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The son of Saddik, MOSES COHEN BELINFANTE (The
Hague, 1761–1827), was actively involved in the struggle for
Jewish emancipation in the Netherlands. In 1806, Moses
moved to Amsterdam, where he became the editor of the official
newspaper published in the Netherlands. Moses’ brother,
JACOB COHEN (1780–1845), was editor between 1807 and 1837.
He also published several Jewish almanacs as well as the Jaarboeken
voor de Israelieten in Nederland between 1835 and 1840.
Their sister SARA BELINFANTE was the headmistress of an
Amsterdam school for Jewish girls.
In the 19th century, the Belinfantes were primarily active
in the field of journalism. ARON BELINFANTE (1811–1881)
became a member of the editorial staff of the Dagblad van
Zuid-Holland en ‘s Gravenhage, which was merged with the
Nieuwe Dagblad. ISAAC BELINFANTE (1814–1892) worked for
the Nederlandsche Staatscourant and the Algemeen Handelsblad’
and was also a co-founder of the Weekblad van het Regt.
His brother JOSEPHUS JUSTUS (1812–1882) was co-director of
the Nederlandsch Correspondentie Bureau and compiled the
Rijks- en Residentie Almanak. MAURITS ERNST BELINFANTE
(1849–1903), son of Josephus Justus, succeeded his father at
the Bureau and worked as a journalist for several newspapers,
among which were the Revue des Deux Mondes and
the Chronique Politique. GEORGE BELINFANTE (1837–1888),
son of Isaac, became known for his polemical writings in the
Haagsche Courant and his political letters in the Zaanlandse
Courant. In the field of politics, he became known after 1870
as the writer of the chamber reviews for the Nieuwe Rotterdamse
Courant.
ARY BELINFANTE (1870–1925) became famous in Dutch
music circles as a pianist and a teacher at the Amsterdam
school for orchestra, and as the founder of the first private
school of music. He published several studies on the history
of music and on the science of music education.
In the 20th century, also the female members of the family
stepped more into the limelight. EMILIE JOSEPHINE (or
Emmy), Belinfante (1875–1944) was educated as a primary
schoolteacher, but she became famous as a journalist. In 1901
she became the chief editor of Het Familieblad – ‘s Gravenhaagsch
Nieuws – en Advertentieblad. She was in charge of
her own section, using “May” as a pen name. In 1905, she
started working for a daily paper called Land en Volk, in
which she ran her own women’s section. In 1908 she was appointed
to work as a regular member of staff of the Nieuwe
Courant, in which she reported extensively on the emerging
women’s movement and on women’s issues. Her work as a reporter
focused mainly on the women’s movement until World
War II. In February 1944 she was arrested and a few months
later she was murdered in the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
JUDITH BELINFANTE (1943– ) was prominent in the
cultural and political life of the Netherlands. In 1976, she was
appointed director of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam.
From 2003 she was chief curator of Special Collections
of the Amsterdam University Library. She was a mem-
belinkov, arkadii viktorovich
ber of parliament for the PvdA (Dutch Labour Party) from
1998 to 2000.
Bibliography: S. Boas, in: Habinjan, 38 (1984) 22–23; E.
Carmoly, in: Revue Orientale III (1843–1844), 134–38; J. Divendal, in:
H. Berg (ed.), Gelykstaat der Joden. Inburgering van een minderheid
(1996) 35–45; idem, in: Studia Rosenthaliana, 31 (1997) 94–138; C. de
Greef and J. Salman, in: Historisch Tijdschrift, VII (1991) 35–53; S. Jacobus,
in: Hakehilla 42 (1996), 4, 10–11; Nieuw Nederlands Biografisch
woordenboek I (1911) 281–82; H. Lakmaker, in: Biografisch Woordenboek
van Nederland (2002); J. Meijer, in: Maandblad voor de Geschiedenis
der Joden in Nederland 1 (1947–1948), 50–57, 90–94, 141–48,
243–52, 279–86; P.M. Netscher, Levensschets van Josephus Justus Belinfante
(1883); L. Shirah, in: Levend Joods Geloof, 43 (1996), 21–22.
[Monika Saelemaekers (2nd ed.)]
BELINFANTE, ISAAC BEN ELIAH COHEN (d. 1780),
man of Hebrew letters. A younger contemporary of David
*Franco Mendes, Belinfante was probably born in the early
1720s. From the 1750s he participated in the burgeoning Hebrew
literary life of the Amsterdam Portuguese-Jewish community.
Besides his work as a darshan, he took an active part
in preserving and disseminating contemporary Hebrew culture,
by compiling manuscript anthologies (e.g., of the literary
society Shomrim la-Boker) and by bringing to press compositions
of his fellow literati. His own work, some of which was
written under the pseudonym Pi ha-Medabber, includes sermons,
occasional and ethical-didactic poetry, and historicaldocumentary
material (e.g., the bibliographical Si’aḥ Yitzḥak,
i.e., Sifte Yeshenim Ḥadash), which testifies to a new cultural
self-awareness among the Amsterdam Sephardim. The majority
of these writings remained in manuscript.
Bibliography: H. Azulay, Ma’agal Tov (ed. 1879), passim;
H.G. Enelow, in: Studies… A.S. Freidus (1929), 5–30; Z. Malachi, in:
Tagim (1969), 78–87; idem, in: Studies in the History of Dutch Jewry
(1975), 123–50; L. Fuks and R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew and Judaic
Manuscripts in Amsterdam Public collections, II (1975), passim.
[Irene E. Zwiep (2nd ed.)]
BELINKOV, ARKADII VIKTOROVICH (1921–1970), Russian
literary critic and writer. Belinkov was born and educated
in Moscow. In 1944 he was arrested and condemned to death
on charges of writing an “anti-Soviet novel,” Rough Copy of
Feelings, and for founding an anti-Soviet literary group, but the
sentence was commuted and he spent only 13 years in prison.
In 1960 his book on Y.N. Tynyanov (second editon, 1965) was
published; the work had a considerable influence on Soviet
literature. In 1968 Belinkov immigrated to the U.S., where he
lectured at Yale and Indiana Universities and published his
works in the emigré editions of the Novyi Zhurnal and Novoe
Russkoe Slovo, as well as the Russian Review. In the middle of
the 1960s, his literary career moved from pure literary criticism
to the journalistic genre, which he maintained was a continuation
of the tradition of fierce opposition of the prerevolutionary
underground press. He opposed the political trends of
both the West and the censored Soviet press. Belinkov’s central
theme is the place of the intelligentsia in history and its atti-
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