JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

acharach
in Frankfurt in 1391 and EPHRAIM GUMBRECHT BACHA-
RACH in 1457. MENAHEM (Man) BACHARACH was rabbi in
Worms from 1506 to 1520. Two dayyanim named Bacharach
are mentioned in 15th-century Mainz. There were two branches
of the family living in Frankfurt in the 16th and 17th centuries.
ISRAEL and TOBIAS BEN JOSEPH SOLOMON were martyred
in *Ruzhany on Sept. 19, 1659, following a *blood libel. Tobias’
descendants lived at Tiktin and include the talmudist *Judah
b. Joshua Ezekiel Bachrach and Jacob b. Moses *Bachrach,
author of a history of the Hebrew script. The first Bacharach
known in Vienna is JUDAH LOEB BEN AARON (d. 1657). His
grandson JACOB found refuge in Třebíč, Moravia, in 1670 and
became a leader of the community there. His descendants are
found in Konice and Třešt (both in Moravia). Two Bacharachs
are mentioned in a list of Nikolsburg (Mikulov) Jews of 1765.
The best-known line, founded in Bohemia, is represented first
by ABRAHAM SAMUEL BEN ISAAC BACHARACH (1575–1615),
who was rabbi in Worms. His wife Eva (Ḥavvah; 1580–1651)
had a wide knowledge of Hebrew and rabbinical literature
rarely found among women in her day. She died in Sofia on
her way to Ereẓ Israel. Their son was Moses Samson *Bacharach
and their grandson was Jair Ḥayyim *Bacharach. Common
in Bohemia was the abbreviation Bacher. Others of the
family in Hungary include the Hebrew poet Simon *Bacher
and his son the scholar Wilhelm *Bacher.
Bibliography: I.T. Eisenstadt and S. Wiener, Da’at Kedoshim
(1897–98), 32–41, 213–4 (first pagination); Flesch, in: Zeitschrift fuer
die Geschichte der Juden in der Tschechoslowakei, 2 (1931), 229–35.
BACHARACH, family of business, political, and communal
leaders in Atlantic City, New Jersey. BENJAMIN (1865–1936)
was a local merchant and banker. Born in Philadelphia, he
and his brothers Isaac and Harry were brought to Atlantic
City in 1881 by their parents. Benjamin served as president of
the Beth Israel Synagogue of Atlantic City, in which the entire
family was active. ISAAC (1870–1956) was a businessman
and banker who pursued a political career. After serving on
the Atlantic City Council (1907–13), Isaac, a Republican, was
elected to the State Assembly in 1911 and in 1915 to Congress,
where he represented the Second District of New Jersey until
1936. A member of the House Ways and Means Committee,
Bacharach wrote the 1931 act providing for emergency loans
based on the value of insurance policies. HARRY (1873–1947), a
Republican, was appointed postmaster by President McKinley
(1901) and was reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1905 and
1909. He won elections as mayor of Atlantic City in 1911, 1916,
and 1932. He served for many years as member and chairman
of the New Jersey Public Utilities Commission and as a member
of the Water Policy Commission. He was also active in local
banking, real estate, and civic affairs, and was a founder
of the Jewish Community Center of Atlantic City (1924–25).
The Betty Bacharach Home for Afflicted Children (Longport,
New Jersey) was founded by the Bacharach brothers and two
sisters in 1924 in memory of their mother.
Bibliography: Biographical Directory of the American Congress
(1961); Philip R. Goldstein, Centers in My Life (1964), 76, 159.
[Joseph Brandes]
BACHARACH, ALFRED LOUIS (1891–1966), British chemist
and writer on musical subjects. Bacharach was an innovator
in the fortification of baby milks with vitamin D, which
brought about the almost complete eradication of rickets in
the northern cities of Britain. He was born in London, and
graduated from Cambridge. After five years in the Wellcome
Research Laboratory, he joined the Glaxo Laboratories in 1920.
He pioneered the development of biological assay methods
for vitamins and also in microbiological assay procedures.
He wrote Science and Nutrition (1938), and edited The Nation’s
Food (1946), Evaluation of Drug Activities: Pharmacometrics
(in two volumes, with D.R. Laurence, 1964), Exploration Medicine
(with O.G. Edholm, 1965), and The Physiology of Human
Survival (1965). Bacharach, an accomplished pianist, edited
The Musical Companion (1934; new edition, 1957), Lives of the
Great Composers (1935), British Music of Our Time (1946), and
The Music Masters (1957).
Bibliography: Chemistry in Britain, 3 (1967), 395.
[Samuel Aaron Miller]
BACHARACH, BURT (1928– ), composer and pianist. Born
in Kansas City, Missouri, Bacharach studied cello, drums, and
piano from an early age. He studied music at the Mannes College
of Music in New York, at the New School of Social Research,
and at McGill University in Montreal. Among his composition
teachers were Darius *Milhaud, Bohuslav Martinů,
and Henry Cowell. He subsequently worked as an accompanist
for several popular singers such as Polly *Bergen, Steve
*Lawrence, Paula Stewart, and Marlene Dietrich from 1958 to
1961. He began composing popular songs in the mid-1950s,
collaborating with the lyricist Hal David and later writing hit
songs for Dionne Warwick. Bacharach’s style includes heterogenous
elements such as variable meter, pandiatonic and jazz
harmonies, rhythmic ostinatos, and effects from black American
styles. He won two Academy Awards for Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid (1969) with the well-known song “Raindrops
Keep Failing on my Head.” In the 1990s he collaborated with
Elvis Costello. His compositions include the musicals Promises,
Promises (1968) and Lost Horizon (1973), the film score
for Alfie, and many popular songs
Bibliography: Grove online; B.A. Lohof, “The Bacharach
Phenomenon: a Study of Popular Heroism,” in: Popular Music and
Society, I (1972), 73–82.
[Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
BACHARACH, EVA (Ḥavvah; 1580–1651), a rare example
of a learned woman, credited with writing commentary on
midrash and targum, although these writings are no longer
extant. Born into an illustrious and scholarly family, Eva was
the maternal granddaughter of the famous Rabbi *Judah Loew
32 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3