Behrens), LEFFMANN (1634–1714), Hanover
Court Jew. Behrends, who began as a small merchant supplying
luxuries to the court, gradually established himself as
moneylender, diplomatic mediator, and coin minter. His position
was strengthened under Duke Ernest Augustus (1679–98),
for whom he procured the title of elector, and under George,
elector of Hanover (1698–1727), the future George I of England.
He established business and marital connections with the
*Oppenheimers and *Wertheimers of Vienna and stationed
his agents, usually his relatives, in the main German cities.
An ardent talmudist, and father-in-law of David b. Abraham
*Oppenheim, he supported talmudic studies. For many years
he was head (Vorsteher) of the community of Hanover-Neustadt,
the majority of whose members were connected with
his household. In 1673 he acquired the right to open a cem-
etery, and in 1703 built a synagogue and presented it to the
community. In 1687 at his request the duke agreed to permit
the Jews of Hanover to appoint a Landesrabbiner. In 1700 he
obtained the support of the elector in suppressing the writings
of Johann *Eisenmenger. Behrends attempted to murder
a relative of his who became an apostate, but he was able to
use his influence to evade being brought to trial. His sons and
grandsons, also Court Jews, carried on the family firm; their
bankruptcy in 1721 shook the European financial world and
took more than a century to settle legally. The trial revealed
that Behrends had left his estate in a sorry condition. His descendants
settled in Copenhagen.
Bibliography: S. Stern, The Court Jew (1950), index; H.
Schnee, Die Hoffinanz und der moderne Staat, 2 (1954), 13–67; 5
(1965), 54–81.
BEHRMAN, MARTIN (1864–1926), U.S. public official. Behrman
was born in New York City and taken to New Orleans
in 1865 by his parents, who died when he was 12. At 19 he became
a traveling salesman for a large grocery concern. Turning
to politics, Behrman was elected president of the State Board
of Assessors, a member of the New Orleans Board of Education
(1892–1906), state auditor (1904–05), and mayor of New
Orleans in 1904, serving four terms until his defeat in 1920.
Behrman was director of the American Bank and Trust Company.
He was a leading state Democrat and was chairman of
the Louisiana delegation to the national Democratic convention
in 1908. Behrman was active in civic and Jewish affairs.
He was a member of the Louisiana Constitutional Conventions
of 1898 and 1921, and president of the League of American
Municipalities (1917–18).
[Edward L. Greenstein]
BEHRMAN, SAMUEL NATHANIEL (1893–1973), U.S.
playwright. Behrman was born in Worcester, Mass. His parents
had emigrated from Lithuania, and his father often devoted
himself to Hebrew Scripture. Behrman graduated from
Harvard, where he joined G.P. Baker’s Drama Workshop,
and from Columbia University. It took him 11 years to sell his
first play, The Second Man (1927). It was a great success and
marked the beginning of a prolific and brilliant career. Intellect,
technique, wit, and charm apparent in this early work
marked his later writings. His plays, including End of Summer
(1936), No Time for Comedy (1939), and Jacobowsky and the
Colonel (in collaboration with Franz *Werfel; 1943), are distinguished
by warmth and respect for human values. Behrman
was far ahead of his fellow playwrights in showing awareness
of totalitarian evils, as in Rain from Heaven (1935) and Wine
of Choice (1938). Behrman turned to biography with Duveen
(1952), the career of the famous British art dealer. This was
followed by the autobiographical Worcester Account (1954), a
charming description of an American Jewish boyhood with
an immigrant background. In Portrait of Max (1960), he recorded
his conversations with Sir Max Beerbohm. Behrman
returned to the theater in 1958 with a dramatization of his
264 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3