JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

erliner, abraham
to attack him was R. Wolf Landsberg in his pamphlet Ze’ev
Yitrof (Frankfurt on the Oder, 1793). After him came R. Mordecai
Benet, who wrote to Berlin’s father and to other rabbis.
A massive rabbinical campaign then followed which branded
Berlin as an atheist who sought to uproot the foundations of
the Torah. Berlin’s father came again to his aid, requesting the
rabbis to retract their accusations against his son, and even attempting
to establish the genuineness of the manuscript and
R. Raphael ha-Kohen and his circle as the source of the libel. It
seems that he succeeded in appeasing the rabbis, but not those
scholars who held no rabbinical position. Disappointed, Berlin
began to wander from one country to another. According
to his relative Ẓevi Horowitz (Kitvei ha-Ge’onim, 1928), Berlin
went to London in 1794 to take up the position of rabbi of
the Ashkenazi community there but died before he was able
to assume the office. His literary remains present many bibliographical
problems, some of which have not yet been solved.
He left critical essays which have been published in various
places. He is probably the author of Ha-Orev (Vienna, 1795),
attributed to R. Baruch *Jeiteles.
Bibliography: C. Roth, The Great Synagogue London 1690–
1940 (1950), 108–24, 180–201; Samet, in: KS, 43 (1967/68), 429–41; M.
Wunder, ibid., 44 (1968/69), 307–8.
[Abraham David]
BERLINER, ABRAHAM (1833–1915), scholar and author.
Berliner’s vast knowledge of rabbinic literature and of ancient
and modern languages was mostly self-taught (cf. his autobiographical
Aus meiner Knabenzeit, JJGL, 16 (1913), 165ff.). After
succeeding his father as teacher in his native Obersitzko,
he became preacher and teacher in Arnswalde (both in the
province of Posen, then Germany). From 1858 to 1865 he lectured
at the bet ha-midrash of the Berlin Talmudic Society
out of which developed the Rabbinical Seminary, founded
by Azriel *Hildesheimer in 1873. Here Berliner lectured in
Jewish history and literature and was also librarian. In subsequent
years he paid frequent visits to the important libraries
of Germany, England, Holland, France, and, above all, Italy,
in search of their Jewish treasures. He prepared the first critical
edition of Rashi’s commentary on the Pentateuch, giving
Rashi’s sources and explanatory notes (1866); this book was
accepted by Leipzig university as a Ph.D. thesis. In the completely
revised second edition (1905) he added a vocabulary of
foreign words used in the commentary. Berliner pursued his
Rashi studies in a number of important monographs and also
turned his attention to other medieval commentators (Peletat
Soferim, 1872, 19662). He also provided a modern edition
of Targum Onkelos (1884). Berliner’s historical studies were
chiefly devoted to Italian Jewry, as shown by his three-volume
Geschichte der Juden in Rom (1893). On the history of
German Jewry, he wrote Aus dem Leben der deutschen Juden
im Mittelalter (1861, second revised and enlarged edition 1900,
19373; Hebrew translation, 1900). Complementary to this work
was a monograph Persoenliche Beziehungen zwischen Juden
und Christen im Mittelalter (1882). Berliner also wrote biog-
raphies of Israel *Isserlein and of Isaiah *Berlin and a defense
of *Maimonides against the accusation of apostasy (Moses
ben Maimon, sein Leben… 2 (1914), 103ff.). Berliner published
many bibliographical studies and works on liturgy and Talmud.
He discovered in Rome parts of commentaries on the
Bible and the Talmud by *Hananel b. Ḥushi’el and *Gershom
b. Judah and was instrumental in the inclusion of both commentaries
in the Vilna (Romm) Talmud edition. In 1874 Berliner
began to publish a Magazin fuer juedische Geschichte
und Literatur which two years later became the Magazin fuer
die Wissenschaft des Judentums (with a Hebrew supplement,
Oẓar Tov), which he edited with David *Hoffmann until 1893.
In 1885 he revived the *Mekiẓe Nirdamim society. On his
70th birthday he was awarded the title of professor by the Prussian
government. On that occasion too appeared a Festschrift
in his honor, edited by A. Freimann and M. Hildesheimer
(Birkat Avraham, 1903) with a bibliography of his writings.
A three-volume collection of Berliner’s writings was planned
but only the first appeared in 1913. A two-volume collection
was published in Hebrew (1945–49). Berliner was a staunch
supporter of Orthodoxy and an opponent of Reform. He
supported Hildesheimer in the establishment of the Adass
Jisroel secessionist congregation and acted as the chairman
of its council for many years. Yet in his Randbemerkungen
he suggested certain changes in prayer texts and customs,
which were not to the liking of some of his Orthodox
friends.
Bibliography: Eppenstein, in: Jeschurun (new series), 2
(1915), 457ff. Add. Bibliography: Biographisches Handbuch der
Rabbiner, 1:1 (2004), 186–87 (bibl.).
[Alexander Carlebach]
BERLINER, EMILE (1851–1929), inventor. Born and educated
in Wolfenbuettel, Germany, Berliner emigrated to the
U.S.A. in 1870. He worked in New York and Washington, D.C.,
as a clerk, salesman, and assistant in a chemical laboratory.
He studied electricity and in 1876 began experimenting with
Bell’s newly invented telephone, which he succeeded in refining
with his invention of the loose-contact telephone transmitter
or microphone and the use of an induction coil. The
Bell Telephone Company immediately purchased the rights
to his invention, which for the first time made the telephone
practical for long-distance use. Berliner was appointed chief
electrical instruments inspector of the company. In 1887 he improved
Edison’s phonograph by introducing a flat disc instead
of a cylinder and the use of a shallow groove. The patent was
acquired by the Victor Talking Machine Company and served
as the basis for the modern gramophone. In his later years he
engaged in aviation experiments and introduced the use of a
revolving cylindered light engine. Between 1919 and 1926 he
built three helicopters which he tested in flight himself. Berliner
also interested himself in public matters, particularly in
the field of health and hygiene. In 1890 he founded the Society
for the Prevention of Sickness. In 1907 he organized the first
milk conference in Washington, whose efforts contributed to
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