JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

in later painting, notably the dramatic portrayal by *Rembrandt
(1634).
The biblical story has also inspired orchestral and vocal
music. Handel’s powerful oratorio Belshazzar (1745; text
by Charles Jennens) did not deter later composers from attempting
versions of their own. The most successful of these
was William Walton’s oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast (1931; text
arranged by Osbert Sitwell). Other treatments of the theme
were Sibelius’ Belsazars gästabud (1906), written as incidental
music to a drama by the Finnish-Swedish poet Hjalmar Procopé
and reworked as an orchestral suite in 1907; and a setting
of Heine’s Belsazar by Bernard van Dieren (1884–1936).
The incidental music to a play on the theme which Joseph
*Achron composed in 1928 was later reworked as two tableaux
for large orchestra.
[Bathja Bayer]
Bibliography: IN THE BIBLE: J.A. Montgomery, Daniel
(ICC, 19492), 66, 261; R.P. Dougherty, Nabonidus and Belshazzar
(1929), passim; H.L. Ginsberg, Studies in Daniel (1948), 25–26. IN THE
ARTS: L. Réau, Iconographie de l’art chrétien, 2 pt. 1 (1956), 408–9; Sendrey,
Music, nos. 7504, 9083.
BELTESHAZZAR (Heb. and Aram. רַ ּצאשְטְלֵ ַ ׁ ּב ;רַ ּצַׁ שא ְט ְל ּב; ֵ LXX,
Βαλτασάρ; Vulg., Baltassar), name given to *Daniel in Babylonia
(Dan. 1:7). Foreigners introduced into court life were often
given native names; e.g., in Egypt *Joseph became known as
Zaphenath-Paneah (Gen. 41:45). Popular etymology related
the name Belteshazzar to Bel (Dan. 4:5) but it probably derived
from Balaṭ-šarri-uṣur (“Protect the life of the king”).
Bibliography: J.A. Montgomery, The Book of Daniel (ICC,
19492), 123; W. Baumgartner, Hebraeisches und aramaeisches Lexikon
zum Alten Testament (1967), 127.
[Bezalel Porten]
BELTSY (Rum. Bǎlti), city in Bessarabia, Moldova; in Romania
1918–40 and 1941–44. Jews were invited there in 1779
when an urban nucleus was formed in the village. Their rights
and obligations were established by an agreement in 1782. By
1817 there were 244 Jewish families living in Beltsy. The community
subsequently increased through immigration; after
the *May Laws were issued in 1882, many Jews expelled from
neighboring villages settled in Beltsy. The community numbered
3,124 in 1864 and had grown to 10,348 in 1897 (56% of
the total population) even though Jewish domicile was limited
by legislation and Jews were often expelled from the city
as illegal residents. As an outcome of these expulsions, coupled
with economic difficulties, many Jews from Beltsy emigrated
toward the end of the 19th century, including a group
who journeyed to Ereẓ Israel.
In 1847 a Jewish state school was opened in Beltsy. A
talmud torah, founded in 1889, provided instruction in both
Jewish and general subjects. By the 1930s Jewish educational
institutions included a kindergarten, three elementary schools,
and two secondary schools, for boys and girls. Welfare institutions
included a hospital and old-age home. The Jews in Beltsy
bely, victor arkadyevich
were mainly employed in commerce and crafts; some living
in the vicinity engaged in agriculture. The 1,539 members of
the local Jewish cooperative loan-bank in 1925 included 656
engaged in business, 441 in crafts, and 156 in agriculture. The
Jewish population numbered 14,259 (46% of the total) in 1930.
When Bessarabia became part of Soviet Russia in June 1940,
the communal organization was disbanded.
[Eliyahu Feldman]
Holocaust Period and After
In June 1941 about two-thirds of the town’s buildings were
destroyed in German and Romanian air raids. The Jews fled
to nearby villages, mainly to Vlad. On July 7 a gang of Vlad
peasants seized homes sheltering the refugees, murdered the
occupants, and set fire to the houses. The next day a group of
Romanian soldiers encountered 50 Jews on the road to Beltsy,
drove them into the swamps, and shot them to death. Beltsy
was captured by the Germans on July 9 and those Jews who
had returned were deported to a concentration camp. The
same day 10 Jews who had been taken as hostages were executed.
The Gestapo also asked the ghetto committee to furnish
it with a list of 20 “Jewish communists” who were to be
put to death. When they refused to do so, all the committee
members, together with another group of 44 Jews, were forced
to dig their own graves and shot. Twenty more Jews were shot
by the Germans on July 16. On July 11, 1941, all surviving Jews
were assembled in the courtyard of the Moldova Bank. Romanian
troops transferred them to an internment camp in the
Rāuţel forest, some 7½ mi. (12 km.) from the town. Many of
the inmates died from starvation and disease. By August 30,
1941, only 8,941 Jews were left in the entire district (compared
to the 31,916 who resided there according to the 1930 census).
They were concentrated in three camps, and later on all were
deported to *Transnistria. Even the Jewish tombstones were
removed from the cemetery in Beltsy to erase all traces of the
Jewish inhabitants of the town. Jews returned to Beltsy after
the war. The only synagogue was closed by the authorities in
1959 and the Jewish cemetery was badly neglected. In 1962 militia
broke into a house where Jews had assembled for prayer;
those attending were taken to the public square where communist
youth had been gathered to jeer at them. Their children
were expelled from school. The city has retained a certain
Jewish character and Yiddish is often heard on its streets.
Its estimated Jewish population in 1970 was 15,000 and 1,000
in the early 2000s.
[Jean Ancel]
Bibliography: E. Schwarzfeld, Din istoria evreilor … in Moldova
(1914), 36–39; M. Carp, Cartea Neagr, 3 (1947), index; Feldman,
in: Sefer Yahadut Besarabyah (in press); M. Mircu, Pogromurile din
Basarabia (1947), 5, 17, 160.
BELY, VICTOR ARKADYEVICH (Aronovich; 1904–1983),
composer and musicologist. Born in Berdichev, Bely studied at
the Kharkov Conservatory (violin and composition, 1919–21)
and at the Moscow Conservatory with G. Konyus and N. My-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 307