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eim, solomon ben abraham
The case attracted universal attention. Protests and addresses
by scientists, public and political leaders, artists, men
of letters, clergymen, and other liberal-minded men were
published in all the civilized countries of Europe and the
United States affirming that the blood libel was baseless. The
trial of Beilis took place in Kiev from September 25 through
October 28, 1913. The chief prosecutor A.I. Vipper made anti-
Jewish statements in his closing address and defended the
Cheberiak gang against the charge of Yushchinsky’s murder.
Beilis was represented by the most able counsels of the Moscow,
St. Petersburg, and Kiev bars: Vassily Maklakov, Oscar
O. Grusenberg, N.P. Karabchevsky, A.S. Zarundy, and D.N.
Grigorovitch-Barsky. The lamplighter and his wife, on whose
testimony the indictment of Beilis rested, when questioned
by the presiding judge, answered, “We know nothing at all.”
They confessed that both had been confused by the secret
police and made to answer questions they did not comprehend.
“Scientific” foundation for the blood libel was supplied
at the trial by a Catholic priest with a criminal record, Justin
Pranaitis, who stated that the murder of Yushchinsky had all
the characteristics of ritual murder enjoined by the Jewish religion.
His arguments were refuted by the rabbi of Moscow,
Jacob *Mazeh, who proved that Pranaitis was ignorant of the
talmudic texts cited. Two Russian professors of high standing,
Troitsky and Kokovtzoff, also spoke on behalf of the defense
in praise of Jewish values and exposed the falsity of the
ritual murder hypothesis. The jury, composed of simple Russian
peasants, after several hours of deliberation unanimously
declared Beilis “not guilty.”
Beilis, who still remained in danger of revenge by the
“Black Hundred,” left Russia with his family for Ereẓ Israel.
In 1920, he settled in the United States. Bernard *Malamud’s
novel The Fixer is based on the Beilis case.
Bibliography: M. Samuel, Blood Accusation: the Strange
History of the Beiliss Case (1966); M. Beilis, Story of My Sufferings
(1926); AJYB, 16 (1914/15), 19–89; A.D. Margolin, in: Jews of Eastern
Europe (1926), 155–247; A.B. Tager, The Decay of Czarism: The Beiliss
Trial (1935); M. Cotic, Mishpat Beilis (1978); Z. Szajkowski, in: PAAJR,
31 (1963), 197–218.
[Chasia Turtel]
BEIM, SOLOMON BEN ABRAHAM (1817?–1867), Karaite
scholar and important public figure, a disciple of the Karaite
scholar Mordecai *Sultansky. He also acquired a secular education
and knew Russia, French, and German. In 1839 he accompanied
Abraham *Firkovich in his voyages around the
Crimea and Caucasus to help him search for antiquities. In
the mid-1840s he conducted archaeological excavations in the
Crimea and became a member of the Imperial Geographical
Society. Beim first officiated as ḥazzan in Chufut-Kale, where
he founded a Karaite school with tendencies of enlightenment.
In addition to Bible and Hebrew, he also taught Russian
and secular subjects. Beim was on friendly terms and
corresponded with intellectuals of the Jewish Haskalah and
Reform Movement. He attempted to ease the severe Kara-
ite laws, but he met with strong opposition. In 1855, after the
death of Simḥah *Babovich he was appointed as ḥazzan of the
Crimea and Odessa. After the death of his father, the ḥazzan
of the Odessa Karaite community, he moved to Odessa and
continued his father’s good relations with the Rabbanites. He
died in the course of his visit to St.-Petersburg, where he came
to deliver to Czar Alexander II samples of typical Karaite garments,
on the Czar’s request. He wrote Pamiat’ o Chufut-Qaleh
and several other treatises in Russian on the Karaites which,
however, have limited value, being based solely on the findings
of Firkovich.
Bibliography: O.B. Beliy, in: MAIET 10 (2003), 639–66; R.
Fahn, Sefer ha-Keraim (1929), 100–2; A. Gottlober, in: Ha-Maggid, 8,
nos. 20–21 (1864); S. Pigit, Iggeret Nidḥei Shemuel (1894), 2f.
[Golda Akhiezer (2nd ed.)]
BEIMEL, JACOB (c. 1875–1944), ḥazzan. Beimel was born
in Parichi, Belorussia, where his father was also a cantor; as
a child, he sang in Bobruisk and Berdichev. He studied music
in Odessa and Berlin, became cantor in Berlin, where he
conducted the Mendelssohn Choir, and later served in Copenhagen.
In 1915, he went to the U.S. and conducted choral
concerts. He held posts in New York and later in Philadelphia.
His works and adaptations of synagogue music, his folk
songs and ḥasidic melodies, were published in the quarterly
Jewish Music Journal (Eng. and Yid., 1934–35), which he edited
in the U.S.
BEIN, ALEXANDER (1903–1988), archivist and historian of
Zionism. Bein was born at Steinach and studied at Erlangen
and Berlin. From 1927 to 1933 he served on the staff of the German
State Archives. In 1933 he settled in Palestine where he
became assistant director of the General Zionist Archives in
1936. In 1955 he was appointed director, and in addition from
1956 was state archivist of Israel. Apart from studies in general
history, Die Staatsidee Alexander Hamiltons in ihrer Entstehung
und Entwicklung (1927), Bein devoted his efforts to the history
of Zionism and modern antisemitism. Among his works are
Toledot ha-Hityashevut ha-Ẓiyyonit (19452); The Return to the
Soil (1952); his biography of Theodor Herzl (1934) which was
translated into several languages; Die Judenfrage (1980; Eng.,
The Jewish Question, 1990). Bein also edited a new Hebrew
edition of Herzl’s writings in Hebrew which appeared in ten
volumes in 1960–61. He contributed articles to scholarly journals
on the history of modern antisemitism and Zionism. In
1987 he was awarded the Israel Prize for his contributions to
Zionist historiography.
Bibliography: Kressel, Leksikon 1 (1965), 230.
[Isaak Dov Ber Markon]
BEINART, HAIM (1917– ), Jewish historian specializing in
Spanish Jewry in the Middle Ages. Born in Pskow, Russia,
Beinart received a traditional Jewish and general education
at the Hebrew High School in Riga. He arrived in Palestine
268 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3